Limitless Podcast

Josh:
Apple just concluded the Super Bowl of hardware events for the year.

Josh:
This is their biggest event of the year.

Josh:
They unveiled their new flagship devices, being the iPhone, the watches, and the AirPods.

Josh:
It just concluded. There was a lot of very cool tech that I think I'm pretty stoked about.

Josh:
EJS, we might be going to war on a few topics and things you might find interesting or not.

Josh:
But before we do, I mean, I want to talk about the thing that they notably didn't

Josh:
really announce or excluded a lot from this event, which is AI.

Josh:
It felt like this was, and granted, this is a very hardware-focused episode,

Josh:
a very hardware-focused announcement.

Josh:
But last week when we covered Google's announcement, it was a mostly hardware

Josh:
unveiling, but all of the software on top of it was enabled by AI.

Josh:
And Apple really didn't seem to have a lot of the AI, but they did have some

Josh:
interesting features. So I kind of want to jump in with those.

Josh:
What was Apple's AI presence like, Ejaz, during this hardware unveiling episode?

Ejaaz:
They released a new pair of AirPod Pro 3s, which do live AI translation.

Ejaaz:
So you could be speaking Spanish right now, Josh, and I'd be hearing English in mine.

Ejaaz:
In fact, there's a really cool demo that I want you to see right here.

Josh:
When both people are wearing AirPods Pro.

Josh:
I agree, yeah. Eu concordo, sim.

Josh:
Vamos incluir as principais descobertas na apresentação de sexta-feira.

Josh:
Definitely. The client will love that.

Josh:
I'll let the strategy team know to prepare that immediately.

Ejaaz:
So what you're watching here is basically two people having a conversation.

Ejaaz:
They're both wearing, maybe kind of dystopianly, the AirPod Pro 3s.

Ejaaz:
But they're able to communicate and converse with each other in a completely

Ejaaz:
different setting, environment, and language, which I thought was just super cool.

Ejaaz:
We saw Google release something similar to this, but that was over something

Ejaaz:
more formal like Google Meets, right?

Ejaaz:
So you have to set up a call and do this. This seems much more casual.

Ejaaz:
And I also know, Josh, that you could wear the AirPods Pro 3 and speak to someone

Ejaaz:
who isn't wearing this and the live translation will occur on your iPhone.

Ejaaz:
So you can kind of like show them a kind of transcript of what you're trying

Ejaaz:
to say and converse that way.

Ejaaz:
But Josh, do you find this as cool as I did?

Josh:
Yeah, okay. I found it cool when I saw it first unveiled by Google like six months ago.

Josh:
But I do find this cool because it's built into the ecosystem that I use.

Josh:
So in that extent, I'm very excited. AirPods, I think, are the device that I

Josh:
do not leave home with. Like people always say phone while it keys.

Josh:
For me, it's phone and AirPods. I adore them. I bring them everywhere.

Josh:
Having an upgraded version that includes this live translation seems very cool.

Josh:
I think it's important to note they were both wearing AirPods.

Josh:
In the wild, most times when you converse with someone, it's going to be one-sided AirPods.

Josh:
So they did have a feature where you can actually speak and it will listen and

Josh:
then share the words on a screen so someone who's outside of the conversation

Josh:
without AirPods can hear. For

Josh:
me, Apple has largely lost my trust when it comes to software delivery.

Josh:
So in this case, I need to see it to believe it. If it does work with low latency

Josh:
like they demoed, this is incredible.

Josh:
This would be such a cool feature where you can talk in near real time with

Josh:
anyone in the world in any language.

Josh:
And that's like a pretty remarkable thing from something so small that just sits in your ears.

Josh:
I fear that that will not be the case and that this live demo is in a very controlled

Josh:
environment and it is optimized for a perfect experience.

Josh:
Noticeably, AirPods, I mean, And even the microphone quality of AirPods,

Josh:
if you've ever tried to talk to someone, Ejaz on the phone, has been horrendous.

Josh:
It leaves. It's amazing. It's an incredible demo for an incredible product.

Josh:
These AirPods are awesome and I will absolutely be buying them.

Josh:
But again, we'll test it. I'll believe it when I see it.

Ejaaz:
Josh, buddy, did you have your coffee this morning? You've got your Duma hat

Ejaaz:
on. You're meant to be the fanboy of this show.

Ejaaz:
Okay, let me step into your shoes for a second and just say that it comes at

Ejaaz:
the same price, which is a very un-Apple like thing.

Ejaaz:
Normally they hike the price up hundreds of dollars for every single new model,

Ejaaz:
but it's the same price, $249 and no 99 cents. They've just kept it rendered off there.

