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[00:00:42] We do it all for you, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the show. I'm Sam Bushman, well-known IT and AI consultant. Jay Hill with me. He does the same in IT. Welcome to the show, sir. How are you? I'm doing fantastic, but man, there's a lot of crazy things going on. I know it. Crazy. Busy week in tech, for sure. How do you say this company name, Huey, or what is it? Huawei? Probably Huawei. Huawei is the one that...
[00:01:09] H-U-A-W-E-I. It's the name of a cell phone company, I guess. Oh, I don't... I'm not sure. And Xiaomi? Or Xiobe? I think that's Xiaomi. All right. Because it's Chinese, right? So it's very weird. Anyway, are those... Those are phone companies. I mean, those are phone developers, right? Yeah, I think it's Huawei and Xiaomi, but I don't know how to speak.
[00:01:35] Huawei. Anyway, but look, these phones are supposed to be everywhere, and they launched new foldable phones right before Apple did. They're trying to get kind of a one-up on Apple. Good luck with that. I've never even heard of these phones. I don't know how many people have one of these things. Well, some of them got outlawed, like where you can't even import them into the U.S. for a while. And this was a couple years ago, even. So we can still have TikTok, but outlaw the phones? Yeah. Outlaw the robots and the phones, but keep TikTok? That's right.
[00:02:02] You know, well, TikTok's an American company now, Sam, you know. Almost got me. All right. Well, anyway, this company, how do you say it again? Yahweh? I think it's... That's religious. That's not right. Come on. Yeah, Huawei and Xiaomi. Again, I don't know. Huawei. All right. H for the Wa. Got it. Huawei. Anyway, Huawei, though... An expert. I guess it's on trial in New York, right?
[00:02:28] Well, it appears that the Chinese telecommunication giant faces U.S. criminal racketeering trial involving allegations... Racketeering. Trade secret... Yeah, you got to roll that R, Sam. Yes, sir. Trade secret theft, violations, bank and wire fraud, business dealings with Iran and North Korea. Huawei disputes the allegations, though. Well, there you have it. Very interesting, though. There's a trial going on in New York for it.
[00:02:53] They rolled out their foldable phones. Samsung and others, kind of the Android people, were kind of the beginning foldable phone folks, right? What do you think about the new foldable phone? I mean, that's the big story in tech, right? Right now, kind of. All right. Well, let's get into it then. Apple had their huge event September the 9th, so earlier this week. And the event just wrapped up, folks. And there was no regular iPhone 18 announced.
[00:03:20] They say that model is supposed to be part of a later launch. So the guys like me that would just get the regular phone upgrade or whatever, it's no longer even available to get yet. Now, it's kind of an afterthought. And the reason it is is because they rolled out the iPhone Duo. Which everybody thought was going to be called the Ultra. That's the first folding iPhone. Right. Right? Yep. Well, they had one called Ultra before. Oh, yeah. Right? So you can't, you don't want to name it that. You got to name it the Duo.
[00:03:49] And I don't understand the Duo part, but we'll get to that in a minute. Anyway, this is essentially Apple's answer to the Samsung Galaxy V-fold line. And it's an iPhone that opens, they claim, into a small tablet. The price starts at virtually two grand. Whoa. Two thousand dollars. Mm-hmm. And they've got an outer display, 5.4 inches. Open display, 7.6 inches.
[00:04:18] Processor new A20 Pro. Right. Built on a two nanometer process, whatever, you know. Storage up to two terabytes. Wow, that's huge. Two terabytes. Supports Apple Pencil. That's kind of an interesting twist because they're now getting into the, you know, drawing and other, you know, use markets. Making that portable. That'll have huge benefits for the people out in the field and business. Side note about the two terabytes, though. That version is $3,200. So, just so you know.
[00:04:47] Oh, come on, Jay. No problem. Don't worry. Trump's going to give you like nine grand to take care of your kids and give everybody five grand each. And so you'll have plenty of money for your phone, buddy. Don't worry about that. Anyway, they say it can run two apps side by side. Touch ID is built into the side button. It uses the new cellular modem by Apple. Which means no face ID, by the way, with Touch ID. Yeah. Pre-orders October the 16th. Available October 23rd.
[00:05:16] So you can get one in just under a month there, I guess. I mean, just wait a minute. A month and a half, right? Yeah. Is that what it is? Month and a half? Yeah. Pretty much. From now. Basically. Basically from now. Yeah. The iPhone 18 Pro starts at $1,199. So $1,200. Basically they've cranked that up. So every phone is increased in cost. So you can buy this, you know, duo for a couple thousand at minimum to two to four grand.
