The Talk Show With John Gruber

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305: ‘Star Wars: The Mandalorian’ Holiday Spectacular, With Special Guests Guy English and John Siracusa’ Dec 31, 2020

Show notes

As per holiday tradition at The Talk Show, a brief chat about *Star Wars: The Mandalorian*, with a cavalcade of special guests, including, but not necessarily limited to, Guy English and John Siracusa. Sponsored by: + [Feals](https://feals.com/talkshow): Premium CBD delivered directly to your doorstep. Get 50% off your first order with free shipping. + [Squarespace](https://squarespace.com/talkshow): Make your next move. Use code __talkshow__ for 10% off your first order. Links: + [2014's "Star Wars" Holiday Spectacular](https://daringfireball.net/thetalkshow/2014/12/31/ep-106) + [2015’s "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" Holiday Spectacular](https://daringfireball.net/thetalkshow/2015/12/31/ep-141). + [2017's "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" Holiday Spectacular](https://daringfireball.net/thetalkshow/2017/12/31/ep-211) *This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.*

304: ‘2020 Year in Review’, With Rene Ritchie Dec 24, 2020

Show notes

A look back at one hell of a year.

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Links:

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

303: ‘Half of the Bikini Emoji’, With Matthew Panzarino Dec 11, 2020

Show notes

Matthew Panzarino joins the show to talk about Apple's new AirPods Max headphones and the future of the Mac on Apple Silicon.

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Links:

Panzarino: “This Is Not a Review of Apple’s New AirPods Max Headphones”.
Yours truly: “Heavy Is the Head That Wears the AirPods Max”.
Panzarino’s M1 MacBook Pro review, with jaw-dropping speed and battery life results from Xcode.
James Mangold to direct fifth Indiana Jones movie.
Todd Vaziri on a fun audio Easter egg in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Steve Martin’s “autograph” cards.

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

302: ‘Camera Beer Belly’, With Nilay Patel Nov 30, 2020

Show notes

Nilay Patel returns to the show and we have nothing to talk about. You know, other than the M1 Macs and entire iPhone 12 lineup.

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Links:

Decoder — new/relaunched interview podcast hosted by Nilay. (Overcast link.)
“The Pandemic Work Diary of a Podcasting Tech Editor” — nice feature in the NYT on Nilay’s workday.
The Verge’s reviews for the M1 MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac Mini.
Yours truly’s review of the M1 MacBook Pro.
Patrick Moorhead’s “last honest man” style review of the M1 MacBook Air for Forbes, which, just one week later, is not aging well.
The Verge’s reviews for the iPhone 12 Pro Max and iPhone 12 Mini. And from a few weeks prior: the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro.
Yours truly’s reviews of the iPhone 12/12 Pro and 12 Mini/12 Pro Max.
“Verizon and AT&T Have Vastly Different Ideas About Phone Cases” — Ashley Carman’s 2018 profile for The Verge of Helena Elicerio, Verizon’s phone case product manager.

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

301: ‘A Craptastic Craptacular’, With Joanna Stern Nov 23, 2020

Show notes

Joanna Stern returns to the show to talk about the new M1 MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro.

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Links:

Joanna Stern in the WSJ: “Apple’s M1 MacBook Air and MacBook Pro Review: The Laptop’s Biggest Leap in Years”.
And on YouTube: “Goodbye, Fan Noise”.
My review of the M1 MacBook Pro.
Joanna’s and my joint appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Alley, which started the webcam-gate scandal.
Joanna’s epic breakdown of the best available USB-C chargers.
Aukey’s adorable $50 90-watt 3-port charger, and their even smaller $45 65-watt 2-port charger.
Joanna, back in July: “Quit Chrome. Safari and Edge Are Just Better Browsers for You and Your Computer.”
Camo — excellent app that lets you use your iPhone or iPad as a Mac webcam.

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

300: ‘Holiday Party 2020’, With Merlin Mann Nov 07, 2020

Show notes

Another election. A different result. Let’s talk around it.

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Links:

Holiday Party (2016).

