Daniel (00:01.483)
Good morning, princess!

Dave (00:04.056)
Guten Tag, Daniel. Princess! It's going okay. It's going alright. How are you?

Daniel (00:08.012)
How's it going?

Daniel (00:15.083)
Fantastic greetings from Germany. I am good. I am very tan because I have finally returned from my vacation and I have like my legs are another size of very large tree trunks because I have biked so much.

Dave (00:20.824)
Mm-hmm.

Dave (00:32.888)
Dang. So you've biked, you have been in the sun, you have been vacationing. Where did you go, Daniel?

Daniel (00:41.931)
I went to the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean. I went to Mallorca and yeah, spent a week there, mostly biking and hanging out. And it was very nice. Now I'm back at work and I feel like I've got a bit more focus back, but a bit more energy, even though it's still a lot.

Dave (00:49.004)
Nice. Yep.

Dave (00:59.372)
Awesome.

Dave (01:09.474)
Yeah. So post vacations, bring in your step.

Daniel (01:13.643)
Pretty much. Pretty much. What about you?

Dave (01:16.706)
Me? no, I'm good. We're into, properly into sort of spring summer here, which I'm sure I've mentioned on a previous show, but yeah, Wellington has this really rubbish season in between an early spring and a later spring. And we seem to be in and out of that at the moment, but the good days are good. And yeah, my garden's growing.

Obviously we'll talk about the app dev and everything else, but yeah, all good in my location.

Daniel (01:52.947)
May your garden always grow. Speaking of, welcome to Waiting for a Review, a show about gardening and the majestic indie developer lifestyle. Join your scintillating hosts, Dave and Daniel, that's me, and let's hear about a tiny slice of their thrilling lives. Join us while waiting for a view. See, intro done. Vacation talk done.

Dave (01:56.828)
that was quite zen.

Dave (02:16.664)
Bye.

Dave (02:20.782)
smooth.

Daniel (02:22.933)
Fantastic. So now we can get into the meat of things. How do you like iOS 18?

Dave (02:29.518)
Oof, straight into the meat of things. It essentially feels like iOS 17 with a couple more bugs for me, unfortunately.

Daniel (02:41.929)
Okay, what are the bugs?

Dave (02:44.206)
I've had spotlight completely fall over on me and put icons all over the place. Like it sort of feels like the constraints isn't working or something in the layout. Right. And that gets a bit, a bit frustrating that happens probably every other day at the moment. But yeah, other than that, I'm probably not a major fan of the photos redesign, although I say I'm kind of getting used to it. And I suspect in another month or so the muscle memory will be there and

You know, I like, I've seen a lot of people, on social media kind of saying how awful the photos app is. And I'm kind of trying to cut it just a little bit of slack because actually I feel like it's just muscle memory for me. other than that though, we don't have Apple intelligence in New Zealand. so don't have any of that. I do love being able to emoji react in messages.

Daniel (03:42.867)
yeah, that's cool.

Dave (03:44.099)
Yeah, like with any emoji, that's But yeah, beep.

Daniel (03:49.887)
My niece is also adding like individual like text effects to every single word she's sending in text messages.

Dave (03:55.329)
Yes.

Yeah, that's slick. Whoever's worked on the messages app for that, hats off to you with that, Tim. It's a nice experience. But yeah, I mean, other than all of those things, Daniel, I've not noticed much major difference. I'm not particularly fussed about setting all of my icons into something monotone or messing with that. Yeah, so it's just iOS 17 with a couple of extra bits.

Daniel (04:27.157)
fair. Let me tell you what I like though. I do. I have fallen in love with the icons without text underneath them. Like the large icon mode. Like it feels very gimmicky, but after just a half a day or so, like I'm so used to it because it feels so nice because I have apps, like especially I have so many indie apps and they feel even more present and like they have these vibrant icons and I just love that.

Dave (04:31.165)
Mm-hmm

Dave (04:37.76)
OK.

Dave (04:55.662)
Nice.

Daniel (04:57.137)
And the other thing, the Photos app, for me, I'm okay with it. It's just different. It's not worse. And I feel like I've just got super, super quickly, I got used to it. what I love really are these every, like all these places where you can customize stuff. Like I expected to hate that, but all these, like the tiny little like software buttons on the lock screen, the

Dave (05:04.174)
Mm-hmm.

Daniel (05:27.081)
the control center, all that kind of stuff. Like I replaced the camera button on the lock screen with a set a new entry in things button because like I do that action about 17 billion times a day. And it is just nice. It is just that is bloody lovely.

Dave (05:43.87)
cool. Bloody lovely mate! No that's cool and I think it's probably fair to say I'm not exploring that ender stuff too deeply. So yeah there's probably a whole treasure trove of little bits that I could do. Like I've had

Daniel (05:47.04)
Ha ha ha.

Daniel (06:05.099)
To be fair, would have completely missed all that because I don't know, I don't go spelunking in those areas. But I did read Federico Vitici's iOS 18 review and that just kind of pointed me at it. Because Federico is the goat of iOS reviews, productivity on iOS, that kind of stuff.