Ejaaz:
Eight hours of battery life, built-in heart rate sensor, which is something new, Josh. I don't know.

Ejaaz:
Does AirPod Pros 2 have a heart rate sensor?

Ejaaz:
It's basically where my head is going here is I think they're starting to build

Ejaaz:
a new kind of smart device and it's kind of starting with the AirPods,

Ejaaz:
this live AI translation feature.

Ejaaz:
Maybe they stick a camera on it in future versions maybe i'm being too much

Ejaaz:
of a moon boy about this but i found that pretty cool and and maybe i'm being too hopeful but yeah.

Josh:
Yeah health will be important i think if you're interested in the airpods the

Josh:
only things that you care about are active noise cancellation is better it has

Josh:
live translation um and it can read your pulse in the case that you don't have

Josh:
a tracker like an apple watch or an aura ring and that's pretty much the only thing there so

Ejaaz:
What are you excited about josh.

Josh:
Yeah there's a ton of stuff i'm actually stoked for and it is all hardware related stuff.

Josh:
They released a bunch in the iPhone department, which I think we can get into

Josh:
right now, starting with the iPhone Air.

Josh:
The iPhone Air is awesome. We have this really beautiful designed video that

Josh:
shows the thinnest iPhone they've ever made,

Josh:
Ijaz, one of the things that I got really excited about is for me,

Josh:
this was the first time in a long time that Apple felt like they released a

Josh:
very Apple-esque device.

Josh:
It's new, it's innovative, it's different, it's beautiful. I think we see it

Josh:
from the marketing video.

Josh:
They tried to do like a knockoff Johnny Ive promo video where they had some

Josh:
designer with a European accent start talking about it.

Josh:
But I think the most remarkable thing about this phone is the design.

Josh:
And the reason why I believe they made this phone, which I'm not sure you will

Josh:
agree with nor know about Ijaz, but I do want to get into it in a second.

Josh:
First, the actual hardware of the phone. I think, what, 85% of this phone is battery.

Josh:
So the entire backside of the phone is basically a slab of glass with a battery

Josh:
behind it and a back shell.

Josh:
And all of the hardware, all of the compute, all of the camera sensors,

Josh:
the microphones, the speakers, they're all found in this single array that exists

Josh:
on top of the phone that they call the plateau.

Josh:
The actual limitation of what made this as thin as it could be is the USB-C port.

Josh:
The USB-C port is actually the thickest part of the phone. And they've kind

Josh:
of run up against this, this like natural limitation of thinness.

Josh:
And I just found this really inspiring to me because it's a new form factor

Josh:
of a device that we've come to know and love for so long, but they've really

Josh:
done an interesting job of stacking it all in this tiny, tiny little thing and

Josh:
creating something that feels new. They use this polished titanium.

Josh:
And then as I'm watching this, I'm thinking, well, why, why would they do this?

Josh:
What's the reasoning to make a thin phone? Like no one really asked for a thin

Josh:
phone. I'm stoked they did it. I think it's beautiful.

Josh:
It's amazing. But I mean, if you ask the average person, what they want in a

Josh:
new iPhone, they're going to tell you, well, I just kind of want better battery

Josh:
life, maybe a little bit better cameras.

Josh:
And in fact, this battery is 48% less than the iPhone 17 Pro Max.

Josh:
So it's a significant hit to battery life. But what's interesting is this very

Josh:
much feels like it was a product made for the manufacturers more than it was

Josh:
made for the consumers. Because what?

Josh:
There was a leak a few weeks ago where Apple was looking to make the iPhone Fold next year.

Josh:
And in order to make the iPhone Fold next year, it requires a series of very

Josh:
thin components, a very small components, a very compact tech to be able to

Josh:
squeeze two very thin displays into a single piece of hardware that fits in your pocket.

Josh:
So to me, this feels like this was a dry run, a short production run to get

Josh:
the supply chain and manufacturer set up to create this next generation of thinner devices.

Josh:
And when I also think about what we talk about frequently, Ejaz,

Josh:
which is this next level of compute through augmented reality and ambient intelligence,

Josh:
where computers kind of exist on your face in the form of glasses or the Vision

Josh:
Pro goggles, I think you really need smaller components.

Josh:
And this very much feels like a test for manufacturers to create smaller components

Josh:
to fit in smaller, more confined spaces. Because if you look at the video on

Josh:
the screen right now, it's gorgeous.

Josh:
It's this tiny, thin little sliver. And then at the top, it has all the compute

Josh:
in And to me, it's a remarkable phone.

Josh:
Really beautiful. If I didn't care so much about cameras, this would be a no-brainer for me to buy.

