Tech News Weekly 377 Transcript

Please be advised this transcript is AI-generated and may not be word for word. Time codes refer to the approximate times in the ad-supported version of the show.

0:00:00 - Mikah Sargent
Coming up on Tech News Weekly. Dan Morin of Six Colors stops by to give us the lowdown on all the stuff Apple announced this week. Then Patrick Holland of CNET joins us to tell us about Mobile World Congress 2025. Before I round things out with two AI stories you won't want to miss, Stay tuned for Tech News Weekly.

This is Tech News Weekly With me, Mikah Sargent, episode 377. Recorded Thursday, march 6th 2025. MWC 2025. Marvelous Mobile Tech. Hello and welcome to Tech News Weekly, the show where every week we talk to and about the people making and breaking that tech news. I am your host, Mikah Sargent, and today we are kicking things off with a conversation about what was in the air this week as Apple made its announcements, because not all the announcements came out in time for our early in the week shows that cover Apple. Some hit the waves afterwards, so joining us to tell us all about it is Dan Morin. Welcome back to the show, dan.

0:01:21 - Dan Moren
It's good to be here, Micah. Something must have happened with Apple, Otherwise you didn't break the glass to pull me out of emergency.

0:01:28 - Mikah Sargent
Exactly exactly. So, dan, I was hoping we could start by talking about the stuff that was announced earlier in the week, which is the new iPad Air and the new iPad and kind of what Apple announced with that and kind of what, uh, apple announced with that. Um, there has been some interesting conversations surrounding where the iPad no name falls into, the the scope of things, and where the iPad air does versus the iPad pro. So could you start by telling us what exactly was announced and, I think importantly, something that you said to me earlier this week, which is and I think, importantly, something that you said to me earlier this week, which is the perhaps short time period between the last update and this one?

0:02:10 - Dan Moren
Yeah Well, so there's two products, right? So we're talking about the iPad Air and the. You call it. What did you call it? The no Name iPad?

I like that iPad no Name Base level iPad, entry level iPad, 349 iPad whatever you want to call it that product the 349 iPad had not been updated in quite some time I think October 2022 was the last time, so there'd been a long time between that. As often happens with Apple's lower cost products, right? I mean, we just saw the iPhone 16E got introduced a few weeks back. It had been a few years since the iPhone SE. The Mac Mini, you know, famously only gets updated every once in a while, so it's not surprising that they wait a long time between updating this sort of base level product.

The iPad Air, on the other hand, had been revamped fairly recently, I believe May of last year, so just about nine months since its last overhaul, which was a little surprising. It got an M2 processor at that point, and so it was pretty much up with the state of the art, but Apple decided to rev it anyways here, and we got a to a surprise to many, an M3 processor in the mix. Now, what makes this a little bit strange is for those of us who watch the industry. The M3 is built on this older process, and a lot of people had sort of you know, done the analysis and said this is kind of a dead end for how the chips are actually built. It's just a very inefficient process. It didn't work very well and it had quickly been supplanted by the M4 process, which uses the same nanometer process. But it's just more efficient and better. Just better overall for Apple and its cost curves.

So it was a bit of a surprise to see the M3 roll out here, but it also makes sense because the iPad Air is sort of the mid-range right. It's, I think, what many people think of as quote unquote the iPad. It has neither the super high price tag and all the bells and whistles of the Pro, but it's a little better spec'd than the base level 349 iPad. So having it slot in there at the M3 makes a lot of sense. I think it is certainly faster. Notably, I think a lot of Apple's materials compare it to the M1, which obviously is not the most recent generation of chip but perhaps has slightly better or at least more clear advantages yes, right, so, yeah, so that's mainly what we saw here.

was that revision here is that it added that M3 processor. We did also see that Apple revamped some accessories. They revamped the Magic Keyboard that goes with that model of iPad Air, and then, obviously, we mentioned the base level iPad as well. These are not product updates that are going to set the world on fire Again. This is kind of Apple holding down its low end and mid range performance. I think it's interesting they rev this after just nine months, but you know, I guess it was ready to go, and that's when you roll it out.

0:04:57 - Mikah Sargent
Yeah, yeah, that's true. If it's ready to ready to rock, then you make it rock. Now, when it comes to these devices, you speak about sort of the mid-range and then, of course, kind of the low range, with the iPad no-name. Where do you see these iPads falling in terms of the people who probably benefit most from these devices, who should be buying the Air versus the Pro, or the standard.

I know it always gets a little confusing and muddy, but for somebody who is truly in the market for an iPad, how do you guide someone on which iPad to get You've?

0:05:39 - Dan Moren
asked a $64 billion question, mike. Yeah, inflation, it's tricky. The iPad is, I think, one of the hardest lines in terms of Apple's products to be able to help people figure out which iPad is right for them, and I think that's because the lines in terms of what distinguishes these models from one another are very squishy. The iPad Air and the base level iPad at $349 actually have a lot in common. They have roughly the same camera system. They've got the same sort of USB-C ports. The major differentiators in there are, you know, obviously the processor which we discussed. The new, revised base level iPad has an A16 processor which is a few years old at this point. It is the processor that ran the iPhone 14 Pro line and the iPhone 15 line. Obviously, we're expecting maybe an iPhone 17 this fall, so we're talking three or so generations back there. That said, apple's processors are all really good. If there's one thing we've learned in the Apple Silicon era, it's that their tech in chips has a lot of longevity to it, so you don't necessarily run into these situations where it can't do things. The one major exception this time around is that base level iPad and its A16 processor are not compatible with Apple intelligence. This is a little unusual, because every other product that Apple has rolled out recently on both the iPad, the iPhone, the Mac all of those are Apple intelligence compatible. It's just this one. So that's one easy dividing line. If you are really excited about using Apple intelligence, the base level iPad is not for you.