[00:05:44] Now this Pro, you know, $1,200. Yeah. Basically the iPhone Pro Max, $1,300. So they're both up basically $100 a day. All their phones are up. All the new phones, it's basically a price increase across the board for Apple. And they say both of these phones get an A20 processor, improved battery life and performance. Like that.
[00:06:09] New 48 megapixel cameras, variable aperture, allowing the camera to physically adjust for lighting and, you know, out in the field kind of stuff. Improved AI processing. We'll see that when we all believe it when I see it. Storage configuration reaching two gig or two terabytes. So how much do I get an iPhone Pro with two terabytes? Jay? Oh, I don't know that pricing right offhand, but probably in the two grand. It's like $1,600 range. $1,800 range. Yeah. Approaching two grand. Yeah.
[00:06:41] They are supposed to be implementing new technology to help you identify authentic versus AI generated images. That'll be interesting because no one's able to do that with a surety today. So it's their best attempt. Pre-orders are September the 12th. So that's coming sooner, Jay. One of the things they're doing to differentiate between AI images is in the camera now, they're going to be like digitally signing the photos. They've been taken with an Apple lens.
[00:07:08] And that way you'll know that if you look at something on this, you can say, oh, this is an actual photo. It's not been doctored or whatever. AI, as soon as you do that, it loses the digital signature. Yeah. And tell people learn how to manipulate that. The answer is yes. Right. I mean, I'll manipulate that in about three seconds probably. Well, I mean, that's if you can break cryptography, I guess, you know, but. Time will tell. Anyway, pre-orders on that are September 12th. So this phone's coming faster. Available September 18th.
[00:07:37] So that's what, a couple weeks? Yep. You have that, dude. And so that's the phones. So to get into the phone game right now, minimum with Apple, $1,200 if you want something new. Now, the sad part about that is because all that's happening now, the older phones, the 15, 16, 17 that people buy either refurbished or new, those prices are going up as a result of all this too, Jay.
[00:08:07] Because there's nothing else to fill the vacuum. Yeah. Usually we would see price drops on those. But because, you know, people feel like there's limited supply, the prices are holding, if not going up, like you said. It's a tragedy. They also talked about the Apple Watch Series 12J. Starts at $400. New S11 chip in that baby. It's funny that they push, like, what chip is in them. And so I don't think that too many people know or care.
[00:08:36] Like, when you're like, two nanometer, the S11 chip. I don't know the average person knows or cares other than. It's tech hype. Here's why you care. If you're a person and you're into, you know, having these things. You want bragging scores, right? Then you want bragging scores. You're like, dude, I got the S11 chip, man. Do you got that, Jay? Oh, dang, no, man. I'm going to sell on an S9. I see what I mean, dude. I mean, it's okay. We still like you and everything. But, dude, monitor. I got to get on the upgrade.
[00:09:03] Not to mention, they got a redesigned health sensing system. More frequent heart rate monitoring. New readiness score. Additional Apple intelligence health-based information. New audio intelligence capabilities. Available September the 18th. Get yours today, Jay. I still have a, what do I have? An Apple 8, I believe, watch. Dude, throw that thing away, man. It's got like an A1 chip in it, doesn't it? And my wife, I think, has a 3.
[00:09:32] So, you know, we're holding on to tech and working it for as long as we can. Come on, man. The Apple Watch Ultra 4 is coming out, too. It's 700. Starts at 800 bucks. Yeah, 800 bucks. $799. So, you know, don't worry, though. They got updated health sensors in that baby. New S11 processor. Improved health, sleep, and heart monitoring. New audio intelligence feature. Available September 18th as well. They need a bigger battery.
[00:10:01] I am so sick of charging my watch every day. And really, it's more like every 18 hours. It's ridiculous. Dude, you used to have a watch that you could just move your wrist and stuff. I know. I had a Seiko automatic, like 24-joule. And you jettisoned that for this, didn't you? And I did because I don't get notifications on it. So, I can't answer my phone. Jay, you don't need notifications. This is the number one thing I use my watch for. True story is finding my phone, like locating and ringing my phone. Wow, that's an expensive phone finder. I know. Isn't it?
[00:10:30] But I don't have to ask somebody else to call it, right? But don't worry. You got the AirPods 5 coming out. Apple's pushing noise cancellation further down the product line. So, even the entry-level ones now are getting noise cancellation. Yep. Starts at $129, so it's dirt cheap now. If you call that. Noise cancellation is now available on the entry-level of the beginning iPods. You know, if you do the $149 version, if you're willing to pump up $20.