Josh:
I think it is an awesome show of Apple manufacturing strength, of design capability.

Josh:
This is super cool. And if anyone asks me what they should buy,

Josh:
if they don't care about photography, get this phone. It's awesome.

Josh:
Did you have any takes when you watched this about what you thought about it?

Ejaaz:
Okay, listen, as a professional Apple hater, I was super impressed by the engineering behind this.

Ejaaz:
I mean, what we're showing on the screen here is nothing short of genius, right?

Ejaaz:
So you've got the entire brain, body, limbs of a phone in the tiny little camera

Ejaaz:
component of the top section of your phone.

Ejaaz:
I would say that this is probably like, what, not more than 15% of the actual

Ejaaz:
phone body and the rest is just clean, smooth, slick glass, as you said.

Ejaaz:
And I kind of want to pick up on the point that you're making,

Ejaaz:
which is, I think, over decades since the mobile phone was created.

Ejaaz:
It's kind of been on a trend towards getting smaller, thinner,

Ejaaz:
right, being able to fit into your pocket, being able to kind of like slide

Ejaaz:
into your bag or handbag or whatever that might be.

Ejaaz:
And I think this is like the first major leap that we've seen in a while,

Ejaaz:
where we're kind of like taking a very aggressive move, right?

Ejaaz:
You mentioned folded phones, right? Samsung's been doing that for God knows how long.

Ejaaz:
But this is like, this feels like a net new thing.

Ejaaz:
It feels like, as this tweet says, practice for whatever future hardware comes next.

Ejaaz:
And you and I, Josh, have spoken about, or hypothesized rather,

Ejaaz:
about what the new AI consumer hardware device is going to look like.

Ejaaz:
Is it going to be a puck that sits in your pocket or on your table?

Ejaaz:
Is it going to be a necklace?

Ejaaz:
Is it going to be AirPods with cameras in it with sensors in it?

Ejaaz:
We don't know, or is it going to be glasses? We don't know exactly what it's

Ejaaz:
going to be. But I feel like this is kind of like a hint towards that future.

Ejaaz:
And my personal take is I love that it's small. I love that it's tiny.

Ejaaz:
And I love that it's going to be kind of like hidden in the background so that

Ejaaz:
I can just continue doing what I do.

Ejaaz:
Ironically, tech permeates so much of our life, but I kind of want a breather from it.

Ejaaz:
I kind of want it to be subtle in the background. And I love the engineering that went into this.

Ejaaz:
But like I said, I'm a professional Apple hater, Josh.

Ejaaz:
So I kind of want to bring up two images for you. And OK, I don't know,

Ejaaz:
just just get your take on this. Right. Does this look familiar to you, Josh?

Josh:
Yeah, that was actually one of my favorite phones. I had this in college.

Josh:
This was the iPhone 5S. Gorgeous, gorgeous device. Why? What's your point?

Josh:
What do you what do you want to say?

Ejaaz:
Listen, I'll just these little words here, you know, 33 percent lighter,

Ejaaz:
you know, I'm I just want to point out, but listen, what's better than a picture?

Ejaaz:
What's better than a picture is a video demo. Look at this.

Ejaaz:
Look at the iPhone 6, Josh, compared to your fancy Air device that's,

Ejaaz:
you know, whatever, half glass or blah, blah, blah. It's thinner.

Ejaaz:
It's sleeker. It's cooler.

Ejaaz:
Obviously, I'm jesting here. The phone that we're talking about in question,

Ejaaz:
the iPhone Air, is so much more functioning performance than these phones.

Ejaaz:
But I just want to point out, it's not the thinnest or smallest phone that Apple's ever created.

Ejaaz:
So yeah, I just rest my case there. It is the thinnest. Oh, it is the thinnest.

Josh:
Perhaps not the smallest. And yeah, I mean, to your point, the hardware they're

Josh:
packing into this thing, the capability of this phone is equivalent to 100 iPhone

Josh:
6s. I mean, this thing is a monster.

Josh:
And it all fits very neatly in this tiny little package. So actually,

Josh:
when you look at the array of compute, between these two phones.

Josh:
The iPhone 6 has this whole system on chip architecture that expands through

Josh:
the entire vertical length of the phone, and it expands horizontally at the

Josh:
top and bottom, leaving a small rectangular section for the battery.

Josh:
This actually fits all of the compute, which is probably, I mean,

Josh:
I'm not even exaggerating, at least 50 times the processing power of an iPhone

Josh:
6 into a tiny plateau that is a fraction of the size of the iPhone 6.

Josh:
So, I mean, it's pretty, but this new phone is, it's running laps around the

Josh:
old iPhone 6 and the iPhone 5.