Some people find the selling point to not have Apple intelligence. I'm going to let you make that decision. You can always turn it off if you buy a more expensive iPad, it's fine. The base level iPad also only comes in one size. It's just that now I believe what they're calling now 11-inch display, even though it's slightly under 11 inches, whereas both the Air and the Pro come in both 11-inch and 13-inch flavors. So if you're looking for a larger iPad, that's automatically going to bump you up to the iPad Air. Beyond that, I don't know. The Air and the base level iPad in particular, I think are very close in terms of what they offer. The Air also has a better screen somewhat, but again, it's very squishy.

Like you said, it's hard to go in with just somebody and say this is what you, what are you looking for? I do think that Apple intelligence thing is a key differentiator. I think the other thing that might be important for a lot of people is accessory compatibility. Um, because both the iPad air and the iPad pro offer a magic keyboard version that is compatible with their respective devices and those are the keyboards that Apple has where it includes, you know, both like a trackpad and a keyboard. The base level iPad uses the keyboard. I want to say the Magic Keyboard Folio. I love their product names. They're so good that one's a little bit different. It is a like two-part thing where you know you attach sort of like a kickstand-y part to the back and then you know it has like a section that kind of folds out but it also has a trackpad. It's just a slightly different machine with a different way of like hinge design and all that. You know that could be a differentiator. The pencil versions that work with them they both work with the USB-C pencil. That was like introduced a few years back, but you can also get the. If you want the magnetic attaching pencil you need to go up to the air, otherwise you're kind of stuck with the one that connects with just a USB-C cable instead.

Um, the iPad pro is, you know, the high end. It's everything. It's got everything but the kitchen sink in there. It's got the best screen, it's got the best processor, it's got better sound, it's got better display. Like all of these things. It's the best, but it's also incredibly expensive. You're talking from the base level iPad, which starts at $349, to the Air, which starts at, I believe, $600. And then, in order to go up to the Pro, you're talking about $1,000. So it's quite a big investment. If you're going all the way to the Pro, you get a bunch of better, like I said, better cameras, better screen, better chip. It's really got everything. But the question is what is the utility of all these things? Unless you are really putting your iPad to the test, it is harder to sort of figure out what is the use case for that $1,000. But it is certainly the. If you want no compromises, the iPad Pro is the one to get.

0:10:17 - Mikah Sargent
Absolutely. Yeah, this is especially, I think, the accessory questions that I often get around accessories and going okay, now does this pencil work with this? Can you use a third-party stylus that supports the Logitech and the base iPad pencil or, excuse me, apple pencil versus the Pro versus the? Yeah, that all gets very messy. And then you throw the cases in there and the keyboard cases, and that part I have found confusing in the past, and you and I talked too about how quickly you go from what is a tablet to basically having a hefty laptop, depending on what accessories you add to it. And then you start to ask is it better to just go over to an Air or something?

0:11:07 - Dan Moren
like that. Yeah, I mean like we just said that iPad Pro starts at $1,000. Now, that's before you buy the keyboard accessory. If you want one, right? A laptop comes with a keyboard and a trackpad, so you are outpricing the base level MacBook Air at that point, which is, you know, it's a decision to make. Obviously, there's things that a MacBook Air can't do. You can't pull the screen off a MacBook Air and just have a little tablet to walk around with.

0:11:31 - Mikah Sargent
If that's something that interests you.

0:11:33 - Dan Moren
Yes, that's right, you can do any of these things once. But when you put it back together again it gets a little messier. So it's a tough. That top end gets a little tricky in terms of how much it lines up to like. Should you just consider a laptop at that point?

0:11:47 - Mikah Sargent
Speaking of laptops. That is one of the two things we'll be talking about next, but it is time to take a little break before we come back with Dan Morin to talk about the Mac options that Apple announced this week.

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All righty, continuing on with the show. It is time to talk about the Mac, because it wasn't just the iPad Air that was in the air this week, and the reason why I keep bringing that up for anyone who didn't see is because there was a bit of a hint at Apple announcing things by way of Tim Cook, who shared a little clip that said there's something in the air. So, yeah, let's start with the MacBook Air, which did get an announcement. What did we see? MacBook Air, which did get an announcement.

0:15:09 - Dan Moren
What did we see?

Colors and options and everything in between. Well, a few things. First of all, you know we talked about processors with the iPads previously. That's sort of the big news here is the MacBook Air gets the M4 processor. We've already seen versions of this throughout Apple's other products on the Mac line. We've seen the Mac Mini, we've seen the MacBook Pro with the various flavors of M4. So it's not really a surprise in that regard. We knew Apple's been pretty consistent about sort of rolling out generations of this stuff, especially the MacBook Air, which is probably its best-selling Mac, right? So no surprise there that it gets the M4, along with all the attendant benefits of that.

In terms of other surprises, well, there is a new color sky blue. How blue it is depends on, I guess, what angle you look at it from. Apple has been very conservative, let's say, with its colors in recent years, especially on the Mac line. So this is now a supplants. I want to say the space gray is now gone. I believe you now have sky blue joined silver, starlight and midnight. Take from it what you will. Some of the pictures I've seen online are pretty faint, hard to tell, so you might have to if you're interested. I would always go say go look at it in a store first before you commit to a color.

The other interesting decision here that I think is kind of big is the base level MacBook Air starts at $999. Now you might say to yourself, well, didn't it always start at $999? And the answer is sort of Last year, when it rolled out the M3 versions, it did not seem able to get that $999 price point. So what they did instead? Because it started at $1099, they kept the older M2 version around that $999 price point. So what they did instead? Because it started at $1099, they kept the older M2 version around at $999 so they could hold onto that sub $1000 price point. There were a lot of suppositions at the time like oh well, the cost curves again on these things are hard to get down. Maybe this is the future that we're seeing right next year We'll get the M4 and they'll keep the M3 around at $999,. But that did not happen. Instead, they managed to get that base level M4 at $999. That's a big deal because I think in no small regard it makes that base level MacBook an extremely attractive and very solid computer. We've seen a lot of examples in the past where it's like, okay, they start at $999, but in order to get one that's actually good, you got to go up like a couple hundred bucks.