299: ‘Sounds Like a Good Red Sauce Place’, With Special Guest Jason Snell Oct 31, 2020

Show notes

Jason Snell returns to the show to talk about the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro, the new iPad-Pro-style iPad Air, the remarkable state of the Mac, and David Letterman’s battery-shopping trip to CVS.

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Links:

The 20 Macs for 2020 podcast project.
Jason’s chart-based speculation on what we might expect from Apple Silicon Macs.
My review of the new iPad Air.
Jason’s review of the new iPad Air.
Jason’s review of the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro.
My iPhone 12 review, and my event wrap-up with analysis of pricing.
Dave Itzkoff’s profile of David Letterman for The New York Times, regarding season 3 of his Netflix show “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction”.

298: ‘I’m Expecting Led Zeppelin IV’, With Special Guest MG Siegler Oct 09, 2020

Show notes

MG Siegler returns to the show to talk about Apple Watch, the future of premium TV and movies, and a preview of next week’s “Hi, Speed” Apple event.

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Links:

MG on Apple Watch Series 6, and why he swapped Graphite stainless steel for blue aluminum.
MG on App Clips and the Clip demo of the game Phoenix 2.
“Apple, Influence, and Ive” — Ben Clymer’s 2018 profile of Jony Ive for Hodinkee.
The seminal 2018 town hall meeting led by John Stankey, the longtime AT&T executive who now oversees HBO, that foreshadowed HBO’s decline.
Christopher Nolan’s work on the 2018 50th anniversary “unrestored” print of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Nolan’s ill-advised decision to force Tenet into theaters amidst the COVID pandemic.
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol — perhaps the best film in a great series, directed by Brad Bird.
Cary Joji Fukunaga — director of the astounding first season of True Detective and the upcoming No Time to Die James Bond film.
Michael Clayton — quietly great movie by Tony Gilroy, starring George Clooney.
DisneyQuest, the aborted urban entertainment center in Philly that Disney never built in the late 1990s.
United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. — 1948 Supreme Court antitrust case that resulted in movie studios being banned from owning theaters.

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

297: ‘Subscribed to a Hamburger’, With David Smith Sep 30, 2020

Show notes

Special guest “Underscore” David Smith joins the show to talk about iOS 14 widgets, WatchOS complications, sleep tracking, and his App Store chart-topping hit Widgetsmith.

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Underscore’s apps:

Widgetsmith
Watchsmith
Sleep++
Pedometer++
And a lot more. Seriously, he makes a lot of apps.

Sponsored by:

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Links:

Fantastical’s iOS 14 update with customizable widgets galore.
Apple gave developers less than 24 hours notice that iOS 14 was about to ship, despite spending all summer encouraging developers to be ready with iOS 14 features at launch.
Nova — Panic’s new code editor/IDE for Mac.
Sketch — excellent Mac design and prototyping tool.
Agenda — excellent notes/planning app for Mac and iOS.
@mcharo on Twitter customized all his apps with icons of their company CEOs (or indie creators).
IEEE Spectrum: “Why You Should Be Very Skeptical of Ring’s Indoor Security Drone”.

Mac desktop customization memory lane with Greg Landweber’s utilities:

Greg’s Browser — NeXT-style column view file manager for classic Mac, worked wonderfully alongside the classic Finder.
Greg’s Buttons — Control Panel to customize the interface of System 7, turned flat black-and-white buttons into cool 3D buttons. Now we’ve turned all our cool 3D buttons into boring monochromatic flat buttons.
Aaron — brought the then-future Platinum appearance to System 7.
BeView — made your Mac look like BeOS.
Kaleidoscope — the masterpiece of the genre, from Landweber and Arlo Rose. A full-on custom theme engine for an OS that was not designed with system-wide theming as a feature. The golden age of interface customization hacks.
Appearance Manager — Apple’s officially supported theming engine that wound up shipping with just one theme.
Info on Apple’s Hi-Tech, Gizmo, and Drawing Board themes.
August 2000 ATPM story by Christopher Turner on Kaleidoscope and Appearance Manager.

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

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