715: Diner Lobster

The pre-show begins with teasing about Marco having obtained a “toy,” which turns out to be an iPhone Duo. Marco explains that he spent the weekend monitoring an iPhone stock-checking site that queried Apple’s inventory every few seconds across 12 stores in the New York metropolitan area. Alerts repeatedly sent him rushing to complete a purchase, only for the phone to disappear before checkout. After roughly 48 hours of failed attempts, he finally secured a unit—but it was the two-terabyte model, costing about $3,400 after tax. The purchase was intended as a business expense, but Marco paid with personal cards because that was the fastest way to complete the transaction. Apple would not change the payment method at pickup. The employee checking him out then told him that Apple’s business representatives had been setting phones aside for customers since launch, which irritated Marco because the business representative he had been working with had repeatedly told him there was nothing available. The hosts treated this as evidence that Apple’s launch process was uneven and tilted toward customers with access to business channels. The administrative segment promotes the ATP holiday store, including Pride and Trans Pride shirts whose profits go to Trans Lifeline and the Transgender Law Center, the A-Team Pro shirt, M5 Ultra designs, the returning Palm Graffiti shirt, non-black zip hoodies, and the increasingly expensive ATP Polo. The sale ends November 8, and ATP members can use a 15% discount. The hosts also promote the 47th member special, “ATP Insider: Time Management,” which began as a listener-suggested idea and became one of their longest specials because, as they admit, the hosts are bad at time management.

Marco says his initial plan is to use the iPhone Duo as a test phone rather than his personal device. His expected complaints all materialized: it is heavy, Touch ID is inferior to Face ID, it strongly favors right-handed use when closed, and its three different keyboard sizes require new muscle memory. The wide outer screen is pleasant for typing, but the phone is difficult to use one-handed and particularly burdensome when carried in a pocket. Marco says it makes more sense for someone who carries a phone in a bag or already uses an iPhone Pro Max. He also worries about dropping it and does not want to add bulk with a case. Apple’s folio case and kickstand felt good, and he saw someone cut the case down to its back half, potentially improving grip without adding as much bulk. Despite the ergonomic problems, Marco compares the Duo to the original MacBook Air and the 12-inch MacBook: products with obvious compromises that can still be enjoyable because they introduce novelty and fun. His conclusion is that almost nobody should buy the Duo rationally, but some people may reasonably accept its shortcomings for the experience. Casey tested a store unit and agrees that it is impressive hardware. He likes the glossy outer display, matte internal display, and the software’s limited two-panel multitasking. He imagines using it around the house, while leaving it behind when going out. The matte display looks particularly good in the store, though the hosts acknowledge that store lighting is not the same as sunlight.

Casey picked up his Duo at 8 a.m. at Shore Pump, ahead of a long walk-in line, and has been using it as his main phone. His executive summary—“mostly me being annoyed by things I didn’t expect and not annoyed by the things I did expect”—is contrasted with a friend’s reaction: “I haven’t had this much fun in a long time.” The phone transfer was one of the unexpected annoyances. Casey backed up to his computer and restored the new phone, but failed to unpair his Apple Watch first. Re-pairing it became a “complete goddamn nightmare,” with every watch app, including system apps, apparently downloading again. He argues that Apple should provide a genuinely reliable way to make a new phone look exactly like the old one. The Duo is fundamentally a two-handed device. Its closed form is short but unusually wide, improving vertical reachability while making side-to-side reach worse. Casey does not find the weight as objectionable as Marco does, especially compared with a Pro Max, and says that the open Duo feels “impossibly light” and is about the size of an Apple Magic Trackpad. Touch ID also surprised him: although he would prefer Face ID, it unlocks quickly when he is wearing an Apple Watch. The “Rest Finger to Open” setting lets users decide whether touching the button should immediately unlock the phone or first leave the lock screen visible. The crease is similarly less troublesome than expected. Casey can see and feel it, but usually does not notice it during use, and the matte interior helps disguise it. The internal display also feels excellent with the Apple Pencil USB-C. Cheaper compatible styluses such as Metapen models did not work in his testing. The major limitation is that the open phone rocks on a table, making writing difficult; for serious note-taking outside the hand, the hosts still recommend an iPad mini.