Dave (06:08.11)
Mm-hmm.

Dave (06:16.44)
Yep.

Dave (06:22.19)
Indeed.

Dave (06:28.556)
just switching it on now. I've just switched on my large icon mode and I'm playing just slightly with the tinting. I don't hate it. I really don't hate it. I can see why you like that. I think I might take the tinting off for now. Yeah.

Daniel (06:43.027)
I didn't do that, I don't do the tinting. That feels kind of wrong to me. don't know. Because if you feel like for me, like I recognize the icons a lot by colors and shapes and stuff. And if the icons change, if my phone goes into dark mode, which it does in the evening, that wouldn't feel right, I think.

Dave (06:48.124)
Dave (07:01.442)
No, fair, fair. I use my phone. Sorry, I've got my phone just on the side here. But I tend to launch things by just typing in Spotlight more than I look. And then my icons on my home screen, I've only got a few. So actually, yeah, same as you, though. It's by the look of the icon for everything off of that. So larger icon mode is, yeah, it's decent. Sweet, you've taught me something I had missed.

Daniel (07:13.035)
Mm-hmm.

Daniel (07:29.577)
Hahaha

Dave (07:31.874)
Ha ha ha.

Daniel (07:32.817)
A feature that I really miss is because we're in the European Union. Like we don't get Apple intelligence, but that's 18.1 anyway, or like the first inklings of Apple intelligence. But somehow iPhone mirroring to the Mac is also disabled. Like I have an app on my Mac. I updated the Mac to Sequoia and I have an app on my Mac that is called iPhone mirroring.

Dave (07:38.958)
Hmm

Dave (07:49.4)
Ooh.

Daniel (07:59.007)
And when I launched the app, it says, unable to connect to iPhone. iPhone mirroring is not available in your country or region.

Dave (08:07.65)
That stinks. Yeah.

Daniel (08:08.425)
Which... What?

Dave (08:13.216)
Yeah, and there's no good reason for that, right? That's just... yeah.

Daniel (08:16.799)
No, it's just a spite thing. don't know. Whatever. It's a bit of a bummer, I'm what? Yeah.

Dave (08:23.37)
You've now you've now you've mentioned it though Daniel I do love that feature I do get that in New Zealand

Daniel (08:28.107)
Hahaha

Dave (08:33.166)
They've done it really well. So when you do eventually get it, what you can look forward to having there is, yeah, it integrates all of your notifications if you want to with your Mac notifications. Yeah. And then if you go to click one of them and it's routed only available to link through to an iPhone app. Because if you've got

Daniel (08:35.175)
I'm jelly.

Daniel (08:50.293)
That is neat.

Dave (09:01.076)
apps that overlap then it will launch the Mac version I believe. But otherwise if it's going to the iPhone then it brings up the iPhone mirroring app, pulls you straight into it. Yeah.

Daniel (09:12.949)
That is... Okay, that is... Now I'm mad that I'm missing out.

Dave (09:18.958)
But yeah, it's cool, but it's also potentially distracting, right? Because I've then got things like social media apps and stuff that are only on my phone and now kind of routing through my Mac. But that's cool. So anyway, I'll try not to rub it in too much because really...

Daniel (09:38.251)
Fine, rub it all into me, like I'm into that.

Dave (09:42.882)
Dude. But yeah. Anyway, speaking of iOS 18 and such like, I believe you have a new device. What did you get?

Daniel (09:58.015)
I do, yeah. I have an iPhone 16 Pro Max in desert titanium, but it's in a case, so you can't really see the color.

Dave (10:03.712)
Oof.

Dave (10:08.386)
Yep.

I thought you were Mr. Caseless. I thought you were like, I like the feel in my hand.

Daniel (10:18.473)
I was, and I do like the feeling in my hand, but I seem to be in a mode now where my phones need to last for a while. I used to be like a every year or every other year new phone guy, right? But now I've been like four years with the same phone and now that was on its last legs. So I kind of wanted a new one. And also this is a company phone.

Dave (10:28.462)
Mm-hmm.

Dave (10:42.616)
Mm-hmm.

Daniel (10:44.445)
So it kind of needs to last. That's the one reason. And the other reason is I always have this kind of case by this company called Quadlock, not a sponsor, but Quadlock call us, to attach the phone to my bike. so that is because it has like this secure mount point and you can just like, but now with this phone generation,

Dave (10:55.17)
Okay, yep.

Dave (10:59.811)
Yes.

Daniel (11:13.131)
Kotluck has a case that has a T-charging pass-through. Because the previous cases, they had this very weird stump growing out of the middle of the case. the phone wouldn't sit flat on a surface. And also, T-charging just wouldn't get through. Whereas this thing is flat. It's actually almost flat even with the camera mesa.

Dave (11:18.51)
Mm-mm.

Dave (11:42.882)
Ooh.

Daniel (11:43.055)
And so that's kind of nice. And also it is, it is T-charging compatible. So I can just like throw it on most T-chargers and definitely MagSafe chargers. And it will magnetically stick and it will also charge. And so that is a big reason to not like take off the case. But at the same time, the other thing is I love the color. I love the color of my previous form, which was dark blue.