I think that M4 base level at $999 is a pretty solid offering, especially since Apple also revamped its RAM across the board last year, upping everything to a minimum of 16 gigabytes. So you get 16 gigabytes, you get a 256 gigabyte SSD. Might that be a little small, perhaps if it's your only computer, but if this is a laptop you were buying in addition to having a desktop, I think you might be able to get by with it. I have an M1 Air that's still not full at 256 because I don't use it for all my data storage, but even then, that's still a pretty good price to start with and if you want to, just you don't have to think about oh God, I got to upgrade both the RAM and the storage in order to get something that's usable. It does at least provide a more welcome price point to start with there.

So in addition to that, there's a couple other small improvements, as with, I wanna say, the iMac, the G4, m4 iMac I'm dating myself here. We also saw a revamped front camera here. This has been making its way across Apple's Mac lines. It's the center stage, compatible 12 megapixel, I want to say. That replaces the old 1080p front camera that was previously there, so it provides a little better image if you're doing video chatting and and stuff like that. A little bit nicer there. Other than that, it is largely the same.

The other nice thing that is brought along with that m4, though, is the capability to run two displays in addition to the built-in display. This is something that a lot of people wanted. It's been a slow process with the macbook air. Um, for a while you could only run one, and then it had a situation where it's like, well, slow process with the MacBook Air. For a while you could only run one, and then it had a situation where it's like, well, you can run two external displays, but you can't run the internal display at the same time, so you had to run it like lid closed. People made a lot of fuss about this. I mean, you know again, it's not necessarily a feature that everybody needs, but I think for those people who do need it, this is a welcome addition to be able to do that as well.

Beyond that, the other sort of nicety for those looking to maybe upgrade a little bit is there is a higher memory threshold. Previously, the M3 Air only went up to 24 gigabytes of RAM. You can now upgrade the M4 to 32 gigabytes of RAM, which is again pretty respectable if you're willing to pay for Apple's never-cheap RAM costs. So yeah, overall a pretty solid offering. I believe also that, though that base level is the what we call the binned version of the M4 processor, which is to say it generally doesn't have as many. They take the ones with fewer good GPU cores, but it's still a 10-core CPU, an 8-core GPU, which is pretty good. I mean, again, it's on par with the M3 from last year. You go up a little bit and you get that extra two cores of GPU. If that's something you really need in your MacBook Air performance, I don't know that it's necessarily a huge differentiator for people but there you go, and then of course, the 15 inch versions as well.

0:20:35 - Mikah Sargent
So, yeah, a pretty good MacBook Air lineup there as well, absolutely yeah, Now with the MacBook Air were there. So you mentioned kind of the main updates. Are we looking at the same port configuration, the same like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, the same everything else, or did Apple make any changes as far as that goes?

0:20:55 - Dan Moren
Yeah, as far as the wireless stuff goes, it's the same configuration you saw in last year's. It's the Wi-Fi 6E along with Bluetooth 5.3. They did improve the ports in that, though there are still just two ports in addition to the MagSafe ports. They are now Thunderbolt 4 ports that also work as USB-C ports. I believe previously they were Thunderbolt 3 ports, so this brings it into line with what Apple's offering on most of its other computers, including the MacBook Pros and the Mac Mini, et cetera. I actually think the Mac Mini might have five on some of them. Yeah, so I mean, there's a lot of stuff happening with Thunderbolt right now. It's currently constantly stepping up to the next version, but Thunderbolt 4 is a pretty fast peripheral connection and it's again we're talking the base-level Mac right. They're not skimping on that there.

0:21:42 - Mikah Sargent
Yeah, it's actually pretty good for pretty good for giving it to the base level. Okay, so we saw the MacBook Air and the introduction of that new sort of breath of color, but it wasn't just the MacBook Air that was announced, Apple also, I think. For some people went yay, finally, but the new Mac Studio was announced. Looks the same for sure. But what did we see there? Sky blue.

0:22:18 - Dan Moren
No sky blue. If you want it, you can get it in any color you want, as long as it is silver. It you can get it in any color you want, as long as it is silver. Yeah, so the Mac Studio, which was a pretty surprising development when it first came out a few years ago, gets a major upgrade here. The Mac Studio comes in two configurations, two main configurations, which is largely dependent on what chip you want with it. That base level $1,999 version comes with the M4 Max. Base level $1,999 version comes with the M4 Max. That is the most.

This is sort of again we got to break down the product line a little bit. That is the most powerful M4 that you can get in a laptop, for example. So the MacBook Pro goes with the M4, m4 Pro or M4 Max chip, but the M4 Max is also I mean it's the most powerful M4 chip that's available now. It comes with starts at 14 cores for CPU and 32 cores of GPU. It is a pretty impressive device, or chip. The Studio also starts at 36 gigabytes of RAM Slightly odd number, but there you are and is configurable up to 128 gigabytes of RAM, which is pretty respectable. It starts with a 512 gigabyte storage, configurable up to 8 terabytes. You know and we talked about displays a second ago this can support up to five displays because it's now using Thunderbolt 5, which is the five stands for five displays.

Five, that's right. Number of displays is number it goes with. This is a pretty powerful computer and that is a lot going for it there. But it's also not the only one they released, because traditionally the studio has come in both the Max and Ultra flavors. Now this is where we get a little weird again. Gasp, you might have expected an M4 Ultra to go with that M4 Max, but there is no M4 Ultra yet, so instead you have your option of an M3 Ultra.

Now, bearing what we said in mind earlier in the show about the M3 process being kind of at the end of its life, potentially it's a little surprising that we're rolling this out now. Potentially it's a little surprising that we're rolling this out now, but apparently, again, this was where the pipeline was working at the time. So yeah, if you're willing to go up to that $4,000 price point, you can get a 28-core CPU, 60-core GPU M3 Ultra. Now keep in mind the way they make these Ultra chips usually is they take two of those Max chips and just glue them together. So you're getting usually about twice the two of those max chips and just glue them together. So you're getting usually about twice the performance of those max chips they use uh, elmer's right. Yeah, that's right. You just a little little. You know same glue we all used in grade school. Little, throw a little macaroni on there folks, we're kidding, we're kidding.