Casey lists a series of smaller frustrations. The under-display inner camera is more visible than expected, especially in dark mode, and text near it can look fuzzier. Live Activities shift the interface around the camera area and work unevenly when multiple activities are present. Slack’s updated Duo layout removes the familiar left-to-right gesture for switching workspaces, forcing Casey to use the upper-left button. The outer-screen Safari toolbar also buries sharing inside an “everything bucket,” which he finds much worse than the standard iPhone arrangement. The camera system is another genuine weakness. Casey likes being able to use the main camera for selfies, but says holding the open phone to take a selfie makes him look as though he is using an iPad mini and is ergonomically awkward. In low light, the Duo’s camera performed substantially worse than Aaron’s iPhone 17 Pro. That is one of the few shortcomings he expected and still considers potentially deal-breaking. He has also used tent mode as a small photo display and laptop mode once during a FaceTime call, where the Duo could stand on its own and show him to the other participant. Closing the Duo does not automatically lock it, which conflicts with the hosts’ old flip-phone instincts. Casey uses a shortcut from Stephen Robles that locks the phone when it closes, but only if it is already on the home screen. Overall, Casey plans to keep the Duo for the year. He values its two-panel multitasking—for example, showing Messages and Calendar side by side—and likes not needing to carry both a phone and an iPad. Marco remains unconvinced that those benefits outweigh the weight and pocket burden.

Apple’s new iPad mini keeps roughly the same dimensions and storage tiers—128GB, 256GB, and 512GB—but uses an A20 Pro chip. The lower-capacity models have fewer active cores and one fewer neural engine, while the 512GB model gets the full configuration. The major change is an 8.5-inch OLED Super Retina XDR display, up from 8.3 inches, with 1,200-nit HDR brightness and 600-nit SDR brightness. Bezels are 24% thinner, nanotexture is available on the 256GB and 512GB models, and the device adds the N1 wireless chip, a landscape Center Stage camera, acoustic-display speakers, and IP67 water resistance. It remains a 60Hz display without Face ID. Marco has ordered one because he has returned to using the iPad mini as a Pencil-based notebook while working on his app Fineliner. He argues that Apple did not try to turn the mini into a laptop replacement; instead, it made the device better at its existing jobs: reading, watching video, browsing, light productivity, and handwritten notes. A keyboard is essential for serious text entry, and the third-party mini keyboards are cramped and inferior to Apple’s larger iPad keyboard cases, so the mini is not a laptop substitute. The hosts interpret the OLED, nanotexture, lighter body, and water resistance as a move toward a premium reading and consumption device that can compete more directly with Kindle-like use cases. Prices rise by $100, with nanotexture adding another $100 and cellular adding $150. Marco says the new mini occupies a useful space that the heavy Magic Keyboard-equipped iPads and near-MacBook iPad Pros do not.

The M6 iMac retains the colorful 24-inch form factor. The two-Thunderbolt-port model uses a binned M6 with fewer CPU and GPU cores, while the four-port version gets the unbinned chip. Memory options range from 16GB to 32GB depending on configuration, and storage runs from 256GB to 2TB. The display remains 4.5K, and nanotexture costs an additional $200. The iMac receives Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and a Thread radio through the N1 chip. The entry model can add a 2.5Gbps Ethernet power adapter for $30, while the four-port model includes it. The hosts complain about Apple’s keyboard bundling. The cheapest iMac comes with a Magic Keyboard without Touch ID, while getting Touch ID requires an $80 upgrade or choosing the higher-end model, where it is included. The M6 iMac starts at $1,500 and is available for preorder, with store availability scheduled for November 6. The base 14-inch M6 MacBook Pro is similarly conservative. It uses an all-core M6, though the 16GB version has slower memory bandwidth than the 24GB and 32GB options. Storage ranges from 1TB to 4TB, and the existing mini-LED display remains unchanged, with ProMotion, 1,000-nit SDR brightness, and 1,300-nit HDR brightness. Nanotexture costs $150, and Apple charges $20 for the higher-wattage charger. The model starts at $2,000. The hosts describe it as a normal processor update rather than a redesigned machine.