Dave (11:55.212)
Mac safe is useful.

Daniel (12:13.279)
Whereas I'm pretty meh about the color. I chose Desert Titanium because it is the only new color. So I kind of wanted to have the new thing. But still, it is not the most exciting or cool color. And so I don't mind too much about having a case around it. But at the same time, I do take off the case occasionally. And it feels very nice.

Dave (12:21.57)
Yeah, fair, fair.

Dave (12:38.796)
have a new case for a phone of mine here and I'm sorry to listeners. If you're on the YouTube, you'll able to see it, but maybe Daniel will do an audio descriptive, but you see what's going on here.

Daniel (12:53.387)
This is lovely. So this looks like a clear plastic case, but it seems to have some kind of coating that makes it a completely reflective. So it's like a mirror, but at the same time, I can see myself in it even. At the same time, it's applying some kind of holographic rainbow effect to everything.

Dave (13:03.231)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So we can see you just, yes, cause.

Dave (13:11.308)
Yeah, but now look at that camera bump on the back. It's flat, but look at the camera configuration. Do you recognize that?

Daniel (13:15.903)
Uh-huh.

Daniel (13:19.227)
this is not an iPhone. This looks like, like it has that, like, what's it called? The MagSafe ring and stick, but it has a horizontal camera bump. So it must be maybe a, I don't know. I wouldn't even guess at a brand. It's a pixel. Okay, nice. How'd you like it?

Dave (13:21.582)
Yes.

Dave (13:29.006)
Mm-hmm.

Dave (13:35.114)
pixel.

It's a pixel, Daniel. Yeah. The case is very useful, although I must say it's sorry.

Daniel (13:48.533)
for like looking at yourself?

Dave (13:51.778)
But yeah, you can use it that way. It's dual purpose. But no, being able to MagSafe it is useful because I've got this, I've got a MagSafe stand on my desk here. And when I'm playing with that device as a dev device, yeah, I will go routinely end up trying to bop it onto the magnet. And before I had the case, it would just slide off. Cause obviously it's a pixel. doesn't have MagSafe.

Daniel (14:19.728)
so only the case has the MagSafe, so it's not about charging.

Dave (14:21.688)
That's right. That's right. Yeah. So it's got the wireless charging, but it doesn't have the MagSafe. Yeah. So.

Daniel (14:27.57)
I see. But the magnets are only the case. Well, you could just mirror it to your desktop. wait, you can't. You probably can.

Dave (14:34.358)
I probably could actually. I probably could with the Android. But I'm still exploring Android around iOS for dev stuff. anyway.

Daniel (14:45.258)
Cool. What's a killer feature that you kind of discovered and that you don't miss on iPhones, if any?

Dave (14:51.986)
Ooh, to be honest, just the configurability being able to like, I could change the app launcher by installing an app launcher and then configure that to whatever I wanted. That was quite nice. Yeah, beyond that, don't know. Everything's much of a muchness, right? There's an equivalent for this and equivalent for that. Social media apps are the same. I'm using Proton. So I've got my email client is the same.

Etc, etc. And that's on purpose. Yeah, but there's not a lot I miss when I'm on the other side of the fence. But what is interesting is that, like, I don't miss too much from Android when I go back to my iPhone, but also when I'm on the Android device, I'm missing less and less from my iPhone the more I use it. So.

Daniel (15:43.179)
All right. Yeah, as more and more apps get cross-platform, I get that.

Dave (15:48.286)
Yeah, yeah, and as I find more more equivalents for things as well. One thing I definitely miss from the iOS side of the fence is that the built-in, I actually quite like the built-in camera app on iOS for everything that it does. And somehow the one I've got on the Pixel feels a bit clunky in comparison. Can't really put my finger on it, but...

Daniel (16:03.669)
Mm-hmm.

Dave (16:18.796)
And again, it could be muscle memory as much as anything else. But yeah, it's a capable device. My iPhone takes nicer pictures though. So that's interesting. That's certainly not replacing that. yeah. Anyway, I didn't necessarily want to go down the talking all about Android route for this cool Daniel.

Daniel (16:44.331)
All right, do you want a quick review of the 16 Pro Max?

Dave (16:48.608)
Yes, yes, get back into it.

Daniel (16:50.955)
All right, so my previous phone was a 12. So there's the, it is quite a big leap. Like, so I'm not only getting the new features of the 16, but I'm also getting the new features of the 15, 14 and 13. Right. And so, camera wise, it is a huge improvement. Like, I love the, like the, difference in images that I'm taking or in pictures that I'm taking is, is, is just huge. I love the 5X zoom.

Dave (16:58.382)
Mm-hmm.

Dave (17:20.046)
Mm-hmm.

Daniel (17:20.927)
which is just super helpful in either just taking pictures of things that are way further away or taking pictures that have almost no perspective distortion. in, I'm trying out with stuff where stuff almost looks like an isometric video game just because you're catching it from so far away and it's just really fun. It has these, it has the...

