The Thing Is: Recent Episodes
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John, Stephen, and Mike just talk Apple: iMac, iPad, AppleTV, AirTag, and Epic’s court case.
Mailing an AirTag video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zpK-GBOz9A&t=6s
Eli, Stephen, and Mike seamlessly flit between blockchain, solar power, computer power supplies, and Bitcoin.
Coming out of a serious hiatus with a 5-man show. Eli joins John, James, Stephen, and Mike to talk YouTube, cars, TVs, and video games.
John and Mike talk about, and ONLY about, games and the App Store. XCloud, Fortnite/Epic, and their battles with Apple. That’s it. Nothing else. For almost an hour.
John, Stephen, and Mike kick it off with some light headphone banter, move onto new iMacs and more Work from Home equipment opinions...all your favorite topics. Oh, and scrambled porn.
Recommended: Succession, Doom Patrol, YouTube
Not Recommended: Brave New World
John, Stephen and Mike talk bulk Mac packaging and managing, the business of drugs, how Netflix was, Mike’s dumb AppleID issue, and being down with PPP.
Stephen and Mike talk the same old mostly-Apple stuff: the “Big Twitter Hack,” selling old MacBooks, phone sizes, in-box charging equipment, working from home forever, deploying Macs, and Hamilton.
As we face the insignificance of our established subject matter...
John, Stephen, and Mike talk about WWDC, what it will bring and what it will be like, changing podcast apps and Apples rejection of hey.com from the App Store.
Editor’s note: recorded May 28th, not ignoring the state of the world since then. #BlackLivesMatter
Stephen, John, and Mike talk unlocking your phone with a mask on, iPad Pro 2018 vs. 2020, Android vs. iOS, and some media picks.
James, Stephen, and Mike get too hot to handle talking about Zoom, iPad Magic Keyboard, and Stevie’s favorite pastimes: unlocking phones with AT&T.
John, James, Steven, and Mike talk Google Meats; disabled, subpar startup chimes; magical keyboards; and speccing a MacBook Pro or iMac.
https://www.amazon.com/PONYBRO-Wireless-Keyboard-Raspberry-Notebooks/dp/B07VR5Y39T
65scribe - YouTube
Using iPads as laptops, schooling in shutdown, ‘Snack Masks,’ Nintendo Labo, and Apple Profile Manager
Macs in the virtual workplace, Atlanta beltline talk, tigers, webcams, M.A.S.K., and desk mats.
https://satechi.net/products/eco-leather-deskmate
John, James, and Mike talk about new Apple stuff, but keep coming back to the larger context into which that stuff was released.
James, Stephen, and Mike go super-deep (too deep) on iPad multitasking, covering pandemics, malware, Chrome, and browser tabs along the way.
Mike and John talk Apple Maps, the Great Services Push, Apple TV+ show reviews, and streaming services
John, Stephen, and Mike talk mostly iPads and calendars. Absolutely no liquid gets spilled during the making of this episode.
James, Stephen, and Mike offer a lot of nostalgic reminiscence about working at the Apple Store and only a little disparaging of religious sects that they know nothing about.
Family Room Hitler:
https://youtu.be/4WJr4u1rLzM
John and Mike talk Tetris, encryption, forgetting your Apple Watch, talking to Google and managing devices at school.
Stephen and Mike do a tight 30 with some game-talk catching up, and all new talk of 5G, cellular service on Apple Watch, iMessage, and governments breaking into the iPhones of terrorists.
Just Stephen and Mike (and Mike sounds like crap) talking Apple with a hint of Sonos and Tesla.
James “Boogie” Wallace joins Stephen, John, and Mike to discuss one, and only one thing: The Talk Show with John Gruber: ‘Maximally Thin,’ with Special Guest Casey Johnston. https://daringfireball.net/thetalkshow/2019/11/19/ep-269
The whole gang turns out to talk ticket prices, AirPods Pro,
John’s router: https://www.netgear.com/home/products/networking/wifi-routers/R8000P.aspx
,
Steve’s vision: https://soundcloud.com/thenextweb2/steve-jobs-talk-1983-center
, and
General Magic: https://www.generalmagicthemovie.com
A tight 44 minutes with Colin, Stephen, and Mike talking everything from earthquakes to exercise, AT&T to craigslist.