The headline announcement is a higher-end MacBook Pro with what Apple calls a “Pro OLED XDR display,” a name the hosts dislike because it effectively says “MacBook Pro Pro OLED.” The feature that excites them most is the return of the glowing Apple logo on the lid. They see the logo as functionally unnecessary but meaningful: a small piece of delight that suggests Apple is once again comfortable celebrating the Mac rather than stripping it down in pursuit of extreme minimalism. The OLED display is a 14- or 16-inch tandem OLED with ProMotion up to 120Hz, 1,000-nit sustained brightness, and 2,000-nit peak brightness. Nanotexture costs $150. Apple says the display includes burn-in protection, though the hosts want more detail about whether that means pixel shifting, compensation cycles, static-image detection, or another technique. The screen has a Dynamic Island rather than a notch, and the hosts question why Apple left illuminated pixels above the island instead of moving it to the top edge and giving the user more vertical display space. Apple also adds touch input without redesigning macOS as iPadOS. The company’s stated position is that the Mac remains primarily a keyboard-and-trackpad computer, but touch is useful in some situations. macOS keeps the same visual layout while enlarging touch targets invisibly and expanding certain controls when touched. Menus gain spacing, steppers become larger controls, sliders expand for easier manipulation, and familiar gestures such as scrolling, pinching, and swiping work on the display. The hosts consider this a sensible accommodation rather than a conversion of the Mac into a tablet.

The OLED MacBook Pro keeps the same general design, ports, battery capacities, M5 Pro and M5 Max options, and external-display capabilities as the existing models. The 14-inch version is about half a pound lighter, while the 16-inch version is roughly 0.7 pounds lighter. The hosts are pleased that Apple appears to have reduced weight without removing ports or battery capacity. They suspect the savings come largely from eliminating LCD backlight components and possibly from new thermal and speaker designs. Apple advertises a redesigned six-speaker system with 50% deeper bass, new tweeters, and dedicated tuning when the lid is closed and the laptop is connected to an external display. The hosts are unsure exactly how closed-lid audio is being changed, but speculate that the system may alter which speakers are driven. The machine retains Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, Thunderbolt 5, and the existing MagSafe arrangement. There is still no cellular modem and no Face ID. The pricing becomes extreme at the top end. The 14-inch M5 Pro starts at $2,900, while the M5 Max starts at $4,500. Adding a 16TB SSD costs $7,000, and a fully configured 14-inch model with 128GB of RAM, 16TB of storage, and nanotexture reaches $14,200. Casey prices a machine resembling his current M3 Max system at about $8,649 and considers leasing it for roughly $183 per month. John argues that Casey should wait because his current computer is not slow or broken, and the OLED display would matter little while he uses three external 5K monitors. Casey’s main concern is that RAM and SSD prices may become even worse.

Marco has ordered a 14-inch OLED MacBook Pro with an M5 Max, substantial memory, and a smaller SSD than the absolute maximum. His computing needs changed because he is doing far more agentic software development: AI coding tools run builds, tests, simulators, and multiple projects concurrently, making the smaller travel Mac feel slow. Coordinating development work between his desktop Mac and travel Mac has also become cumbersome. Rather than maintain two machines, he plans to use one powerful 14-inch laptop everywhere and sell or repurpose the existing 16-inch model. He prefers the 14-inch because it works better on trains, ferries, planes, and kitchen counters, even if the smaller screen is less comfortable for Xcode. He says AI tools have changed his workflow: he now spends more time reviewing generated code than typing it directly, so portability matters more than maximum screen area. He chose silver and is especially pleased that the glowing Apple logo is returning. In the post-show, Marco announces that Fineliner is now available on the App Store after an approval delay. The hosts clarify that the earlier “not available in your region” message meant the app had not yet launched anywhere, not that it was unavailable in the United Kingdom or Norway. Fineliner is a free notebook and drawing app for iPad, iPhone Duo, and regular iPhone, with vector-based drawing, editable text, search that can recognize both handwriting and drawings, unlimited pages and notebooks, iCloud sync, and no ads, accounts, or analytics. Optional pen colors, widths, templates, and other cosmetic features are one-time purchases rather than subscriptions. Marco says the app’s primary goal is delight: he wants it to feel playful and imperfect while still offering serious underlying technology.