Photographic styles which my previous phones old phone also didn't have and so I just set it to Always use the natural style because that looks that looks just like really nice it looks color wise that the natural style looks exactly like the iPhone 6 used to look like and Like at least in my opinion and that just looks really nice It kind of disables a bit of the post-processing that iPhones usually do these days. So that's really cool the the photo like the camera

Dave (18:07.054)
Mm-hmm.

Dave (18:13.646)
Nice.

Daniel (18:19.327)
Button?

Dave (18:20.546)
Mm-hmm.

Daniel (18:22.059)
is, huh, it is useful. Like it is useful, but everyone else also already said this, like it is very finicky and it is very finicky. Like on the one hand, because I'm already holding the phone with my hand. So like, can't, like I don't have enough, a lot of dexterity left in that hand without like threatening to drop the phone, which I would not want to do. And at the same time it is, hmm.

Dave (18:25.846)
Okay.

Dave (18:46.925)
Mm-hmm.

Daniel (18:50.751)
Like it says to half press it and then you can kind of slide around it, but I don't know. Like I haven't really grogged it. And it feels like a lot of other people have also not fully gotten into it, but that might be changed. Like that seems like something that's very changeable in software. So let's see how it goes. Like I expect Apple to experiment here a little bit, so that's fine. Other than that, there's an always on display, which

Dave (19:00.983)
Okay.

Dave (19:19.864)
Mm-hmm.

Daniel (19:20.579)
is really, really cool. At the same time, sometimes it's not on. And I'm still figuring out when it is always on and when it's not always on. So right now, actually, the phone on my desk is completely off. But that is because I put it into battery saver mode. So that makes sense. But today, during the day,

Dave (19:23.49)
Yes.

Dave (19:27.438)
You

Dave (19:32.664)
Okay.

Dave (19:39.95)
would make sense yeah and I think if you're in do not disturb it might put itself off I'm not sure

Daniel (19:47.275)
Hmm, yeah, maybe. Maybe that's the case. Either way, the tech, the tech for it is really cool. I love that. The dynamic island, I expected it to not matter at all. Like I expected to not really see the dynamic island or care about it. But it turns out because Apple is putting so much like contextual information into that part of the display, like

Dave (20:08.91)
Mm-hmm.

Daniel (20:17.119)
They put in the song you're apparently playing, the app that is like running in the background when your airports are connecting and how much charge they have and all kinds of stuff. And then the like face ID pops up out of there kind of, kind of, and it is an absolute delight. And I didn't really realize that it would be such a difference, but I really love it.

Dave (20:35.65)
Yes.

Dave (20:40.046)
That's quite fun, fun, funny. It's quite funny that you should mention that actually, because that is something I do notice when switching over to playing with the pixel is some of the absence of that. And again, it's one of those like really hard to put your finger on it sort of things, because functionally everything is there.

Daniel (20:50.517)
Mm-hmm.

Daniel (20:57.843)
Like the camera button, it's also really hard to put your finger on.

Dave (21:01.342)
Yes. And I think we've got a show title there, yeah, it's this sort of thing that Apple does do very well and is still doing very well, is those sort of bits of gloss, that bit of integration. Then it's an additive experience, right? You don't need it, but you miss it when it's not there, I guess, is the thing.

Daniel (21:02.795)
You

Daniel (21:30.187)
But it's just delightful, although delight is not available in the European Union.

Dave (21:35.822)
I'm sorry. I'll send you a screen recording of the iPhone mirroring just so you can see what it's going to look like.

Daniel (21:39.627)
Daniel (21:47.179)
Speaking of the dynamic island though, phase ID is about three to four times faster. Like it is so fast now that you usually don't even notice it happening and that's like really nice.

Dave (21:52.109)
Mm-hmm.

Dave (21:59.096)
That's right. Yeah. Some of what you've described is what I noticed with my 14 Pro when I upgraded from the base 12 model to that. And I remember that upgrade experience feeling very similar actually. So dynamic island speed of face ID was definitely a jump there. But I can...

Daniel (22:07.114)
Mm-hmm.

Daniel (22:12.063)
Mm-hmm.

Daniel (22:24.355)
Yeah, last thing I think. yeah, no, two last things. Action button. Because I have the camera button, I can't really seem to find a good use for it yet. I have it set to the flashlight right now. And that is OK, because I reasonably often use my flashlight. And I might set it to the Enter and New to do and things.

Dave (22:28.942)
Mm-hmm.

Dave (22:36.439)
Okay.

Dave (22:53.068)
I was about to say, yeah, that.

Daniel (22:53.452)
action instead. But at the same time, like it feels like it feels a bit superfluous now that I have the like that because I otherwise I would totally set it to camera.

So let's see, like if I find a good use for it, then it'll get more useful, but maybe I need to listen to more BDG for that.

Dave (23:18.822)
Well I imagine you could probably assign it to a shortcut or something, right? So you could probably customize... Yeah.