Ejaaz:
So one thing I keep hearing about, Josh, is this new kind of venting architecture

Ejaaz:
that comes either through the chip or the phone device itself.

Ejaaz:
Can you tell me a bit more about that?

Josh:
Okay. So before we do that, let's introduce the phone that it's involved in,

Josh:
which is actually the iPhone 17 Pro. This is the new flagship device. This is the new guy.

Josh:
And before we do anything, Ejaz, oh my God, I actually had a meltdown last night.

Josh:
I have to confess to you and the listeners, I had a mental breakdown halfway through this

Josh:
Announcement episode because i saw them unveil this phone

Josh:
and i saw it unveiled in three colorways none of

Josh:
which are black and if you know me i

Josh:
have all black everything the blackest of

Josh:
blacks for everything i own is is my default and for the and in the case of

Josh:
apple actually black has been the default color of pro whenever there's a macbook

Josh:
pro they offer the black the apple watch ultra they offer the black the pro

Josh:
models always get black and for this time for some reason they wanted to go

Josh:
with orange, navy, and silver.

Josh:
So I'm having an existential crisis, but that's not here nor there.

Josh:
Whoever did that, you should be fired. Anyways, let's get into what makes this so special.

Josh:
So one of the things you mentioned is the cooling, right? So the cooling is

Josh:
really, really interesting. This is something I found super fascinating.

Josh:
It's called vapor chamber cooling. And basically the way vapor chamber cooling

Josh:
works is it has a small amount of liquid.

Josh:
It's some sort of water that is tightly sealed inside of a metal ceramic packaging.

Josh:
And what it does is the water actually just kind

Josh:
of sits there and it's absorbed by this this porous

Josh:
thing that kind of holds it right near the processor so if you're imagining

Josh:
kind of like a sponge in a water bottle is is

Josh:
a good way that i could describe this and the sponge holds the water and as

Josh:
the chip heats up the sponge it kind of evaporates the water a little bit and

Josh:
because water particles have way more surface area than solid metal it allows

Josh:
it to dissipate the heat quite a bit so as this water evaporates from your sponge

Josh:
in your bottle it moves to the far end of the bottle and it cools down.

Josh:
So the further it gets away from the heat source, which in this case is the

Josh:
chip, the cooler it gets.

Josh:
And then when it cools down, it turns back into a liquid and it gets reabsorbed by the sponge.

Josh:
So it's this kind of closed circuit system made for cooling hot devices.

Ejaaz:
They've recreated the rain system in a phone.

Josh:
That's insane. So this is not novel technology, but it is novel in the sense

Josh:
that they were able to package this incredibly in a super small form factor

Josh:
and squeeze it into a phone without really increasing the thickness very much at all.

Josh:
And I mean, frequently, I have problems with overheating because I do a lot

Josh:
of graphic intensive work on my phone. I do some video editing.

Josh:
I do a lot of photo editing.

Josh:
The phone frequently gets very, very hot and it overheats if I'm charging while I'm also working.

Josh:
They did two things to help with

Josh:
thermal cooling here. One is that vapor chamber that I just described.

Josh:
But the second one is actually moving away from titanium to aluminum,

Josh:
which is interesting because, Ejaz, if you remember just two years ago with

Josh:
the iPhone 15 Pro announcement, the leading headline for the phone was titanium.

Josh:
They were so proud of this new metal. It was very lightweight.

Josh:
Weight. It was very Apple.

Josh:
Very difficult to work with. And it turns out, it actually just like sucks at

Josh:
thermal insulation and it is not as durable as aluminum and it's just expensive.

Josh:
And yeah, okay, it's a little light, but it's not that impressive.

Josh:
So what they did with this phone is they went back to aluminum.

Josh:
Aluminum, I believe, has either a six or a 10 times multiple in its ability to dissipate heat.

Josh:
So this combined with the vapor chamber will allow the phone to run hot for

Josh:
a very long time without actually getting hot.

Josh:
I think another thing that I noticed about this phone that we're kind of seeing

Josh:
in this little demo here, is you'll notice that it's two-tone on the back.

Josh:
So what they did here is they made a unibody aluminum casting.

Josh:
So it's actually one solid piece, the entire phone, instead of multiple pieces.

Josh:
And they placed this ceramic glass on the back to allow for wireless charging

Josh:
and wireless communication that wouldn't work for aluminum.

Josh:
So we're getting kind of the best of both worlds where we have aluminum,

Josh:
which is more durable, it's better heat resistance, but it's not titanium.

Josh:
And we also get the glass back. These were two interesting things did you have

Josh:
any other interesting things that were noteworthy to you about the flagship phone?