This is no that's not how it works. Um. It also starts with 96 gigabytes of memory, configurable up to 512 gigabytes of memory, of memory, of memory and up to base level 1 terabyte of storage. Up to 16 terabytes of storage. I am not going to price that out, I should price that out, what that 512, 16 terabyte costs.

0:25:19 - Mikah Sargent
But I think there's too many zeros there.

0:25:23 - Dan Moren
You want to take a crack at how many displays you can run off that thing.

0:25:26 - Mikah Sargent
I'm going to go. The five no longer stands for five Eight.

0:25:31 - Dan Moren
Eight is correct Simultaneous support for up to eight displays up to 6K or four displays up to 8K. Well, I mean, you know, I think the biggest question coming out of this is that the Mac Studio is a very impressive device. We've seen this, obviously, for a long time. Apple is really targeting that at some of its pro users. But you also might be forgiven for thinking wait a second, don't they have a Mac Pro as well? The answer is yes, but it hasn't been updated in quite some time. So looking at something like this, you wonder is the Mac Pro necessary? Is there a reason to have a Mac Pro? Could?

0:26:07 - Mikah Sargent
you.

0:26:07 - Dan Moren
Dan how could? You say that I can say it. I can say it with pride, because I think that there are very, very few use cases. There are a few, like I say, there are none, but there are very few use cases where somebody probably needs what a Mac Pro can offer in addition few use cases where somebody probably needs what a mac pro can offer.

0:26:24 - Mikah Sargent
In addition, I mean, can we just note that apple says on in its copy on its site, powered by the most advanced apple silicon, mac studio is the ultimate pro desktop yeah, I mean the ultimate said right there.

0:26:34 - Dan Moren
Right, I mean, if you need anything more just to compare, I mean that mac pro, I mean, is currently running an M2 Ultra chip, right? So that's a whole generation behind, whole generation behind. So, yeah, the Mac Studio very impressive, there's a lot in there. Apple also targeting in its description in its press release, basically saying this is the best powerhouse you can buy for artificial intelligence, because you got to work AI in there somewhere. And they also describe it, as I enjoy, also built for Apple intelligence. I don't know what that means Technically, all of their devices run Apple intelligence and I have yet to see a reason why you would need a M3 Ultra versus an M2 or an M1.

Yeah, I mean great that they continue pushing the envelope. And again there are those power users who will really need this kind of performance and I'm glad that they stake out that high ground. But it does increasingly feel, and sometimes, like they've got this ability to throw all of this power at these problems and they just keep adding more and more power and you're like stop, we're already dead.

0:27:47 - Mikah Sargent
Yeah, it seems to be very, very, very. We need to find the people who are putting this thing, pushing this thing to its limits. I would like to talk to those folks because they're out there. They're out there somewhere. You're out there. If you're listening to the show, you can get in touch.

0:28:04 - Dan Moren
And I maxed out my M2 Ultra Mac Studio. I need to get this, this M3 Ultra one. I got to go. Let's do it, let's go yeah.

0:28:13 - Mikah Sargent
I would love that. Is there anything else that Apple announced along with this, anything else from the iPad lineup or the Mac lineup that we may have missed in our conversation?

0:28:27 - Dan Moren
Unless you are really excited about color-matched MagSafe power cords for your M3, your sky blue M3 MacBook Air. I don't think there is too much. We mentioned, obviously, the new version of the Magic Keyboard for the iPad Air. I think that is worth highlighting again. It's kind of they've kind of melded some of the features that has. So Apple redid the Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro last year and it's got this nice aluminum wrist rest and it's kind of a more substantial product.

The MacBook Air Magic Keyboard not quite the same. It's a little bit more like the original version but with some of the niceties that came there, like a function row and a larger track pad. But you're not going to get backlit keys, you don't get haptic feedback on that track pad. So they're keeping pace. But that is again in our discussions about what differentiates the Air from the Pro. The quality of the peripherals is one of them. They just, you know they aren't quite. They don't have all the bells and whistles. That said, they're a little bit cheaper. I think that one's $269 versus the $299 for the Pro's Magic Keyboard. So if you're looking to save a few bucks, I guess that's what the iPad Air can get you.

0:29:32 - Mikah Sargent
Definitely Well, Dan Moore, and I want to thank you so much for taking the time to join us today. Of course, folks can head over to sixcolors.com to check out your work and Jason Snell's work. Where else should they go to keep up with what you're doing?

0:29:45 - Dan Moren
Well, I am on most social media networks. You can find me by searching for D Morin, some variant thereof, and my personal website is over at dmoren.com, where you can find links to all the podcasts I do, all the sites I write for and my several books that I have written. Please go buy some books.

0:30:02 - Mikah Sargent
Buy Dan's books. Thank you very much, dan, and we will see you again soon.

0:30:07 - Dan Moren
Thanks, Mikah, talk to you later.

0:30:10 - Mikah Sargent
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We are back from the break and, yes, it is time to talk about MWC. Joining us is the mobile expert himself, Patrick Holland of CNET. Welcome to the show, Patrick.

0:33:15 - Patrick Holland
Yeah, I've been called a lot of things, but not a mobile expert before. All right.

0:33:21 - Mikah Sargent
Well, I hope you'll accept it, because we certainly love to have you on the show to talk about what's going on in the world of mobile devices. First and foremost, can you tell our listeners what in the world, if they haven't heard of it, is MWC, and are we sure we're not talking about CES?

0:33:41 - Patrick Holland
Yeah, I mean. So two acronyms. So we have MWC stands for Mobile World Congress. It takes place every year in Barcelona and basically it's a show all about mobile things, so phones, wearable devices and products, but also things that are related to B&B stuff. So like you have a lot of things with like cellular and telecom companies there working on like Wi-Fi or we saw Li-Fi. That's even a thing. We're not gonna talk about that. But then there's CES and that's the consumer electronics show that takes place in Vegas and that's encompassing not only mobile but other things, and over the years a lot of the mobile stuff has been quietly not announced at CES but happens at Mobile World Congress. So that'd be the two. Mobile World Congress is definitely smaller, but there's a lot more tapas and Spanish ham.