Daniel (23:23.243)
I could, but what? And then if I were a man from Rome who's way too much into iPads, I would say, yeah, the shortcut does different things depending on time of day and or location, but that seems way too much of a hassle.

Dave (23:31.63)
Mm-hmm.

Dave (23:38.626)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I heard I said so. Until you can ask ChatGPT or something to build the shortcut for you and it actually gives you a decent shortcut.

Daniel (23:53.141)
Like someone tells me that they had like basically Siri on the power button, like if you long press Siri, then the ChatGPT app on the action button. But I don't use ChatGPT on the phone at all. So I don't see that happening right now, but let's see. Other than that, last thing, the display again, the display is like even brighter than the 12th and it has 120 Hertz.

Dave (23:59.64)
Mm-hmm.

Dave (24:03.406)
Ha ha ha.

Nah.

Daniel (24:23.549)
And that means that every animation and every like scrolling movement is so incredibly buttery smooth. like, it feels so nice. Like I can't even, I can't even put it into words. This has destroyed me for any other screen. It is gorgeous. It just gives me joy.

Dave (24:23.874)
Nice.

Dave (24:40.621)
Nice.

Dave (24:46.168)
Yeah, well that's what you want in an upgrade, right? So, now that's lovely to hear.

Daniel (24:49.759)
Yeah. Yeah. I think at the same time, like I am, I am starting to gain like a certain awareness of like, consuming or buying these devices is, having a cost. Like on the environment, there's like, I don't know the rare earths from different African countries that are kind that kind of kind of mind in, in, in very like inhuman, inhumane conditions.

Dave (25:09.099)
Mm-hmm.

Dave (25:19.726)
Mm-hmm.

Daniel (25:20.235)
So I'm like, okay, it's a good idea to not maybe not buy a new phone every year. But at the same time, like spacing these out further and like only upgrading for like every few years maybe, like that makes it even nicer. it makes the, especially since iPhones have changed less over the years, like you get like a whole bunch of incremental updates. And so that makes it a substantial upgrade again. And so that's kind of nice.

Dave (25:50.37)
Yeah, yeah, no, that's lovely. And I mean, that was the whole reason why I used to upgrade every year at one point was because of that, right? You upgrade and you get some big jump in things, whether it was, you know, going from the, remember the first retina screen. That was a, that was a good jump going from the 4, 4S size to the 5.

the first sort of elongating of the screen. Yeah, the five was good. I remember the six being a bit like I appreciate the bigger screen, but it feels like a bar of soap in my hands. So that was kind of.

Daniel (26:20.209)
Ooh, the fife was so nice.

Daniel (26:32.063)
Yeah, yeah, I dropped the six multiple times.

Dave (26:35.246)
Yeah. But anyway, I don't, don't need to tell you or anybody on this show about all of the relative bumps between versions, but that feeling dropped off somewhere between the 10R and the 12 for me. And, you know, going from the 12 to the 14 was a good upgrade. I, this year, had the option to sort of go, well, okay, do I want to upgrade to the 16 Pro? Or

not. And I've got a 14 Pro, it's definitely no slouch, it's still a very lovely device. And I compared the specs on GSM Arena, had a bit of a look through, obviously the camera will be a good bump. And then I realized I was probably only going to buy it for the camera, because all the other things would be like, yeah, they're nice, but I don't need them.

Daniel (27:34.089)
Yeah, like especially CPU speeds or whatever. Like this thing is probably twice as fast as my previous one, but I can't really like feel a difference in that regard.

Dave (27:34.204)
the camera would have been a driver. Yep.

Dave (27:43.5)
Yeah, we're reaching a stage where that doesn't matter, You know, in terms of, I guess, beyond the video app that I make, nothing else I run on my phone really pushes the hardware that much these days. So this is a long way of me saying I decided not to upgrade and to actually buy a video camera instead.

Daniel (28:08.05)
you bought a camcorder.

Dave (28:10.318)
It's not a camcorder, no. So, okay, bear with me. What happened? I went looking at video cameras at camcorders, everything out there. And there's a reason I would like this, right? I've started to take small kind of vlog style videos recently. If anybody has me on Instagram, you'll see me standing in the river that's nearby to me here.

in my Wellington gumboots. And you know, I'll say a little thing. I'll do a little Monday morning, hello to people or whatever that is. And it's starting to tie into the brand and into the sort of audience building that I'm doing on Instagram. And I guess a little bit on TikTok as well. I'm sending to double post stuff. And I thought, well, okay.

camera wise, what is it I'm actually using the camera for? And I'm not really taking really involved portrait photos or anything like that or close up shots or anything like, again, the camera on my 14 Pro is doing a very good job for all of those things for me. So I've bought the DJI Osmo 3, which is a gimbal based video camera.

Camcorders do exist, but they tend to be old tech and outdated modelings and they're kind of made for boomers. To be honest, I know, I know, I know. Honestly, I would have bought one in that form factor if it looked like it was going to do a really good job.

Daniel (29:47.967)
That was what I was implying. I was, I was teasing. I'm sorry.

Daniel (29:58.421)
the Gimbaling is really cool.