John, Colin, Stevie and Mike talk about beer, Italian heritage, near beer, iOS security, Square Cash card, B keys, pepperoni, and more!
Not much Apple talk this week, but the Democratic primary field gets thinned to just three lucky winners. Also Mexican/Tex-Mex food; Gatlinburg, Tennessee; and board games.
Stevie, John and Mike talk about some guy named Russ and a bunch of Apple stuff.
This Episode of The Thing Is is brought to you by Zeal.
Zeal: I Just Made it Worse!
The first ever episode of The Thing Is without Stevie, and it starts without Mike: Colin and John talk Rock’n’roll and Public enthusiasm; Mike joins to talk MacBooks, the environment, Space History, and Ric Flair fighting sharks.
More China (really just griping about air travel), new MacBooks, Jony’s departure, Ghostbusters pinball, beta OSes, and Stevie’s unreceived new old camera.
We hit some listener favorites like storage and the woes of corporate IT culture, Mike talks about getting to China with exceptionally bad audio and Colin makes a surprise appearance at the end.
Follow-up on Colin’s iMac situation, media formats, digging in deep(er) on iMac storage, Sam Elliot, the dark underbelly of the Jetsons and looong flights.
A long one, really deep on WWDC. No non-Apple talk here. Colin was sick and John was available.
Talking about the Panic Playdate, lawn maintenance, and pinning money to one's shirt on a birthday
Elevators, New York City, the plague of force quitting apps, bedbugs, and TV commercials
iOS apps moving to the Mac, Apple's new services, and Stevie's podcast habits. Colin's reverse pick: Pet Semetary Stevies picks: Do By Friday and Roderick on the Line
Mike, Stephen, and Colin talk about jobs, Macs, Macs at jobs, Macs at schools, dads and iPads, software update and Apple Music gripes, nuclear annihilation segueing very abruptly into talk about a $90 iMac stand/dock thingy, Texas pro-Israel law, Georgia earthquakes, something subduction zones, Supervolcanoes, Yellowstone, visits to Austin, and road trips.
In a real change of content, Colin joins Mike and Stevie and they talk about having a podcast, what little Mike knows about allergy shots, doctors and the relationships with them, the Sentinelese, vermin infestations, artisanal bindles, the Rat King, homeownership, pizza rolls, and a glimpse behind the scenes of our new artwork!
Apple ID passwords, complaints about the new iPad Pro, Stevie goes really deep on some smart HDMI switch, AppleTV vs. Roku, right to repair advocation.
Stevie’s new watch, details of semiconductor design, sleep tracking, waking up, Stevie’s iPad situation and general financial responsibility, Stevie’s mass storage addiction, AirPod battery life (dirty little secret), and a great big cliffhanger ending!
Recommendation:
Stephen: The Patriot Season 2 (TV-Amazon)
New Macs Mini, Las Vegas, new MacBooks Air, no new Airpods, vintage Apple device repair, new iPads Pro: Will Stephen get one (hint: yes) & Mike blows open a (soon to be) giant scandal—the price of the iPad Pro 10.5”, Lightning vs. USB-C, iPhone XR and battery life, pop socket fever!
iPhone X, phone cases in general, Mac and iPad predictions for Tuesday’s event.
Recommendations:
Stephen: Hunger Games movies
Mike: Good Eats: Reloaded (TV)
Bootleg watch faces, Stevie’s watch order, Adobe pricing, quitting Amazon Prime, AirPods’ dirty little secret, Apple Store fraud, and phone sizes.
Talk about the idea of an Apple Watch series 4 and an iPhone XR, Stevie’s new car(play),the Bloomberg weirdness and a brief touch on what’s ruining America.
Recommendations:
Stevie: Sorry to Bother You (movie)
Mike: Teen Titans Go! To the Movies (movie)
Stevie: Solo (movie)
Lots of hotish takes on the iPhone XS, XS Max, XR, Apple Watch Series 4 and other tidbits from Apple's September 12th event.
Recommendations: Mike: Donut County (iOS game) and This is Not a Game: the Game (iOS game)
Stephen: nada
New iPhones, dumb names, new iPads, more new iPhones, that kind of customer/employee at the Apple Store this time of year, prices for new iPhones.