Ejaaz:
Well, interesting is questionable, but I kind of think it looks uglier than

Ejaaz:
the previous phones that they've launched.

Josh:
Don't love the design.

Ejaaz:
That might be a controversial take. I don't like the two-tonedness.

Ejaaz:
I kind of like hide that stuff away.

Ejaaz:
Like I like the wireless charging, but like hide it away maybe.

Ejaaz:
Also, orange is like such a bold color to go for.

Ejaaz:
But one of the main things that is ugly, but I know contributes quite well to

Ejaaz:
this phone's success, Josh, is that big camera hunk, which if I hold up my current

Ejaaz:
phone right now, has just kind of expanded across the top of the phone.

Ejaaz:
Tell me what I'm getting in exchange for that, because I'm expecting a sick camera.

Josh:
Yeah, this is the reason why I'm actually going to be upgrading because I love

Josh:
taking photos with my iPhone and I need the flagship camera.

Josh:
Otherwise, I would absolutely buy a iPhone Air with no questions asked.

Josh:
The cameras are better slightly, particularly with the telephoto and wide angle lens.

Josh:
Now, what's cool is it has 348 megapixel camera arrays, which is the same as Google now.

Josh:
And what that means is you're going to get really high quality on the wide angle lens in low light.

Josh:
You're going to get amazing quality, as you always do on the 1X lens.

Josh:
And for the telephoto lens, you actually get two lenses in one, which is pretty cool.

Josh:
So for the wide angle, you get the 0.5 and the macro.

Josh:
With the 1x zoom, you get 1x, 1.25 and 1.5.

Josh:
Now you get 2x and you get 4x and 8x optical zoom with digital zoom up to 40 times.

Josh:
So what this gives basically is you get another camera built into your phone.

Josh:
So in the previous iPhones, you get a 0.5, 1, 1.25, 1.5, 2 and 5.

Josh:
Now all those you keep but in

Josh:
addition you get a eight times telephoto lens which is

Josh:
pretty cool so you can reach out further you have better optical abilities

Josh:
in low light because the sensors are a bit larger they're a

Josh:
bit higher megapixel count and overall it's a solid upgrade there's a lot of

Josh:
pro features that are good they shoot in pro res it has really good color grading

Josh:
capabilities a lot of people aren't going to take advantage of that i think

Josh:
if you are going from a 16 pro to a 17 pro the advantage is marginal i think

Josh:
the big upgrade really is that optical zoom came out to eight times.

Josh:
But when we're speaking of cameras, there is something that I really want to

Josh:
mention because this to me feels like the most exciting upgrade in terms of

Josh:
cameras, and that's on the front of the iPhone.

Josh:
So the front of the iPhone got an upgrade in camera sensors.

Josh:
And what they did is actually changed the shape of the camera sensor from rectangular to square.

Josh:
Why is this important? Well, it is when you're holding a phone sideways,

Josh:
you could picture kind of like a 16 by nine aspect ratio rectangular box.

Josh:
So that means it's seeing the world through basically what you're looking at

Josh:
right now, which is a display, and it's showing it horizontally.

Josh:
If you were to extend that screen upwards and turn it into a square,

Josh:
well, then it doesn't quite matter the orientation you're holding your phone

Josh:
at because the sensor array is the same orientation regardless of the way that you tilt your phone.

Josh:
So if you hold your phone vertically, it's the same as holding it horizontally

Josh:
because the sensor is a square. It's not a rectangle.

Josh:
And this is a big unlock because it allows you to shoot horizontal content while

Josh:
holding the phone vertically.

Josh:
And I think, I mean, this is kind of a, just it's a cute thing for people who

Josh:
like to take selfies or who like to take vlogs and videos.

Josh:
But I did find this interesting for just consumer applications because you never

Josh:
really have to turn your phone again to shoot anything forward facing.

Josh:
And what I love is they not only increased the resolution of the camera,

Josh:
but they included stability in the front facing camera as well.

Josh:
So if you ever did want to record a video or take a selfie or whatever,

Josh:
it will not only be stable, but it can be captured while holding your phone vertically.

Josh:
So that was a nice, cute little feature. I'm like, okay, I like that.

Josh:
I never have to turn my phone to take a wide angle selfie because actually here's

Josh:
another instance where there's AI, it will detect where the people are in the

Josh:
image and it will automatically create a wide angle version.

Josh:
If it detects people are on the sides of you that don't quite fit in the frame.

Josh:
And this is also true in their FaceTime feature where it will track the location

Josh:
of your head and kind of follow your head. So you don't really lose the framing.

Josh:
So I thought that was interesting in terms of camera upgrades for the phone.