0:34:28 - Mikah Sargent
So I love that. Yeah, and it sounds like from what you just said that the conversations, or the announcements rather, that take place there are perhaps a little more important to the space than sometimes we see at CES, where it seems and you can correct me if this sort of impression is wrong that the big companies at CES tend to use their own stages and their own platforms, their own events to, you know, make these big announcements. But maybe because of the nature of who's paying attention to Mobile World Congress, you do get some big industry announcements.

0:35:11 - Patrick Holland
Yeah, I think that's accurate. I think really, the big turning point was like during the pandemic and I think there was 2021, where there wasn't a really a show like CES, but there was like a virtual version, and all these companies were like Motorola or Samsung would announce their product like the week before or the week after because what is virtual to someone who's not going there? And it became kind of very like philosophical, like what is CES? But I think nowadays with it, I think you're going to find that like something like Mobile World Congress, you have a company like Xiaomi, which is like the third largest maker of phones in the world. They're going to debut their big device.

The Xiaomi 15 Ultra got debuted there. But they're also going to debut like show off their car section and they have their dancing robotic dog. So it's a better chance for these companies to show off what they can do. So it's a better chance for these companies to show off what they can do and they might get a little more press and maybe even hoopla about it. Buzz around it is a better word than they would if they did it on their own.

0:36:11 - Mikah Sargent
So yeah, and in fact you know Oppo.

0:36:13 - Patrick Holland
Oppo is a big phone brand. They launched like the world's thinnest phone, right? It didn't launch actually at MWC, it launched right before MWC.

0:36:21 - Mikah Sargent
And so here then showing it off and potentially getting more attention. That makes sense. Now, the CNET team there were quite a few boots on the ground, as far as I understand it, and your team kind of did a wrap up of the different things that were announced, and I hope we can kind of talk about it first, with the best ofs, before we get into the weird and wacky stuff, because it does, for the most part, seem to be an event where you are showing off, sometimes with CES, actually a lot of times with CES so much of it is conceptual and so much of it is just junk, and in this way it was kind of interesting seeing some of the real stuff being announced or shown off. At the very most, one example was, I think, a kind of darling in the people who like to tinker with their devices space is the Nothing brand right, and I'm curious to hear about the Nothing phones that were kind of shown off at this event.

0:37:34 - Patrick Holland
Yeah. So Mobile Conquerors happens at this great time of year, and especially if you are. When I was a younger tech reporter doing mobile stuff, you get assigned usually the budget phones, the phones that cost $300 or $400 that most people are going to buy, maybe more than like a Galaxy S25, but they're not as exciting, right? They're basic phones, they're this and Nothing launched two very amazing budget phones the Nothing Phone 3A and the nothing phone 3a Pro, the most expensive, which is the pro, which I think is four hundred and sixty dollars, or 459, I think, is the price so well under that $500 sweet spot that we look for in a phone. If you think about something like the Google pixel 8a, that's $500 and I think that's the right amount of money to get like the perfect amount of value for a phone. We just saw apple launch the iphone 16e at 600 and, yeah, 1600. 600 is not a lot, but it's definitely not cheap. So to see nothing, watch these two phones that are not only like fun and unique because they have these lighting on the back of it. They're called glyphs and you. They can do different things. They could just light up to look cool, they can let it for notifications, but there's no other phone like that. I mean, I think back maybe back to 2018. We have like the razor gaming phone. We started seeing like RGB lighting on phones, but this is so exciting and you're paying like a few hundred dollars for this. It's amazing.

And then I think the difference between the Pro and the regular 3A is basically that comes down to cameras. The cameras are just a step up, a little bit nicer on the Pro model than they are on the regular one. And also we're talking I haven't mentioned the AI yet right, and we see a lot of companies making their upgrades about AI and, while there are things like Google Gemini and Google Circle to Search on these phones, the only thing that Nothing is doing is they have this really cool space on there. It's kind of a combo of Notes app and the Screenshot app that we see in the Pixel, where you can just put things that you're doing, whether it's a voice memo, whether it's a screenshot, and then it's using ai to kind of um, maybe collage that for a lack of a better word. It's really early days on that. This is still very limited, but that's kind of thing where he's like that's something unique, something different and something ai, I like that. So yeah, I think the nothing phones.

0:39:56 - Mikah Sargent
I'm pretty excited about them something else that stood out to me, and this this does fall into the concept car area, but the modular camera from Xiaomi. Tell us a little bit about that, because you do see people aftermarket adding lenses to their phones and attaching them to cases. So the idea that it could kind of be built in and take your camera phone into the realm of being a camera camera is certainly appealing. What is the modular optical system?

0:40:35 - Patrick Holland
Absolutely so. Where the nothing phone's kind of geared toward an affordable phone and giving you lots of great value, this is something completely different. This is aimed for someone who's a photographer, videographer. We know, like content creators are constantly being given new features, whether it's the iphone or or samsung, that this tend to take things to another level. It's saying, like you know what, your phone can only be so big before you can not fit a bigger lens on it. But what if you could put a lens that's like a full-size lens and a larger image sensor, so that's give you much better like photos and video quality. And then what's creative about this one? They put it all in one package. It's just kind of like a lens with a sensor on the back of it and then it magnetically attaches to the back of a phone, and they showed off the Xiaomi 15 phone with this on there.

Now, if for all those like camera nerds out there who might be listening, this harkens back to 12 years ago. Sony did the exact same thing. They had the qx10 and the qx100 and there were these lenses and they had these larger image sensors in there, and they didn't magnetically attach the phone. They actually just physically clipped to the phone and it would use like bluetooth. So you see this tech that happened 12 years ago and you kind of see the 2025 version. You're like man. That's great. And then, on top of it, even the little lens they were showing off the lens cap is magnetic and can also stick to the back of your phone so you don't lose it.