Dave (30:01.078)
Yeah. Yeah. So all the time, yeah, it tries to keep everything sort of stable. There's various different things you can do. You can tell it to do like an automated rotation around the pivot point to get different effects. You can tell it to follow a subject as you're walking along. And it will do its best to kind of keep that person that's moving in the shot.

Daniel (30:03.647)
Does it do like stabilization and stuff like that?

Dave (30:31.382)
And then, for selfie mode kind of vlog style, it does this active camera thing that's really nice. So it follows me.

Daniel (30:39.541)
Wait, it can follow a person. Can you like put it down somewhere? then like, do you know that show, The Pink Panther?

Dave (30:48.572)
No. Do you mean the cartoon? Okay, go on.

Daniel (30:49.995)
Yeah.

So like it has this intro, right? Where someone like something, sometimes the Panther themselves and sometimes like a person is kind of like sneaking up on people and like they're like just they're walking across screen. Like you should do that.

Dave (31:02.732)
Yep.

Dave (31:06.496)
Okay. Yeah. Okay.

I probably could, I could probably get it to follow me around.

But yeah, no, it's slotted very well into what I'm doing. I'm shooting little videos for my video mixing. So that's good. I'm using it for my blog posts. I'm actually using it right now, Daniel, for this call. It works as a webcam as well. me see. Anybody watching can see it's following me around.

Daniel (31:35.434)
Yeah.

Daniel (31:39.037)
you're moving around and it's following you even better than an iPhone could.

Dave (31:43.95)
Mm-hmm. And it's going to tie into some other stuff. So I guess I'm desperately trying to segue into another section here, Daniel. But one of the things I'm up to at the moment is actually looking at how I use video, Instagram, TikTok, anywhere else to build my audience for my VJ app. It's been this, you've seen this.

Daniel (32:06.623)
Mm-hmm.

Dave (32:10.838)
with me with previous discussions, right? A year ago, two years ago, I was like not on any big social media. And then around about a year ago, I went back to Instagram and Facebook for promoting my app. And gradually I found that, of course, there are people doing the sort of video mixing that my app supports on that social media, because of course they are. You can publish your videos there. And...

Daniel (32:35.945)
Mm-hmm.

Dave (32:40.558)
Yeah, gradually I'm kind of becoming more and more a part of that world. So, yeah, the new camera sort of ties into that and that it's going to be really, really good for me recording things like tutorials in this office room that I've got here. Because I can have it set up as it is now, but actually anybody watching on the show probably can't see this, but if I zoom out.

So to the side of me over here.

whole setup that is, it is like a DJ desk almost where I've got room set up all of my controllers, iPads, everything else. But the camera can follow me around the room and then I can share what I'm with my app on whatever device. Because I can link that device through to my Mac.

And then I can use that as a feed straight in. Because you know, if you connect your iPhone or your iPad, you can actually record the screen of that as if it was a camera. So that can be used.

Daniel (33:54.072)
You'll have to find a solution though that your mic will also follow you around. Because that was kind of hard to understand.

Dave (33:58.942)
Yeah, this I was going to say, I'm sorry. Yeah. So I've just realized I wasn't with my mic. Yeah, that that's something I've got to sort. But we'll we'll see. I've got a couple of ideas for that. So, yeah, apologies. I probably went very, very quiet there. Let's see if I can boost it. Also, hunting rabbits. Why are you turning me into a cartoon? Daniel Pink Panther hunting.

Daniel (34:18.123)
Or are you hunting rabbits?

Daniel (34:25.427)
I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I'm feeling silly.

Dave (34:28.398)
You

Dave (34:32.776)
Fair, fair. But yeah, anyway, we'll see how this all goes. It feels a bit weird. If you'd asked me two or three years ago, Dave, do you want to get on video camera and record lots of stuff on the internet? I would have said to you no. I'm quite happy doing the podcast just with audio. And now these days I'm like, yeah, I don't care. It's quite nice to get on camera and record this. And I hope people

who are listening via the YouTube. So I'm just going to zoom back in on myself there on the camera. But it's the only thing. I can't remote control it. anyway, yes, it's a thing that I'm now starting to just enjoy as a thing that I can do. And yeah, it's working well.

Daniel (35:22.805)
nice.

Daniel (35:26.525)
And are you like seeing a, a, are you getting used to it? Like, is it getting less awkward or like, are you like discovering new personality traits or new tricks or something like that?

Dave (35:41.474)
yeah. So I'm trying to not think about it too hard. Okay. So I definitely watch back what I record when I post these little vlog segments to Instagram and TikTok. I'll watch them back and I'll watch them back before I post, but I don't care if I'm umming or ah-ing or any of those things. Like as long as the message is about right and it feels natural and normal, then I'll post it, which means, you know,

almost every single time I don't rerecord it's one and done. just, yeah, gone and run as it were. And there's a reason for me doing that. And it's about trying to build up the muscle itself and to just sort of go, well, okay, if you overthink it, then it becomes a prohibitive thing. For me, it'll become a prohibitive thing to do. If I've got to edit it and spend two or three hours getting it perfect, instead of just recording it going, yeah, that's about good enough posting it.

