iOS Today 781: What & Where to Watch

Summary

iOS Today 781: What & Where to Watch

Date: December 11, 2025
Hosts: Micah Sargent & Rosemary Orchard

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Micah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard explore the best ways to keep track of what you want to watch—and where you can watch it—across iOS and Apple devices. They review top apps and services for organizing your TV and movie viewing (including Apple TV, JustWatch, Letterboxd, Trakt, and more), share personal tips, and discuss recent tech launches, plus festive app picks for the holiday season. This episode is rich with practical advice and friendly banter, making it ideal for Apple enthusiasts looking to make the most of their streaming experiences.

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Main Discussion: Tracking What & Where to Watch

1. Apple TV’s “Up Next” & Built-In Tracking

[02:54 – 08:02]

• Micah opens with a common struggle: “Sometimes it’s a matter of knowing what you want to watch but forgetting over time … There are just so many different ways to go about this.”
• Apple TV’s built-in “Up Next” queue is praised for consolidating shows, tracking progress, and sending notifications for new episodes — but not all apps (notably Netflix) integrate:
  • “Netflix is one of the services that here in the US does not integrate and so you don’t get to keep track of what you're watching on Netflix there.” – Micah [05:29]
• Tips for Apple TV Users:
  • If a show won’t load from “Up Next,” force quit and relaunch the app, or use “Go to episode” by holding the remote’s middle button.
  • The availability of a show may shift depending on current subscriptions.
  • Micah: “I’m very much a curator of that experience ... I’m very quick to say remove this.”
• Purchasing Content:
  • Rosemary: Highlights that you can still buy movies/shows digitally via Apple TV, safe for content you love:
    • “What if they change the terms … but I’ve never had an issue with anything I’ve bought through Apple TV, and I really recommend that people, you know, have a look.” [08:02]

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2. Devices & Content Aggregation

[11:26 – 14:00]

• Micah: Discusses the patchwork of streaming service integration on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV:
  • “On the iPad, that is where the experience seems a little bit better … On the iPhone and the Mac, those experiences are different.”
• “Channels” within Apple TV for one-stop subscription management.
• Comparison with other ecosystems like Roku and Google TV.

Search vs. Browsing Habits

[14:00]

• Rosemary: Her approach depends on mood—sometimes browsing, sometimes directly searching.
• Suggests using third-party services for broader coverage, as not all content is easy to find on Apple platforms.

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3. Cross-Platform Apps & Services

a) JustWatch

[14:00 – 17:32]

• Rosemary: “It works really well because you can send your friends the link to it, and it doesn’t matter where they are in the world.”
• Allows users to see where content is available, including prices for rentals/purchases, with filtering based on your own subscriptions.
• Quote:
  • “It’s useful to be able to see where you can watch something because stuff does move around streaming services. That is an unfortunate fact of licensing Life.” – Rosemary [16:30]

b) Letterboxd

[17:32 – 22:05]

• Micah: Explains the cultural prominence of Letterboxd, especially among film buffs:
  • “Literally everyone that I talk to here is like, ‘What’s your Letterboxd?’ … They want to know your Letterboxd.”
• Focuses on tracking what you've watched, reviewing films, and sharing top lists.
• Memorable moment: Story of a friend giving Wicked 2 a “half star” on Letterboxd, sparking fitting debate.
• Letterboxd’s value is as a “fun conversation starter” and social tool.

c) Trakt

[22:05 – 25:58]

• Rosemary: Long-time user; tracks both what you want to watch and what you’ve seen.
• Supports “scrobbling” from Plex for unified tracking.
• Custom lists (e.g., shows to watch with friends, kids’ content, Hallmark movies).
• Helpful calendar view to track airing/release dates.
• Quote:
  • "You can build lists, share those lists with other people … mark things as watched. I can review things if I want to.” [23:18]
• Trakt’s IMDb-like features help discover related content and extras.

d) IMDB and Apple’s ‘Insight’

[25:58 – 27:49]

• Micah: Notes Apple TV’s new “Insight” (similar to Amazon’s X-Ray), providing details on actors and music in real-time.
• Acknowledges IMDB’s role; contrasts neutrality of JustWatch for finding streaming availability.

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Quick Tips & Personal Experiences

• Both hosts recommend creating curated lists and leveraging automation (like integrating Plex or using Apple TV notifications) for keeping organization simple and up-to-date.
• Rosemary’s practical advice: Don’t forget snacks and company over the holidays! [27:49]

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “I love the Up Next queue ... being updated when new episodes are available right there in the app and not having to go and hunt for them in third party apps.” – Micah [06:25]
• “In the age of streaming is you can still buy digital media now ... I really recommend that people, you know, have a look.” – Rosemary [08:38]
• “It’s called JustWatch … and it doesn’t matter where they are in the world.” – Rosemary [14:26]
• “Letterboxd is one of the places to be … it’s more a fun conversation starter.” – Micah [18:54]
• “Thanks to Trakt, I discovered there is an extended cut of A Knight’s Tale!” – Rosemary [25:55]

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Featured Apps and Services (with brief descriptions)

• Apple TV “Up Next”: Tracks your queue and new episodes (integration varies by service).
• JustWatch: Aggregator showing where you can stream or buy content, with filtering by your subscriptions.
• Letterboxd: Social film diary for sharing, rating, and discovering movies.
• Trakt: Movie/TV tracker with custom lists, scrobbling (e.g., from Plex), calendar features, discoverability.
• IMDB/Apple ‘Insight’: Lookup actor/song info while watching.

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App Picks (App Cap Segment)

Micah’s Pick: SwitchBot Smart Candle Warmer

[36:55 – 42:39]

• Matter-enabled device for safely heating candles (or keeping drinks warm!).
• Controlled via HomeKit and automations.
• “You can just have it heat the candle … you could put a little cup underneath here and keep your beverage warm … so that's quite nice too, because then I can set up all the automations that I want.”