Recommendations:
Stephen: Ozark (Netflix)
Mike: The Good Place: Season 2 (Netflix)
Mike’s long, boring story about troubleshooting a weird MacBook Air issue, ‘laptop talk,’ Stephen’s broke watch, AirPower and Qi charging, underwater iPhone photography.
Recommendations:
Stephen: Forged in Fire (TV- Hulu)
Mike: Holedown (iOS app)
Twitter, iPad predictions, 3D/Force touch, and home theater setups.
Recommendations:
Mike- Halloumi (cheese)
Stevie: Interstellar (movie)
Reminiscing iPod, digging deep on models and prices of upcoming (unannounced) new iPhones, moms and bank websites.
Recommendations:
Mike: The Circle by Dave Eggers (book—not the movie!)
Stevie: Ready Player One (movie—not the book!)
Not the last update on Mike’s busted MacBook Pro, legacy ports and things, AAPL earnings, the Apple-verse fringe; Twitter and the feedback loop, and old devices.
Recommendations: Stevie: Billions, Mike: Silicon Valley (again)
Stevie's scooter-charging side hustle, what to do with a failing Mac with no Apple Care and less than 2 years old. Recommendations: Mike Hole.io (App Store game), Stevie: Hannah Gadsby: Nanette (Netflix Stand-up special)
Unexpected dental work, Pocket-Run pool, butterfly-switch keyboard failure repair extension, repair extensions in general, unofficial loaner plans.
Recommendations:
Stevie: The Last Jedi
Mike: A Little Help with Carol Burnett
Stevie and Mike talk about the merging of media providers with content producers and WWDC…mostly just iOS 12
Recommendations:
Stevie: Sonos Play 5
Mike: A Higher Loyalty by James Comes (book)
Stevie’s new (to him) camera, weird target disk mode EFI password thing, AirPlay 2, WWDC imaginings.
Recommendations:
Stevie: Explained (TV - Netflix), The Break with Michelle Wolf (TV - Netflix)
Mike: Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast (Podcast), Gilbert (Movie - Hulu)
Spigen’s silly indiegogo, what the next iPhones will be called/look like, theater mode on series 0, Bird scooters, MacBook Pro keyboard lawsuit.
Recommendations:
Stevie: Silicon Valley (TV - HBO)
Mike: Arrested Development Season 4 remix (TV - Netflix)
Jessamine: War for the Planet of the Apes (Movie)
Stevie’s long-ass iMac reminiscences, Google's creepy robocaller.
Recommendations:
Jessamine: The Expanse ($$ Amazon)
Stevie: This is America - Childish Gambino (Music video)
Mike: Very Bad Wizards (podcast)
Watch notifications, what your phone calls you, Arlo’s playlist part 1, Apple’s Q2 FY2018 Earnings Blowout!, cheap iPads, Craigslist: What the Fuck?, Funny Book Movies, more Apple Watch things.
Recommendations:
Mike: Lost in Space (2018 TV- Netflix)
Stevie: the upcoming, unnamed Disney streaming service
Jessamine: Black Lightning (TV Netflix/CW)
The demise of the Airport line, SD cards.
Recommendations:
Jessamine: Music Memos (iOS app)
Mike: Westworld (TV - HBO)
Stevie: Yellow Apple Leather iPhone case (iPhone case)
iPad repairs, iPhone capacity, iCloud storage weirdness, discussing this video, Mike's first tapback.
Recommendations:
Stevie: Radio Silence (Mac App)
Mike: The Omnibus (Podcast)
Apple's education event.
Recommendations:
Mike: Nailed It! (TV - Netflix)
Jessamine: Living Single (TV - Hulu)
Stevie: Santa Clarita Diet (TV - Netflix)
The complete Time Capsule saga, an AirPod dilemma, Facebook, March 27th in Chicago.
Recommendations:
Stevie: The Standups (TV - Netflix)
Jessamine: Annihilation (Movie)
Mike: Ultimate Beastmaster: (TV - Netflix)
Smoke and mirrors of Apple Watch activity tracking, do not disturb
Recommendations:
Stevie: Halide (iOS app), Darkroom (iOS app)
Mike: Atlanta Monster (Podcast)
Jessamine: Friends with Benefits (TV - Netflix)
Jessamine's Hackintosh, force quitting iOS apps, the "Project Marzipan" rumor, Google's garbage new YouTube app for AppleTV, what are we watching