0:41:54 - Mikah Sargent
So it's pretty amazing.

0:41:55 - Patrick Holland
I don't know if it will ever come out, though let's be honest about that. The concept is a concept, but a concept is a concept. It's a concept exactly, but, you know, it's kind of like a proof of concept too, because, uh, we saw some other companies do something. Like you know, we have, uh, um uh, xiaomi in, I think, 2022 did something where they actually put, like, a leica lens on their one inch sensor, and we saw some other companies do that, uh, with their own concept this year. But this is kind of a new a thought, and I hope that maybe we see something come out of this. If it's not like a modular camera system, maybe we'll see something where it's an accessory for something that would be a modular system, absolutely.

0:42:32 - Mikah Sargent
Now let's move over, I think, a little more to the weird and wacky that wasn't weird enough for you that wasn't weird enough for me.

because the next thing is pretty weird. I was reminded my youngest brother for this past Christmas received a. He works outside part of the time and he received a coat that has sort of built-in warming and you can charge it. And the first thing I thought was, because I'm originally from Missouri, he's in Missouri still. We have very, very, very cold winters, just like Chicago. And the first thing I thought was that's amazing, that's super cool. The second thing I thought was I hope it's not a fire risk. And so now, anytime I see clothes with electronics attached, the only thing I can think of is how far is that from bursting into flames? One thing that the team showed off was this cyber jacket with LEDs. Tell us about of all the companies from Anker. Tell me about it.

0:43:39 - Patrick Holland
Yeah, okay. So, anker, if you're not familiar with anchor, they make a lot of accessories, right, a lot of charging accessories and and things for phones and devices. They're much bigger than that. Now they have a sub brand called anchor, solex, solex, like in solar. So what this is is a jacket, a cloak or what you want to call it, and it has solar panels on it, and, essentially, the power that's absorbed by these panels can charge a phone. That's essentially it.

What they also did, though, is they didn't stop there. They put these like LED strips in it, and they gave it a hood. So, as it's charging, it actually has this really cool looking blue LED light, and one of our teammates, abrar Alhidi, had an hour. Like Abrar, did you become a Jedi? What's going on here? This looks so cool. She's like no, I'm just charging my phone, and she was telling me that what's neat about the solar panels is they're flexible, so it's not like a rigid panel that you might see for a power brick or a generator or something you put on your roof. So they've thought a little bit about this. Again, the concept bit about this. Again a concept. Uh, it might come out, it might not. It sound like it. It's towards more the side of it might, but it looked really cool. Reminded me a little bit.

Remember that jacquard trucker, jean jacket, a few years ago yes yeah, I keep on thinking like what if you combine the controls of that with the cool like cyberpunk of this? And then, yeah, throw in your brother's heater.

0:44:58 - Mikah Sargent
We're good, we're set we, we're good to go. Yeah, yes, that's the knock on wood moment. But see, and that's the thing with the brand, with a brand such as anchor, whose products I have used a bunch and that I've never had issues with there, I'm more likely to feel comfortable putting the polyester and the the heated electronics next to each other versus some random Amazon brand that I'm going okay, is this going to be an issue?

0:45:28 - Patrick Holland
I think that's a good motto. To live for your life is to not put unknown brands with electronics and hot things on your body.

0:45:36 - Mikah Sargent
Absolutely. Yeah, that's hopefully some advice everybody could take away. I found this other concept kind of interesting, because okay, this is an ongoing observation I guess that I've had which is when you talk to people who know a thing or two about, who move toward the expert side of home media home theater, home audio, home video they really truly, 100% believe in their heart of hearts that everybody cares about video quality, even to like half of the extent that they do, and so they are going to, you know, want to prioritize doing whatever they can to make the video look as good as it possibly can Like. For example, if they have a projector in their home, they're going to close the windows and make sure that the room is dark.

My experience, however, has been that the people who don't have that expertise, or even anywhere near that expertise, feel like Scrooge McDuck by simply just buying a projector in the first place and they'll blast that thing on like a pebbly wall, the windows will be all open. The sound is coming from this tiny little thing instead of, you know, being connected to speakers. They don't care because they've got a projector on their wall and so, anytime I've said that, I'm like I don't know, I don't think they care as much as you think they care, and this is anecdotal, of course, but it's like across the board that I've seen this and, anyway, they insist. No, no, no, no, no. I promise you they do care, they want to.

Okay, all of this is to say I found this tiny little projector to be one of the most fascinating things that I could absolutely see. Some of these people I've talked about, you know, going oh, this is, this is luxury. I've got a little projector in my pocket, I can set it up. We can all watch a little YouTube video together. Can you tell us about the little projector?

0:47:44 - Patrick Holland
Yeah, I mean, first of all, I fall in the latter camp, where I had the office projector and would put it on the wall and play Mario Kart with my girlfriend. You know, it's like this is the height of grand living. Was it great? Image quality, heck, no.

0:47:59 - Mikah Sargent
No, but it's big.

0:47:59 - Patrick Holland
It's big and it's Mario Kart. It was great. And I want to just double-check the name of this because I don't want to say the wrong name. But basically this is a projector that fits in the palm of your hand and it has like two hinges. It's got kind of three parts to it. It kind of looks like a letter Z and that's it, and then you turn it on and you can attach it, and it's from a company called Azure Zip A-U-R-Z-E-N.

0:48:28 - Mikah Sargent
It's called the Azure.

0:48:29 - Patrick Holland
Azerson Azure.

That's why it's spelled and that's why I wanted to make sure I got it at least slightly right. But basically, this is a projector. It costs about $300. It will be something you can buy and, yeah, you don't even have to plug it in. What's great is it can actually just screencast from your phone or from your device iOS or Android, from a Mac and you can have it anywhere. So I think it's just about fun and I like that because I think sometimes we get so serious about our gadgets and specs and what companies do we forget about that?