[00:10:58] Wireless charging and volume control directly on the stems of the earpieces. Adaptive audio. Additional intelligence audio features included. We'll get into that in a second. Siri and Apple intelligence. So, they want you to believe Siri is just going to rock, baby, coming up. Apple also spent considerable time on AI promotion.
[00:11:22] The upgraded Siri, they claim, is able to understand more personal and more on-screen context that it's able to perform actions. And they claim that a ton of third-party apps are coming out right when they release it. Apple says Siri's new capabilities will work with more than 300,000 apps at launch.
[00:11:46] And Apple continues to emphasize processing locally on the device and only go to the cloud when necessary. Which means they're going to start to have these models just take up all your storage. That's why you need two terabytes now. Yeah, that's right. And don't worry, though. iOS 27 is coming out September the 14th, my friend. With the new AI-powered Siri, it'll be in beta. But it's coming out right away.
[00:12:13] So, Apple's making its AI strategy much more concrete. And they say it's called private cloud compute. So, they want you to know that it's private and safe and good and effective and anything else. And one unusual development with this, there's not a normal iPhone 18 anymore. You can't have one of those, my friend. Well, not yet. I think they will. Oh, they will, of course. As long as they fleece the market financially first, then they'll roll those babies out. You've got to get all those early adopters on board.
[00:12:41] And you've got to get all those, since nobody can afford the new phones, really. You've got to get all those 15s, 16s, 17s kind of bought up and off the market, too. That's right. See what I mean? So, now Apple introduces, and this is interesting with your watch. This is why you've got to upgrade, Jay. Apple introduces, quote, always listening. It's an AI feature for Apple Watch.
[00:13:01] And new audio intelligence capabilities means that it will continually listen and interpret surrounding audio for what it calls useful information and assistance. That's great. Everybody's talking about it. Not everybody's concerned about privacy, Jay. Yeah, well, my watch is always listening and always responding when I don't want it to. Well, it'll do more of that. Yeah, that'll be great.
[00:13:26] It's always like, you know, I'll be talking to somebody and somehow flex my wrist or accidentally push the button or maybe it's, you know, here's the key word. And it's always going off and responding to stuff out of context. And you're just like, what? No, I wasn't talking to you. Stop. Yeah, Jay's so yoked, folks, he just can't help but flex. You know what I'm saying? Anyway, very interesting stuff, though. And it's concerning because Alexa upgraded their capabilities quite a bit some time ago, too, to have AI.
[00:13:54] And now the problem is it just wants to engage in conversations. Whenever you ask it a question, instead of it just answering your question and then going back into the background, it wants to engage in a conversation. So I asked it about a scripture the other day. And he came back and said, hey, do you read the Bible just randomly or do you like to read it sequentially or how do you like it? And I'm just like, what? There's got to be a verbose mode or something that you can turn off. Let's just say. Well, you got to wonder, you know how they say women chatter. I know this is getting really bad to say this, but they say women chatter, you know.
[00:14:22] And so if you have a woman voice, does it chatter more than if you turn it to a man voice, Jay? I don't think so. In fact, you know, you haven't even heard about Alexa lately in the news. Where are they? They're falling behind. No, I use them all the time. Dang. You just got to get one. You got to get an upgraded one. I have one. I have one sitting right here next to me with an arms rate. Late version? No, no, no. This is one of the. Yes, you got to have the late version with the accelerated Alexa on it, dude. That's smart. No, this is in a, what do they call those? A something dot or spot or something like that. Yeah, you're so old school, you don't even know what's going on, Jay.
[00:14:52] Come on. It's so old school, it's not even hooked up. It's like, come on. Yeah, one of them is called an Echo Dot. There's a bunch of different terms for them. Yeah. But anyway, very interesting. I didn't hear a lot about their computers though, Jay, except for I know that their computers, they released a little bit before this event and their computer prices are up big time too. Now Apple launches the AirPod 5 starting at 129 as people should know.
[00:15:22] Apple's got to mess with their AirPods, by the way. There's so many versions. There's so many levels in. Doesn't matter. It's crazy. Nobody understands it. Who cares? Just throw away all the old ones and buy the latest one, sir. Yeah. I'm sure they would like that. That's all you got to do. No worries. That is the Apple answer. Don't get all caught up, buddy. And not only that, I mean, look, you've got a pretty big family.