Josh:
And I mean, not enough really to get someone to upgrade, but just fun upgrades

Josh:
that you would kind of expect from a new flagship device like this.

Ejaaz:
Yeah. I mean, that's what I was about to say. I love the engineering feats that

Ejaaz:
they've achieved with this new phone, but I don't think it's good enough to

Ejaaz:
convince me at least to upgrade or to buy a new phone.

Ejaaz:
What I'm noticing here, Josh, and I'm curious if you think otherwise,

Ejaaz:
in this flagship new phone, iPhone 17 Pro, it is a photographer's dream pretty

Ejaaz:
much, right? It's fully functional.

Ejaaz:
48 megapixels is insane. I kind of think about the first cell phone I had and

Ejaaz:
the camera that I had on that looked like a potato basically and it was so chunky and large.

Ejaaz:
This is probably the best engineered mobile phone that is out there today.

Ejaaz:
And I think that is super cool.

Ejaaz:
And like you said, a lot of people who take selfies, which is a ton of people

Ejaaz:
today, right, will benefit from this quite a bit.

Ejaaz:
And it's performant as well for the price that you're paying.

Ejaaz:
I think there's this adage of like Apple, like increasing the prices of all

Ejaaz:
the devices, just kind of like inanely all the time.

Ejaaz:
But you're kind of getting bang for your buck here, given that what this phone

Ejaaz:
does, kind of stepping back for a second.

Ejaaz:
I'm kind of maybe putting my AI hat back on in a way.

Ejaaz:
I feel like they are kind of running out of ideas here, right?

Ejaaz:
I would love to see some kind of Steve Jobs-esque type device creation or design applicability.

Ejaaz:
And that could come either at the hardware level or that could come at the app design layer, right?

Ejaaz:
Like we saw Google kind of like release a similar type of phone with 48 megapixels

Ejaaz:
as well, as you said, but they had 20 different AI apps that kind of came on top of this.

Ejaaz:
And not to make this all about like an AI thing, but I would love to see some

Ejaaz:
of the ingenuity that they're spending and effort and money that they're spending

Ejaaz:
on the hardware design to apply to the app layer as well.

Ejaaz:
Otherwise, I think we're just going to end up plateauing, which I think we've

Ejaaz:
kind of been doing over the last couple of years. I don't know, what do you think?

Josh:
Yeah, there's definitely, there's a discrepancy at Apple currently between the

Josh:
software and hardware stack.

Josh:
I think the iPhone Air is a very respectable and really wonderful device.

Josh:
It's something that I would rarely say that Steve would probably appreciate

Josh:
this, but it really is. It's a remarkable feat of engineering and it's beautiful.

Josh:
And I think the last time we really saw this was actually for the chips,

Josh:
the M series chips, which really created a huge unlock in terms of what types

Josh:
of devices were able to be made with Apple. So Apple Silicon as a technology is remarkable.

Josh:
On the topic of Silicon, there is actually one other thing that I wanted to

Josh:
mention to you, EJS, which I thought was interesting with the new Pro phone.

Josh:
And that's their new A19 Pro chip. And what I heard, they snuck this in there

Josh:
and it said that it features these new neural accelerators, what they call the neural engine.

Josh:
And it's a series of cores inside

Josh:
of this new processor that is built specifically for handling AI tasks.

Josh:
Now, they mentioned that in passing. They didn't mention any uses of these new

Josh:
neural cores, but they did mention that they're investing a lot of energy and,

Josh:
I mean, space on this tiny little chip in these neural engines,

Josh:
which are optimized for AI.

Josh:
So you could kind of think of it, if you have like a mental model to think of

Josh:
these, we have the CPUs, which is, you can think of it maybe like a chef.

Josh:
The CPU is like the master chef. It does everything. It kind of can...

Josh:
Attack any problem you have and then the gpu is kind of

Josh:
like a line of sous chefs right like they're all kind of there to help that

Josh:
cpu do a lot of the hard compute so they'll do the prep work they'll chop up

Josh:
the vegetables and they'll hand it off to the cpu and it'll take care of everything

Josh:
and then you can imagine the neural engine kind of like like a

Josh:
robotic slicer where it's really good at

Josh:
one thing so those vegetables that i mentioned it'll just slice slice

Josh:
slice slice and it's amazing at that and that's what the neural core

Josh:
is for the a19 pro chip so it's super efficient

Josh:
because it uses this on-device sram it's

Josh:
which is not slow but it's it's very fast and it's very power efficient and

Josh:
they use lower precision math so i just we talk about quantized models sometimes

Josh:
here um where they're kind of models that they lower the their lower precision

Josh:
math which is kind of like 8-bit or 16-bit meaning they don't go all the way

Josh:
but they get most of the efficiency at a much smaller

Ejaaz:
Intelligence of the models.

