CultCast #342 - New AirPods! New iPhones! New HomePod!

The CultCast - A podcast by America's favorite Apple Podcast - Fridays

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Technology

This week: Apple plans new, improved AirPods, HomePod and over-ear headphones; Apple finally acknowledges its new MacBook keyboards suck, and they’re going to make it right; a top Apple analyst drops a bunch of details on Apple’s 2018 product pipeline; and Apple is tries to solve a fascinating issue with autonomous vehicles.
 
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Thanks to Kevin McLeodfor the music you hear on today’s episode.
 
On the show this week
 
Apple finally acknowledges its new MacBook keyboards suck
  • The butterfly keyboards on the new MacBook and MacBook Pro are officially defective.
  • After months of outcry from angry customers, Apple has finally acknowledged that the new keyboards have some serious problems. The company says the issues are limited to a small percentage of MacBooks, but its offering free repairs.
 
Apple plans new, improved AirPods, HomePod and over-ear headphones
  • Bloomberg has a new report out that says we could have some exciting new Apple audio products in 2019.
 
Top Apple analyst drops a ton of details on Apple’s 2018 product pipeline
  • First: Ming still expects three new iPhones in 2018: a second-generation iPhone X, a massive 6.5-inch version dubbed the iPhone X Plus, and a 6.1-inch version that will essentially be a budget iPhone X.
 
Apple is trying to solve a very interest problem with autonomous vehicles, and they’ve hired a fascinating guy to help solve it.
Engineer and YouTuber Mark Rober Working on Anti-Motion Sickness VR Technology for Use in Autonomous Vehicles
  • Engineer and popular YouTuber Mark Rober is, accordingly Variety, working for Apple as an engineer in their special projects group.
  • More specifically, Rober has been working on Apple's virtual reality projects, including "using VR as on-board entertainment for self-driving cars.”
  • His most recent patent addresses an interesting problem:
    • "Many passengers in vehicles may experience motion sickness. Typically, this is not the case for the driver. However, with the arrival of autonomous vehicles, the driver becomes a passenger, and thus may want to occupy themselves while, for example, riding to work. Passengers in conventional or autonomous vehicles may, for example, want to read a book, or work on their notebook computer.
 
Meet Mark Rober, the creative dynamo working on Apple’s autonomous car project
 
Jon Olsson is a young rich guy with a great YouTube channel
 
Dr. DisRespect is the most dominating streamer in the online gaming community