Now I will say that it was pointed out to me that it has like a 90-minute battery life, so whatever you're watching, you might miss the end of your movie. And it also has a 720 resolution, which we will be a little bit nerds here and say that is a little low, especially for something as big as 80 inches. But they are talking about another version of it with a full hd resolution, and there's a magnetic accessory that can lengthen the battery life, so you're not limited to 90 minute movies. But yeah, I'm on board, I want one. I can't wait to have that thing in my backpack and just have fun. I mean my yes to me this is I.

0:49:39 - Mikah Sargent
It doesn't matter to me that it's 90 minutes, because this is the. When you are with a group of friends and somebody's talking about some little clip from a show and then you're all going okay, gather around my tiny little phone. I can just be like no, don't worry, I flip this out. We're sitting at the like at the booth. You just project it on the wall really quick and everybody gets to watch it together. Or your 45-minute Mario Kart session. I know that this is wireless, but you get the idea. I think this is delightful and it's absolutely on my list of things to purchase. I think it is a cool little idea that's good to hear, not just conceptual.

0:50:21 - Patrick Holland
Yeah, and, by the way, you can plug things into it, but you don't have to, is what I'm trying to say.

0:50:25 - Mikah Sargent
Got it Okay cool, so it does have some inputs as well. All right, I guess, because I have kept you for a long time, I'll just ask is there anything else that the CNET saw at Mobile World Congress that you think bears a mention? Of course, everyone should go and check out these two articles, as well as much more coverage on the CNET website, but anything else that stuck out to you, yeah?

0:50:48 - Patrick Holland
I'll just say a couple things super fast. One is we've seen a lot of like slim phones or skinny phones. Just curious about that, if people really want skinny phones but seeing lots of concepts for that. There's a couple AI phones. There's one from a Korean company where it can learn your personality and basically make an AI clone assistant on your phone of you. Please read that article.

And the one that I think is kind of cool is HMD human mobile devices. They make a lot of like Nokia licensed phones, but they have this really cool phone called the Fusion X1. And it's geared as like a stepping stone between taking your like offline child and slowly integrating them to the online phone world and, as opposed to having an app or something that controls and restricts what your teens can access, you become that. It's kind of like having two-factor authentication but you're the authenticator Like no, you can't access this or you can't go to this thing, and so you could slowly integrate how much of their life is online and how much they experience that. I think it's a neat idea and HMD has made some pretty compelling devices before. But yeah, I think I'd like to look at that.

0:51:52 - Mikah Sargent
Yeah, absolutely. That is of interest to me as well. I want to thank you so much, Patrick Holland, for taking the time to join us today to tell us all about Mobile World Congress, to give us a little look at some of the stuff that was announced there. Of course folks can head over to CNETcom to check out the great work you're doing. Is there anywhere else they can go to follow along with the work that you do?

0:52:15 - Patrick Holland
Absolutely. You can find me on directed by Patrick on Twitter or, excuse me, directed by Patrick on Instagram. And oh, my goodness, I'm spacing on the Instagram, whatever Twitter that is. I'm sorry, I'm nervous, oh, threats, threats. And you can also find me at Trick Holland. No PA on Twitter as well.

0:52:33 - Mikah Sargent
Beautiful. Thanks so much for your time today. We appreciate it. We appreciate it All righty. We are going to take a quick break.

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All right, to round off the show, I have just a couple of stories of the week about some AI stuff that's going on. One thing that I wanted to talk about and kind of introduce to everybody and prepare everybody for is a change that is likely to be coming in iOS 18. The iOS 18.4 beta I believe it's the second version that we're on at this point and as these betas have been rolling out, of course we've seen some new additions of artificial intelligence, but also Apple intelligence features, and one of the features that appears to be coming is an AI-powered review summary for App Store reviews. Now, for those of you out there who use Amazon and maybe some other kind of online stores, you will probably be familiar with the AI-generated summary of reviews, and that is because it's been on Amazon for a long time at this point, giving you kind of an oversight of what people have said and kind of where things stand out. Now, interestingly, from my kind of cursory glance through things because I am currently running the second beta of iOS 18.4, I look at Amazon and its reviews. And one of the cool things because I tend not to be a person who reads reviews of that nature of people going and leaving reviews reads reviews of that nature of people going and leaving reviews because of the fact that most people aren't going to leave reviews, and so it tends to be the extremes that feel the need to do so or the want to do so, and so it's the one star reviews and the five star reviews that take up most of the space and have to do more with somebody being very unhappy or being blown away for their own particular reasons, and so reviews overall of that nature Amazon you can look at the AI summary and you can see how it falls along the scope of kind of things that are typically brought up. So a lot of people say that they like this, this and this about the product, but then Amazon summary goes on to say this is what people watch out for, this is what people had an issue with, et cetera, et cetera. So I think that can be helpful, because then you do get kind of okay when people are very unhappy with this thing. This is the thing they're very unhappy with. Now I can make an educated decision on whether this is the right product for me. Decision on whether this is the right product for me.

In my again cursory look through maybe eight to 10 apps, app listings and the summaries, I have yet to find anything negative in the review. And it's unclear to me as well what apps are getting this review summary and how Apple is choosing which ones are getting the review summary, which are getting the review summary. So what I mean by that is I don't know if Apple is still kind of processing and working through which apps are getting it and which aren't, and eventually you know it'll get through the whole list. But my experience has been that it's mostly the well-known apps that are four and a half or five stars four and a half to five stars, I should say that get this review summary and so you're getting just complete positive.

The example that was provided in the Macworld article shows the ChatGPT app. It says users say the app is helpful and convenient. They appreciate its ability to answer questions and its fast response times. They also praise its advanced voice mode. And I can tap on an app in the app store, the United Airlines app, which I thought would be potentially one that would draw ire because people hope that leaving a review is going to help them get their booking fee back or whatever. Well, first and foremost, the United Airlines app somehow has a 4.8 rating. That's curious, but this is the review summary. Users say the app is convenient for booking flights and other travel arrangements. They also appreciate the app's intuitive design and clear instructions.