Right? The latter means that I will do it more regularly will mean that I build up the practice. The former will mean that I get stuck in editing and decision paralysis and it will become something I hate doing. So it's kind of the approach I'm trying to take. Yeah.

Daniel (37:02.431)
Yeah, that's cool. I'm also trying to do that. Ooh, it's hard. It's hard though. I still find myself like putting out content, but I will overthink it and then spend half a day like editing video. And then TikTok will take it down for a community guidelines violation because I was making a video about how to upgrade, like how to like transfer your data from one phone to the other.

Dave (37:08.11)
Mm.

Daniel (37:30.269)
like somehow identified transfer, assume like it flagged the video for financial fraud. So I assume it flagged the keyword transfer as transferring money, which fun fact, you cannot transfer money from like your own, between your own iPhones. That's not how money works, I think.

Dave (37:42.047)
no!

Dave (37:53.08)
No, not at all. That's funny. I was wondering if you made a reference to killing something or whatever and you got flagged for...

Daniel (38:01.695)
I did not. I was also fully clothed.

and I did not say any bad words except Apple.

Dave (38:12.558)
Right, well that's odd. That's something else as well though, right? And I've had on Instagram a couple of warnings as I log in telling me, we think you've got automated activity on your account. I'm like, okay, I wonder what that is. And I think it's because I connected a WordPress plugin to Instagram called Blog to Social.

so I've disabled that changed my password, logged everything in and out. it's very interesting to experience that hang of like, my God, I could lose my accounts and everything I've been building up here for the last however long. Yeah. Yeah. So watch this space, but I need to explore not just Instagram. I'm trying to think of like, well, okay. If all my eggs are in one basket as it were.

then, yeah, that's not cool.

Daniel (39:11.986)
have you tried, have you tried Ben McCarthy's new app, Crosshound? Croissant?

Dave (39:18.025)
No, what's it do?

Daniel (39:19.945)
I have, it is an app. You launch it and it is just a text field and you can basically compose a, let's say a tweet and it will, it will post it to Macedon blue sky and threads.

Dave (39:29.484)
Hmm?

Dave (39:36.438)
Okay, that's cool.

Daniel (39:37.931)
It costs money, but for me at least it's money well spent because I hooked it up with my personal Mastodon account and then I realized I didn't actually have a personal threads account. So I created one. In my bio, I put in Junior Druid Wrangler for the telemetry deck.

Dave (40:06.519)
You

Daniel (40:07.635)
And now I like, just, I don't know, like I can kind of more better compare the platforms. And it turns out that some of our community are more there and some of our community are more there. And now I can at least like post to these and then, you know, like you get the replies and likes and whatever as, as, as notifications. So you can still like see them and interact with people. but yeah. And also like, they made an incredibly cool.

social media campaign where they kind of were like, I don't know, like posting pictures of like actual croissants on actual iPhones. I like sending those around.

Dave (40:47.63)
That's brilliant. need to give that a good look. yeah, Ben McCarthy, they're the developer of Obscura as well, is that right? Yeah, awesome. Yeah, I've followed Ben for many years on various social media platforms and they're definitely a very good.

Daniel (40:58.911)
That is correct.

Daniel (41:10.015)
Right, I'm putting a link to the app in the show notes.

Dave (41:14.798)
Yeah, I was gonna say they're definitely a very good indie developer and I look forward to checking that app out.

Daniel (41:22.923)
And I'm doing that, by the way, even without even like, I don't know, I don't know if Croissant is actually using telemetry deck. I assume maybe not because no one told me.

But would very much like like them to use telemetry.

Dave (41:39.584)
Well, Daniel, it's been lovely talking to you. I think I may well be wrapping the show unless there's anything else that you want to dive into for a few minutes.

Daniel (41:49.427)
Mm-hmm, it has.

Daniel (42:00.265)
Hmm. Yeah, actually let me, let me, let me tell you, like, let me take five minutes and complain about myself because even before my vacay, but now I was super stressed because there's a part of the work that I'm doing that is just not progressing really, which is there are like we moved servers, right? But a few things are still on the old servers and, and on Azure and now we're on AWS, right?

Dave (42:08.11)
One more thing.

Dave (42:28.92)
Mm-hmm.

Daniel (42:29.876)
And so like back then, we moved this service, I was like, okay, I'm going to move those the right way and do everything like create the new system completely automated. I'm using, I'm kind of going to use cloud formation to create these containers. And then I'm going to use basically layers and layers of abstraction to build all of that. And I think in doing that, and that is kind of what I realized in the last week, I kind of started

Dave (42:41.408)
Yep.

Dave (42:45.578)
Ansible was it?

Dave (42:49.997)
Yep.

Daniel (42:58.303)
too with too much abstraction like I over optimized, which is the root of all evil, right? And so I realized that, yeah, I'm doing, I'm trying to do too much at once. So instead I'm just gonna use the normal method. I'm just hosting these things, making them work. And then I can build abstraction and automation on top of that as the need arises. And that's actually all I wanted to like,

Dave (43:02.158)
Mm-hmm.