[00:15:45] If you've got everyone the latest iPhone Pro, or no, iPhone Fold, and you get everybody the latest watch and then the latest iPod, you'd be probably six grand a person or something like that. You just put all that on your Apple card, though, you know. Yeah. Now you're talking because they got payments, Jay, so you're cool. Yeah. That makes it. You know, think about your whole family, though. 12 kids, you and your wife, 14 people, got the spouses. You know, you're probably up to 25 people or something like that. 25 times six grand. I'm probably up to 25 grand or more. Yeah.
[00:16:14] No, 150,000, Jay. Yeah. Just to be in the Apple ecosphere. Yeah, dude. Come on. I mean, don't let us down. I got to make more money, Sam. It's not going to happen. Now you're talking. Anyway, very, very scary stuff. Now, I want to bring up this iPhone Fold thing. They call it the Duo. It's the Fold phone. You started out asking what I think of it. The reason I wanted to just drill in and get everybody caught up on all the Apple stuff first. What do I think of it? I think several things. Number one, it's way too expensive.
[00:16:43] I'm about ready to move to an Android, Jay. No. Yeah. Really? Dude, I cannot afford. Hold on. I cannot afford a starting price. All your bubbles will be green, though, Sam, if you do that. I cannot afford a price of $1,200 for a base phone. You're going to have to. That's just how it is. You will be forced. Kicking and screaming. Your family will force you, Sam. I will go to an Android. If you force me, I'll go to a flip phone. Stop. They won't. No. You won't do it. Yeah. This is kind of like a flip phone the way it folds anyway, Jay.
[00:17:13] I'm betting that Sam's not going to do this on the air. He's like, I'll do it just because. We'll see. But I'm telling you, this new thing folds the wrong way, too. People are complaining about this, Jay. What do you mean it folds the wrong way? It opens like a book. What do you mean? Like if you're looking at the front of it, it opens from the right. So compare it to an Android fold phone for me. Like a clamshell phone that folds from the top? Yeah. Well, it can do that, too, because it automatically adjusts its orientation.
[00:17:40] You can actually run it in kind of what I call the laptop mode, where you can have it flat. You can turn it on its side or whatever, or what you're thinking is. So it is landscape. Yeah. And then you can have a keyboard flat on the table and the screen kind of at an angle looking at you. So you can use it in laptop mode. You can use any mode you want. It just auto-adjusts. Yeah. That's what they claim. Anyway, I think it folds their own way. People are not liking it. They're arguing about it, fighting about it online. You're just thinking of old flip phones, man. That's not. This is like a book. This is different.
[00:18:11] Oh, we'll see. All I'm telling you is there's a big battle about how the phones fold, and people are starting to write about it. Now, the claim, though, is that the screen is very sensitive, and so the reason they have it fold the way they do is they want that screen to be protected when it's folded closed, Jay. Yeah. I believe that. I don't know how they're getting it done. I don't really see how they, without pinching that LED screen, they're getting this done. I would steer clear of it. Well, I'm not telling other people to do. I'll tell you what I'll do.
[00:18:38] I'm not going to get one, even if it was cheap right now, unless it was super cheap, because I want to see after a year. Because a lot of people had problems early on with the folding phones, and I think actually this is why Apple kind of held back for a while. And kind of why they fold it the way they do, by the way, protecting the insides and stuff. Yeah. Protecting the guts. I think that they're going to have a much better life than most people have had with
[00:19:05] the Samsung Z and some of these other phones. They probably already worked out a lot of these bugs, but I want to see. I kind of want to sit back and see how people... Why don't you just get one and test it in the real world? It's called Take the Hit for Tech Watch, buddy. Come on. As long as Tech Watch pays for it. I mean, I'm totally down with that. But anyway, I find that interesting, and we'll see how this Fold thing works. You know, they want you to believe that Fold phones are here to stay, though. That's the future, Jay. Well, everybody wants a bigger screen.
[00:19:34] It doesn't matter whether you're on a desktop or a cell phone. Well, of course, not you. I don't want a bigger screen. Everybody else wants a bigger screen. Why do you want a bigger screen, Jay? Because everybody wants bigger screens and more screens. Like, you cannot have enough. Then why don't you just make your phone connect to any screen near you? Nine times out of ten, wherever you're at, there's a screen near you, and you can connect it to a big screen, buddy. You've got to be on the local Wi-Fi, Sam. There's a whole lot of hurdles to make that happen. People do that all the time. Yeah, but not everywhere. I mean, not if you're sitting at a bus stop or you're in a hotel.