Josh:
Exactly and that's what they've kind of done here with these chips where they

Josh:
use 8-bit, 16-bit, low precision math in order to do a lot more computing.

Josh:
That's maybe 80% as good if they used a lot more data, but also significantly more efficient.

Josh:
So they have now this infrastructure on device using these neural engines that

Josh:
is significantly better than it was last year and like 10 times better than

Josh:
it was two years ago with nothing to run on it.

Josh:
And the fact that they're investing so much, I mean, they kind of have to,

Josh:
but it leads me to wonder what type of AI are they planning to run on these

Josh:
devices? because now they're juiced up and these phones can run local inference

Josh:
like really freaking good, but they have no local inference currently to run.

Josh:
So it leaves me with the question, who's going to fill that slot?

Josh:
Because it's become apparent to me that Apple is not the company that is likely going to do it.

Josh:
They're probably going to outsource this to someone or maybe we'll get a miracle

Josh:
at WWDC next year. But that is one thing I want to mention.

Ejaaz:
It's just the- Yeah, I don't know if I agree with you on that, Josh.

Ejaaz:
So in my Moonboy thesis, which is tucked away in a dusty closet somewhere,

Ejaaz:
for Apple to win this AI race,

Ejaaz:
I think they're going to come in hard right at the end by having the most hyper-performant

Ejaaz:
small device that fits into your hand or on your head or whatever it might look

Ejaaz:
like and runs super-performant models locally, privately.

Josh:
I pray that you're right.

Ejaaz:
And I think they might pull it off, dude, because I, again, I want to hate on

Ejaaz:
them, but they have so much cash that an outlandish acquisition isn't beneath

Ejaaz:
them or isn't going to be surprising, I would say.

Ejaaz:
I just think they're waiting patiently to see what kind of hardware companies

Ejaaz:
kind of pop up with the actual gizmo or the architecture that they need or the

Ejaaz:
model that they require.

Ejaaz:
And then they're just going to come in and swoop in and get them.

Josh:
I hope they do. I really hope you're right because they have all the infrastructure

Josh:
now built to run local inference on these devices.

Josh:
And like we mentioned, this is significant because the price per token drops down to zero dollars.

Josh:
When you can run inference locally on a phone, the cost to serve that AI to

Josh:
a consumer drops to zero because you don't have to interface with any cloud server.

Josh:
So it's a really big deal in terms of cost efficiency.

Josh:
And like we always talk about with Jevin's Paradox, the more tokens you have,

Josh:
the more tokens we will generate.

Josh:
And I think it's a win-win for everyone. If Apple can figure this the F out, I am praying for you.

Josh:
Please do it you have it now in the chip make something happen deliver us some

Josh:
awesome ai hardware that can run locally on our phone i think for me it was

Josh:
a great upgrade this is what i'll be buying uh you just do you have any are

Josh:
you going to be buying anything if you do what are you picking

Ejaaz:
So i'm tempted to go for the air just because it looks so cool i want to kind

Ejaaz:
of like see what that device looks like i want to feel it in my hands like it

Ejaaz:
being kind of top heavy i'm just kind of like how is that going to feel i just

Ejaaz:
think it's a really cool piece of engineering and I kind of want to own the

Ejaaz:
first type of device that's like that.

Ejaaz:
Oh, and I'm going to get the AirPods, the AirPods 3 because I want to be able

Ejaaz:
to communicate with my Uber drivers and the bodega guys because they always

Ejaaz:
crack jokes and I have no idea what they're saying.

Ejaaz:
Are they making fun of me or are they laughing with me? I have no idea.

Josh:
Nice. Yeah, I want the AirPods just because they're a remarkable little pocket

Josh:
device that I take everywhere. And two times the active noise cancellation.

Josh:
That's all I want. Just block more of the world.

Josh:
That's great. I think, like, great job. I will be a purchaser.

Josh:
So outside of the phones, there were a few other hardware announcements.

Josh:
I mean, we did have the iPhone 17, which we didn't talk about.

Josh:
It's another wonderful phone. They upgraded the display to 120 hertz,

Josh:
which is a really nice refresh rate.

Josh:
It's a great phone if you're on a budget and you want to buy something that's

Josh:
a little less expensive.