So overwhelmingly positive and, in that way, kind of surprising that those are the reviews that are are, you know, kind of getting summarized, I will say, and I'm happy that I found one finally, because I thought about oh, the Sonos app, that's an app that's a little bit, you know, it's divisive. So I see, finally, the first review summary that is actually showing a little bit of a negative. Users say the app is convenient and easy to use. They praise its sound quality and appreciate its customization options. A few users also like that it supports older products. However, a few users are frustrated with its performance. So I'm glad to see that there are some negative aspects in there. It'll be interesting to see how this develops over time, what a developer is able to do in terms of responding to these summaries, because, as we know, apple did introduce the ability for a developer to respond to individual reviews and provide feedback that way. So it will be.

I'm curious to see if this is something that, if the summaries that are generated are based on old reviews, for example, that have negative things to say about a feature that is no longer a part of the app, will that summary still show it? And, if so, can the developer say, hey, I fixed this. Can we do something about that summarized review? What's it going to be? And, by the way, dear listeners, speaking of App Store reviews, to those of you listening who very much love and adore the show, it would mean a lot to us if you headed over particularly those of you who use Apple Podcasts or have access to Apple Podcasts head over to the Apple Podcasts listing for Tech News Weekly and, frankly, for all of our shows, if you have the time, and at the very least give some stars, but you can also leave an actual review as well. It would be very helpful to us across the board. So that would be a wonderful thing, and I wanted to mention that as it just came up into my mind as we're talking about App Store reviews. Perhaps the podcast's app will eventually get a review summary.

Apple, of course, has been in trouble before for its summaries. When it came to summarizing news notifications, apple later removed this feature. Has yet to add it back does do notification summaries for other things, but specifically does not do it for news apps. I don't know if that's ever going to make its way back in, because that is taking on a lot of responsibility for misunderstandings that could take place as the AI works. To summarize what is already a summary, given that it's a notification that is supposed to grab your attention really quick and let you move on. We'll talk about another AI-powered system after we take a quick break.

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All right back from the break, and the second bit of AI-powered news comes from Amazon. Amazon announced an interesting update for the Prime video service. Update for the Prime Video service, amazon says that it is working on, and it has currently released, a couple of examples of AI-powered dubbing. So licensed movies and TV series that would otherwise not receive dubbing, which, of course, is a very involved process for folks maybe who've never watched anime, for example, dubbing is different from just, of course, applying captions to a show, and by that, actually, I guess I mean subtitles, because subtitles refer to translated captions essentially, and so in certain content, subtitles may be the most you get where a Spanish language film would have English captions or English subtitles or some other language, because it's expensive to dub, which is where an actor will record the translated lines and it will be timed to fit the film so, as many will you know, kind of, I guess, be familiar with.

In that way, you're watching a film, its original language is in a language you don't speak and they've hired actors. Squid Game would be an example for a lot of people who watched that dubbed instead of in the original language and had sort of English voice actors playing these different characters. Yeah, it's an expensive thing. You're hiring a whole new set of actors to play those roles and it requires studio time and everything else, and so not every film is going to get that, and being able to use what they call AI-aided dubbing is, I think, a really interesting use of the technology.

Now, of course, there is the argument to be made that perhaps those films would have eventually gotten dubbing, and so that does take the opportunity away from the voice actors. But I'd like to think, I'd like to hope, that this is coming to. You know, some of these films that would otherwise not have received it. So there are two AI-aided dubbing languages that Amazon Prime is supporting at the moment Latin American dubbing languages that Amazon Prime is supporting at the moment Latin American, spanish and English, and it's coming to 12 licensed movies and series. So Mi Mamá Laura and then also Long Lost, which, by my estimation and guess, mi Mamá Laura is going to be the Spanish film that will have English AI dubbing, and Long Lost would be an American film, an English film that would have Latin American Spanish dubbing.

I want to read what Amazon has to say, because you may be going. Why is it called AI-aided? Well, amazon says this AI-aided pilot program is a hybrid approach to dubbing in which localization professionals collaborate with AI to ensure quality control. Ai-aided processes like this one, which incorporate the right amount of human expertise, can enable localization for titles that would not otherwise be accessible for customers. It says features including subtitles, captions, audio descriptions and dubbing are involved with the process of making it possible for people to enjoy this content.

So I like the idea that this is going to be something that I'll suddenly have access to a whole bunch of new content that I wouldn't otherwise have, perhaps in a way that allows me to watch it, because I know for me watching something that is in a different language, I tend to like to watch it with the original language being played and then me reading the subtitles in English to understand what's being said. I did that in particular with Squid Game, because the voices the English voices really shaped how I felt about those characters, and hearing their original voices kind of provided a different characterization for each of the actors, and I felt that it was an unfair thing to kind of let an English interpretation of the acting aspect, of the dynamics of the voice, of the cadence, play into my perception of the character. But I'm curious how this AI-aided process could impact that or not impact that, and how much of it is simply just the languages themselves that are being translated and dubbed, versus how much understanding the ai system will have of the visual um nature of the show to perhaps see. You know tension in the neck and eye shape and uh movement and and you know the way in the neck and eye shape and movement and you know the way that the mouth is moving to kind of influence how a line is delivered. So there's a lot there that I think could be helped and hurt by something like this. So we'll just have to see. As I often say, we'll have to see how it plays out. In any case, amazon is continuing to, according to the company, look at ways to add AI functionality to its Prime video offerings, including giving folks better discovery features. That's one of the things that I wanted to do. I almost wanted to feed some of the different AI applications all of the stuff that I watch where Netflix tends to suggest things based on very basic concepts of the things that I enjoy. I want something that's so in depth of knowing exactly who I am and what I like to watch and make suggestions that I wouldn't expect I would enjoy that suddenly I'm binging the entire show because of it, and so I think that that's also of. This is called AI Topics, and so you can use that to stream content based on your interests and preferences. Folks, that's going to bring us to the end of this episode of Tech News Weekly.

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