Dave (43:24.503)
Right.

Daniel (43:28.495)
And it has caused me a lot of frustration and also because, you know, like there's just so much to do. And I'm like, I want to get, get, get folk, progress forward. And that is frustrating because I kind of did make any progress for a while. but at the same time, it's good to like, remember that. That this is one of my values, like, like do the least possible amount of complication. And I think in that specific case, I kind of did too much complication.

Dave (43:58.19)
It's a very easy trap to fall into because with every layer of complication, there's also that promise of automation of making your life easier for you or, you you sort of feel, it feels like, okay, this is going to get the job done well. And it's only then when you come back to it in any way that you're like, what? This was too much. Do you know? It sort of feels like it's good in the moment and then it's in review.

Daniel (44:15.145)
Right.

Daniel (44:23.007)
Yeah, it's like the feeling of, I want to do this in the professional way. But if I do, I can't do everything the same way that a Fortune 500 company does, because I, as a person, am in fact not a Fortune 500 company.

Dave (44:27.639)
Yeah.

Dave (44:38.944)
No, and you shouldn't try and do things in that way. Do you know what I mean? Until you're at that scale. But it's hard because especially if you've had working experience in those worlds as well, it then does feel when you're doing your own stuff, if you're not doing those things, there's a bit of me that kicks in that goes, I'm doing it wrong. Because you've kind of...

Daniel (45:05.738)
Yeah.

Dave (45:09.368)
Yeah, if your working experience has been in more of those environments, then yes, when you're doing this as an indie and you realize, don't actually have time to spend all day doing that in that way. Yeah, for me, that can certainly feel like I'm doing it wrong. We've talked about this a lot, test automation, that sort of thing, right? It's the thing that I'm kind of glossing over with

with a lot of my apps. I do have a test suite in my video mixing app suite and it does a nice little job. And I was going to have it automated and I've got a Mac mini that's running as a home server and it would run every time a PR is raised and stuff.

Daniel (45:45.141)
Sweet.

Daniel (45:58.283)
Every time someone says I have a Mac mini as a home server, I think of the phrase load bearing Mac mini. And I mean, telemetry deck also has a load bearing Mac mini. But I love it. It's so cool.

Dave (46:04.482)
Yep.

Dave (46:09.46)
Yeah. But the thing is I've still not automated the connection through to, through to for Joe, which is the GitHub clone that I'm using for my, my, I've no idea. It's spelled forge F O R G E and then J O. So I imagine like in your, yeah. Or forge yo.

Daniel (46:19.891)
Is that how you pronounce that?

Daniel (46:31.135)
Maybe it's for JoJo.

Dave (46:37.046)
Yeah, like with it it the Yeah, yeah But anyway, I think we're I've got a rep Daniel I'm afraid I've got a run but Your tiny ran I don't over optimize

Daniel (46:37.267)
Or German.

Daniel (46:43.083)
Exactly.

Daniel (46:52.351)
Yeah, that was my tiny rant.

Daniel (46:57.781)
Don't over optimize kids. Over optimization is bad. All right. So everyone, thanks so much for listening. Please rate us on iTunes, give us a thumbs up on YouTube. Also subscribe. Don't click the bell. Like don't do that there kids. That's just uncool. Send us emails at contact at waitingforreview.com and join our discord. The link is in the show notes. All right, Dave, where can people find and follow and like you?

Dave (47:02.07)
Yes.

Dave (47:25.144)
Well, given that I've spoken about it throughout the show, I'm going to reference Instagram again. So on Instagram, am lightbeamapps.com. If you're particularly nosy, you could check out feed.lightbeamapps.com where you will see my equivalent of a link tree, which has all my important links, because again, links in bio culture has now got me. I've got my own page that's got all of my links.

So go have a look. But yeah, anyway, that's me. Where can people find you, Daniel?

Daniel (48:00.917)
People can find me everywhere. For example, on threads as Winsmith, because that used to be my Instagram username. And on bluesky at break the system with a dash between the TH and the E because it's broken. And I think I'm squatting my own old username with a login that I no longer have. Yeah, also mastodondaniel at social.telemetrydeck.com. That's the most canonical value still, but yeah.

Dave (48:19.341)
Ha ha.

Dave (48:28.76)
canonical Daniel.

Daniel (48:30.347)
Canonical Daniel. Right Dave, see you soon. See you hopefully sooner than our last pause between recording.

Dave (48:32.544)
Awesome.

Dave (48:39.468)
Well, no more holidays. Actually, I have a holiday coming up, but that won't affect the next show. It'll be the one after. But anyway, we'll see.

Daniel (48:45.085)
All cool. All right, next time on the show, we will talk about the new Kiwi Formula One driver that is, of course, very relevant to you. But until then, have a great day.

Dave (48:51.767)
Mm-hmm.

Dave (48:56.974)
Catch you later, Daniel.

Daniel (48:58.229)
Bye!