Joanna Stern returns to the show to talk about our new best friends, AI chatbots, and I chime in with how the Voight-Kampff test got it all wrong.

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Links:

• Joanna on YouTube: “I Spent 24 Hours in the Woods With Talking AI Chatbots”.
• Joanna’s excellent interview with Craig Federighi on Apple Intelligence, which is also on YouTube.
  • My commentary linking to it.
• Ann-Marie Alcántara’s Wall Street Journal piece: “When Did Apple’s Notes App Become an Extension of Our Brains?” (also on News+)
• Larry David on Siri.
• Voight-Kampff Test.
• There’s a social media thing where people are posting ChatGPT’s illustrations from the prompt “Based on what you know about me, draw a picture of what you think my current life looks like.”
  • Here’s mine: I’m all alone in a nice study with lots of books, a leather couch, and a manual typewriter.
  • Here’s Joanna’s: Boy Scouts, basketball, cameras, computers, and lots of bagels.
  • Here’s an alternate from Joanna.
• The Gruber and Coudal families, leaving Barack Obama’s election night rally in Grant Park in Chicago in 2008.

This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

This again. Jiminy. Well, once more, let's talk around another election, and try, by doing so, to maybe express something about it.

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• Tiptop: A new way to pay that combines Instant Trade-In and Pay-in-4 at checkout.
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Links:

• Previously on The Talk Show, with Merlin:
  • Holiday Party 2016 (the bad one)
  • Holiday Party 2020 (the good one)
• Yours truly, on this week: “How It Went”.
• Seki Edge nail clippers:
  • Panzarino at The Obsessor: “The Best Nail Clippers You’ll Ever Use”.
  • The Talk Show, October 2022: ‘Big Booger Came After You’, where Merlin first recommended these to me.
  • Get them at Amazon for $16. Buy two pairs.
• Kai scissors. Get a few pairs of these too.
• Merlin’s Wisdom Project. Read this if you haven’t. Read it again if you have. So good.
• Reconcilable Differences — Merlin’s podcast with John Siracusa. The kids call it “Rec Diffs”.
• Merlin’s Happy Place — a YouTube playlist, comprised of “Videos I watch pretty often when I need a little pick-me-up.”

This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Dan Moren returns to the show to discuss this week’s introductions of the first M4 Macs: iMac, Mac Mini, and MacBook Pros.

Sponsored by:

• WorkOS: The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS — free up to 1 million monthly active users.
• Squarespace: Make your next move. Use code talkshow for 10% off your first order.
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Links:

• Yours Truly: “In Defense, I Swear, of the Magic Mouse’s Charging Port Placement”.
• “Sidenote of the Week: All MacBook Air Models Now Start With 16 GB RAM”.
  • David Schaub’s chart of base RAM in Mac desktops since 1984.
  • His corresponding chart of base RAM in Mac laptops since 1999.
• Dan, in a column for Macworld: “The Truth Behind Apple’s Most Unpopular Decisions: It’s Not About You”.
• M4 iMac:
  • Daring Fireball: “Apple Introduces M4 iMacs, With Updated Colors, a Nano-Texture Display Option, and USB-C Input Peripherals”.
  • MacRumors: “M1 vs. M3 vs. M4 iMac Buyer's Guide”.
• M4 Mac Mini, now even mini-er:
  • Daring Fireball: “Apple Unveils Mac Minis With M4 and M4 Pro Chips”.
  • Dan Moren: “The M4 Mac Mini: Tricks and Treats”.
• M4 MacBook Pros:
  • Daring Fireball: “Apple Unveils New M4 MacBook Pro Lineup, Including, Hallelujah, a Nano-Texture Display Option”.
• All Souls Lost — Dan’s latest novel, a modern noir mystery.

This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Tyler Stalman joins the show to discuss the iPhone 16 lineup’s cameras, and the state of iPhone photography.

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• Squarespace: Make your next move. Use code talkshow for 10% off your first order.
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Links:

• Tyler Stalman on YouTube:
  • iPhone 16: A Photographer's Review.
  • What's on his iPhone 16.
• Tyler’s recommended Photographic Styles recipe:
  • Undertone: Amber
  • Tone: -50 to -60
  • Color: 20
  • Palette: 100
• JPEG XL.
• Steven Soderbergh has shot two feature films on iPhones:
  • Unsane -- shot on iPhone 7 in 2018.
  • High Flying Bird -- shot on iPhone 8 in 2019.
• Robert Rodriguez:
  • El Mariachi — his debut feature film, shot for just $7,000 in 1992.
  • Desperado — his big-budget 1995 sequel, starring Antonio Banderas and Selma Hayek.
  • Rebel Without a Crew — Rodriguez’s book on the making of El Mariachi.
• Benedict Evans: “The Best Is the Last”.

This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Jason Snell returns to the show to discuss Apple’s September product announcements, and Meta’s Orion prototype AR glasses. Absolutely no baseball talk, almost.

Sponsored by:

• WorkOS: The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS — free up to 1 million monthly active users.
• Squarespace: Make your next move. Use code talkshow for 10% off your first order.
• Memberful: Monetize your passion with membership. Start your free trial today.

Links:

• Ten years of Six Colors.
• Take Control of Photos (updated for iOS 18 and MacOS 15 Sequoia).
• KQED: Fans Flood Coliseum to Bid Emotional Farewell to A’s at Last Game in Oakland.
• A’s fan who was at their first game in Oakland in 1968, and their final game last week.