[00:20:03] Do you trust the local Wi-Fi? Do you want to connect to some weird device? Why don't they just create a technology that just lets me Bluetooth to the screen and make all screens Bluetooth, and I just connect? Well, they should. They should have, like, a tap. You could just tap your phone and then connect to this screen. It would know you're physically there. I know. People are working on it. It's certainly better than it was, but let's get a long way to go. But I'm just saying I'd rather have that and have something small in my pocket. Right. Anyway, very interesting. We'll keep an eye on this ball. I think Jay's right, though.
[00:20:32] Hey, how durable are these things really? Are they really going to last, or are they going to say, in six months, everybody's starting to have problems with their folds? You know, what's the reality? And it's so new, and it's so expensive. Right now they're $2,500, but how long will it be until you can get a fold one for, say, $1,000? Will the price go down? I think it'll have to. I don't think most people can afford a $2,000, $3,000 phone, Jay. I think right now it's like a luxury item. Unless they just jettison desktops or jettison their laptop and say, I'll do all my work on a phone.
[00:21:02] I don't see it as reality too much. Nobody can afford it. Yeah, good luck with that. You're not going to be able to do that, even with a wireless keyboard and your foldable phone. Come on, buddy, two screens? I can run two apps side by side, they claim. Yeah, on tiny little, you know, cell phone-sized screens. No, you need real screens. No, we just talked about my screen's bigger, bro. It's bigger now. We'll see. Time will tell. I'm just saying it's very interesting. And here's what's fascinating, though, that I will defend Apple a little bit.
[00:21:31] But oftentimes they bring out a new category and we mock it and think, oh, come on, how's this going to work? And then before you know it, it becomes mainstream and we love it or we use it. And a watch, Apple Watch is proof, Jay. Like their... For Jay Hill. Their MetaQuest headset thing that they thought that was going to... No, that didn't happen. But the watches you thought were going to be a dud and now you have to have one. Yeah, that's true. I thought the most ridiculous thing about a watch was charging it every night. And I still think that. But I do have one.
[00:21:59] And you continue to charge it every night? I do. No, every day, every night, every time I have an opportunity because it's always dying. Why don't you just get rid of it? In fact, I run it on low power mode all the time now just to keep it, you know, to make it straight. Why don't you just get rid of it, Jay? I don't know. Because I need to buy a new one, Sam. That's the Apple way. I got to go buy a... You just need to get rid of it and not need that and quit depending on that just so you can, you know, know simple things that you can know otherwise. No, I can't. And I'll tell you another reason why as a tech guy. A little effort. Listen, this is valid.
[00:22:29] And this is what we're talking about. Another reason why I have to have it is because it has the same phone number as my cell phone. So say my cell phone falls into a lake or gets run over by a bulldozer or something like that. Then you get a new one. I know. But listen, you have all these two-factor authentication things. When you're an IT guy and you're responsible for hundreds or thousands of credentials and people and stuff like that, you've got to have a second way to get your two FA codes and things.
[00:22:54] And having a backup cell phone with the exact same number that gets all the same text messages, even if your phone is dead, is incredibly useful and almost required. Like, if you don't have a good way to do that. You can't just be down. You can't just not have access to your stuff for a day or two while you're getting a new phone. Sure. Just say I'm down. No. That's what even Google and Facebook and everybody does. YouTube, they're just down. Well, we do our best.
[00:23:23] We do our best to not have downtime for people, Sam. All right. Anyway, Jay's trying to think logically and everything else. But see, it's just too expensive. It is expensive. But doing tech right is hard. That's what we're here for. If you want to go ahead and upgrade to the latest iPhone and watch, I want to be a fly on the wall. How's that? All right. We'll do it. I've been playing a lot with Fireflies.ai, by the way. What is that? We'll have to do a show about that.
[00:23:51] It's an application that you can have join all kinds of meetings and transcribe your meetings with AI. Oh, okay. I've seen a lot of those. Between all these other places. And it's pretty impressive what it can do, though. You just put fireflies everywhere. You can't get on a Zoom meeting or a Google Meets or anything anymore without two or three people's agents also logging in and be like, we're recording the meeting for notes and stuff. Yeah. But it's pretty amazing of what it can do. It lists out your summary of the meeting.
[00:24:19] It lists out the to-dos of the meeting. It can push it to all kinds of places where you're at. It's really impressive. Nice. I'll tell you that. AI's going to kill us all. That's what we're going to talk about next episode. How's that? All right. I'm Sam Bushman. He's Jay Hill. One of this broadcast, NetworkProvidersInc.com is the IT partner to consider. They're putting together a new website. Check that out too soon. NetworkProvidersInc.com. I'm Sam Bushman. He's Jay Harrison. And we keep an eye on tech so you don't have to. Make it a great tech day, will you? Thanks.