Josh:
Amazing device. in terms of watches they were

Josh:
the most disappointing watch upgrades to date which really hurts my

Josh:
soul because i have none on my wrist and i was hoping to get one and they

Josh:
cannot convince me to shell out eight hundred dollars for this

Josh:
behemoth of an apple watch ultra what they did with the apple watch ultra is

Josh:
they extended the displays slightly they added the battery life a little bit

Josh:
better they added i believe they added a 5g chip that has um direct to cell

Josh:
connectivity also noted if you listen to our last episode about starlink this

Josh:
device now will work with Starlink satellites,

Josh:
where if you're in the middle of nowhere and you have an Apple Watch 11 or Apple Watch Ultra,

Josh:
you can actually get data right to your wrist from anywhere in the world.

Josh:
So that's a pretty interesting thing that these watches now enable.

Josh:
It's been there for a little while, but the chip has just been improved a little bit.

Josh:
I mean, the Apple Watch Series 11, this is actually a devastating upgrade.

Josh:
They did not even upgrade the chip this year at EJS. It is just the same exact

Josh:
hardware with a slightly more scratch-resistant screen.

Josh:
So now your screen is now twice as scratch-resistant as last year,

Josh:
which is the most underwhelming Apple Watch upgrade to date.

Josh:
They have, um, hypertension,

Josh:
Which seems interesting. I think it remains to be seen if it's actually accurate.

Josh:
They included sleep scores to compete with companies like Whoop, Aura, and Aidsleep.

Josh:
And I think that's kind of interesting to gamify sleep. I would like to see

Josh:
them move more into that space.

Josh:
But that's pretty much everything they announced last night.

Josh:
They had some fun accessories.

Josh:
They had a battery pack for the iPhone Air because the battery is a little smaller, so it extends it.

Josh:
They added a like side leash to clamp onto your phone and walk around as a fashion

Josh:
accessory. But I think that's pretty much it.

Josh:
In terms of AI, to recap, I think live translation It's been around,

Josh:
but it's Apple-fied. It's cool. We like that.

Josh:
They added a ton of neural cores to the new phone with no real use of them yet.

Josh:
So hopefully we'll get a use case soon.

Josh:
And the new hardware, pretty good. I mean, I'm excited to get a new phone with

Josh:
the new cameras, the new vertical, the square sensing camera on the front.

Josh:
And then I think the iPhone Air, it's a lovely phone. It's a gorgeous phone.

Josh:
And I loved it. And I think if no one's even interested, just go watch the release

Josh:
video because they did a really great job.

Josh:
It's just a really cool feat of engineering that I think is a testament to where will we be heading?

Josh:
And it's a dry run for manufacturers to actually figure it out and create smaller

Josh:
devices. I doubt we'll get an iPhone Air 2.

Josh:
It's probably just a transitionary piece to get the manufacturing up to speed.

Josh:
But I think that covers it. That is the Apple event.

Josh:
It was a big event that was slightly underwhelming on the AI front.

Josh:
But again, it's Apple. We will be patient. We will be suckers in their closed

Josh:
wall ecosystem for at least one more year.

Josh:
And I think that's a wrap. So, I mean, thank you guys for watching.

Josh:
I hope you enjoyed. I am curious.

Josh:
I would actually love, I want the comment section for this one,

Josh:
if we could just chat about the phones.

Josh:
Are you going to get one? If so, what are you going to get? If so,

Josh:
what color are you going to get? I have no idea what color iPhone 17 Pro I'm

Josh:
going to get because there's no black and I'm devastated.

Josh:
So this is a serious point of contention in my life. Ejaz, what would you pick

Josh:
if you had to pick a color, the navy, orange, or silver?

Josh:
I think it's probably going to be navy. It's so lame. And you can't even cover

Josh:
the back because the freaking camera array is so big.

Ejaaz:
It's not even matte. Give me a matte option at least. Come on. Brutal.

Josh:
Brutal. Okay, but that's the event. I hope everyone enjoyed.

Josh:
Let us know what your take. Are you going to be upgrading, downgrading,

Josh:
leaving the ecosystem happy, sad, upset that AI doesn't exist on this freaking

Josh:
ecosystem, even though they're the most valuable company in the world,

Josh:
but whatever, whatever it may be.

Josh:
But I mean, EJs will probably get in the iPhone Air on 17 Pro Gang by next Friday.

Josh:
We should have them in our pockets. So maybe we could chat a little bit more then.

Josh:
But that is a wrap. Thank you so much for watching. If you have a friend that

Josh:
is also interested in this technology who didn't know about vapor chambers or

Josh:
who didn't know about neural engine cores, maybe you learned something.

Josh:
Share it with them. Let them know about it. It's pretty interesting.

Josh:
I think it's pretty cool.

Josh:
And yeah, that's a wrap for this episode. So thank you guys so much for watching.

Josh:
I really appreciate it. Don't forget, like, subscribe, all the good things.

Josh:
And we will see you guys in the next episode.