This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Nilay Patel returns to the show to consider the iPhones 16.

Sponsored by:

• Tiptop: A new way to pay that combines Instant Trade-In and Pay-in-4 at checkout.
• Squarespace: Make your next move. Use code talkshow for 10% off your first order.

Links:

• Nilay’s review of the iPhone 16 Pro.
• Also from Nilay: “Let’s Compare Apple, Google, and Samsung’s Definitions of ‘a Photo’”.
• Yours Truly’s iPhones 16 review.
• Also from truly: “The Things They Carried” (thoughts and observations on Apple’s event).

This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Special guest Taegan Goddard, longtime writer and founder of Political Wire, joins the show to talk about the past, present, and future of independent media.

Sponsored by:

• WorkOS: The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS — free up to 1 million MAUs.
• Squarespace: Make your next move. Use code talkshow for 10% off your first order.

Links:

• Political Wire.
• Greymatter — open source blogging software by Noah Grey, released in 2000.
  • Greymatter 1.8.2 User Manual.
  • Slashdot, 2022: “How The Internet Saved the Home of Blogging Pioneer Noah Grey”.
• Mark Pilgrim, back in 2002: “History of the RSS Fork”.

This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Chance Miller, ace reporter (and editor-in-chief) for 9to5Mac, joins the show to talk about the latest changes to Apple's DMA compliance plans with iOS, expectations for the September Apple event, and more.

Sponsored by:

• WorkOS: The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS — free up to 1 million MAUs.
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Links:

• Chance Miller on Threads.
• Apple's August DMA compliance tweaks announcement.
• iOS 18 adding default app controls for messaging, phone calls, navigation, and more in the EU.
• Everthing Chance knows about the iPhone 16 "capture button".
• 9to5Mac report on expected iPhone 16 colors.
• Preview of expected announcements the September Apple event.
• 9to5Mac Happy Hour's 500th episode.
• Becca Farsace's great day-in-the-life profile of iJustine.

This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Christina Warren (a.k.a. "Mary Brown") returns to the show. Topics include Apple's new iOS 18.1 and MacOS 15.1 betas (featuring Apple Intelligence), a little reminiscing about Gil Amelio and Steve Jobs, and the bizarre saga of TUAW, resurrected as a zombie AI slopsite.

Sponsored by:

• Squarespace: Make your next move. Use code talkshow for 10% off your first order.

Links:

• “On the Firing Line: My 500 Days at Apple” by Gil Amelio.
• Steve Jobs introduces the Mac OS X Dock — and the purple “single window mode” button — at MWSF 2000.
• Coverage of zombie TUAW and Christina's AI-generated alter ego:
  • Christina, announcing the scam on Threads, and on Mastodon, both of which resulted in interesting threads.
  • Karissa Bell at Engadget: "[Apple Blog TUAW Returns as an AI Content Farm](Apple blog TUAW returns as an AI content farm)".
  • Jason Koebler at 404 Media: “Hocked TUAW”.
  • The Verge: “Early Apple Tech Bloggers Are Shocked to Find Their Name and Work Have Been AI-Zombified”.
  • Ernie Smith, deducing that the new owner of TUAW is Haider Ali Khan, and that he also bought the ilounge.com domain name.
• A very much NSFW tweet testing Apple Intelligence's familiarity with current slang.
• MTV News shut down and the jerks at Paramount pulled the plug on their decades-long archive.
• Brett Terpstra.
• Ernie Smith, author of Tedium and creator of udm14.com, a single-serving site that shows you how to make Google's "web" view your default for search.

This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Special guest Hunter Hillegas, author of the excellent Vegas Mate app, joins the show to discuss euphemistic emoji, the CrowdStrike fiasco, and the closing of the iconic Mirage resort in Las Vegas.

Sponsored by:

• WorkOS: The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS — free up to 1 million MAUs.
• Squarespace: Make your next move. Use code talkshow for 10% off your first order.

Links:

• Vegas Mate.
• Hunter Hillegas on Mastodon.
• Benedict Evans: “The Best Is the Last”
• Leonard Rosenthol.
• OSA Menu.
• Unsanity Haxies.
• Marco Arment talking about Overcast’s big new version on ATP.
  • Under the Radar.
• 2009 “60 Minutes” profile of Steve Wynn.
• 1991 in-room video for Mirage guests, narrated by Steve Wynn.
• Steve Wynn’s daughter’s kidnapping in 1993. Would make for a great movie.
  • How the kidnapper was caught, trying to buy a Ferrari with cash.
  • “The Conjuring of The Mirage” — terrific feature for Vegas Seven by David G. Schwartz marking the 25th anniversary of The Mirage in 2014.
  • Inside The Villas at The Mirage.
  • The renovated Linai at The Mirage.

This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

John Moltz returns to the show for a holiday-week look at the best of recent prestige streaming content, particularly Apple TV+. And, yes, a bit on the latest Apple/EU/DMA drama.

Sponsored by:

• Squarespace: Make your next move. Use code talkshow for 10% off your first order.

Links:

• Godzilla Minus One
• “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters”
• “Counterpart” — The best show you’ve maybe never heard of
• “Dark Matter”
• “Severance”
• “Foundation”
• “Presumed Innocent”
• “Palm Royale”
• “Masters of the Air”
• “Sugar”
• “For All Mankind”
• “Silo”
• “Shrinking”

This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.