Rosemary’s Pick: Festivitas

[42:53 – 46:12]

• Mac & iOS app by Simon Støvering for adding virtual seasonal lights and snowy effects to device screens.
• Customizable colors, effects & widgets for extra holiday cheer.
• “You could theoretically get it for free. His recommended fair price is €4 or more … Throw a little bit more his way because he spends so much time working on this.” – Rosemary [44:57]

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Community Feedback & Updates

• Shout-out to indie developer Matthias for the “Transloader” app, enabling remote downloads from iOS to Mac.
• “Have an awesome week!” – Matthias, in listener feedback email [35:35]

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Final Thoughts

• The episode closes with an invitation to share your own favorite tracking apps and viewing habits with the hosts via email [28:00].
• Holiday advice:
  • “Make sure to spend some time eating wonderful snacks and watching lovely films with your friends and family over the next period of time.” – Rosemary [27:49]

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How to Connect

• Rosemary Orchard: rosemaryorchard.com for apps, books, podcasts, socials
• Micah Sargent: chihuahuacoffee.com for social links

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Timestamps of Key Segments

• [02:54] Apple TV Up Next, notifications, integration quirks
• [08:02] Buying/owning digital media; limitations on iPhone
• [14:00] Using JustWatch for global availability
• [17:32] Letterboxd and cultural trends
• [22:05] Trakt for deep tracking and lists
• [25:58] Apple’s “Insight” for Apple TV
• [36:55] App Cap picks (SwitchBot, Festivitas)
• [44:57] Festivitas and developer support

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Episode Tone

Friendly, knowledgeable, and practical—the hosts blend detailed technical know-how with personal stories, making streaming organization accessible for beginners and power users alike. There’s plenty of humor, especially around app-culture quirks and holiday nostalgia.

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In Summary

If you want to make sense of your ever-expanding watch lists, discover what to watch next, and streamline subscriptions across Apple devices, this episode delivers actionable advice—plus a dose of festive fun.

Transcript

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[Micah Sargent]

Ios today, Rosemary Orchard and I, Micah Sargent, talk about some apps and services you can use to keep track of what you want to watch and what you have watched. Stay tuned for this episode of iOS Today.

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[Micah Sargent]

This is TWiT. This is iOS Today episode episode 781 with Rosemary Orchard and me, Micah Sargent. Recorded Tuesday, November 25, 2025 for Thursday, December 11, 2025. What and where to watch hello and welcome to iOS Today. This is of course the show where we Talk all things iOS, iPadOS, WatchOS, Home Pod, OS and all the OSes that Apple has available to you. Our goal here is to tell you about the wonderful apps and services, gizmos, gadgets, and everything in between that you can use to help you make the most of your devices. I am but one of your humble hosts. My name is Micah Sargent.

[Rosemary Orchard]

And my name is Rosemary Rochers and I'm really looking forward to helping people get a frame on what they can watch this holiday season.

[Micah Sargent]

Indeed. So this is often I hear people talk about this a lot. Sometimes it's a matter of knowing what you want to watch but forgetting over time what you want to watch. Sometimes it's a matter of just kind of trying to remember. I remember watching this one film that I really enjoyed and now I'm having trouble finding it and there are just so many different ways to go about this. And you know, for me, I would say that in this household both I, my partner like to use the Apple TV and its built in kind of tracking for most of the stuff that we watch together. So there are shows that independently we watch and we'll talk about some other ways of keeping track of those. But when we're watching shows together, the great thing is if you use Apple's, the Apple TVs built in sort of what to watch section, then when new shows are available, when new episodes are available, you can actually get notifications for those. And so what will often happen is I'll be in the middle of a show or at my desk doing things and then later on you go upstairs to get a cup of coffee or do whatever and you sort of have this moment of are we going to watch this later? Oh, you got that notification too? Yeah, yeah, let's watch this later. And that's quite nice. It makes it very simple to go to the various apps and services that you have on the Apple tv which I've always appreciated. I will say though, a couple of kind of pro tips when it comes to Apple TV and the Watch Next functionality. There are occasionally times where it's so the, the way that, that it works on the developer end of things is a developer can release an app that connects to their content library. So Netflix for example, can have an app that has all of their content and it can if it wants to make it possible for that stuff to appear in the what's next area or the up next area. Netflix is one of the services that here in the US does not integrate and so you don't get to keep track of what you're watching on Netflix there. But many of the other services are available. And so when you go onto one of those services and you watch it, it will add it to that what's next or up next queue. If you've ever had an issue with something, you click on it or you press the button and you go to watch the show and it doesn't load. My, my, my suggestion for you is to force quit the third party app and then launch the third party app and then go to it from the third party app. Occasionally there's a mismatch between the link that's available in your up next queue and the actual link of the show and its content. So just a little pro tip when it comes to using that up next queue, because we do that a lot. One other that I have seen that has been helpful is if you tap and hold on the middle button on the Siri remote or whatever remote you have while you're hovered over something in the up next queue, choose go to episode and it'll pop it up independently that episode and then you can hit play. And sometimes that will work even if the main one isn't working. And the cool thing about doing that is you can also see where the Apple TV is going to show you this episode because sometimes that will change depending on your subscriptions and the availability of the show. So it can end up being where it's only available in the itunes library. It's only available via a third party app. That kind of a deal. It is just a matter of kind of trying to find where it's available and being able to watch it. But yes, I know it's a lot there, but I just, I love the up next queue and keeping track of things that way. I'm very much a curator of that experience. So if something weird pops up there because I accidentally clicked on something, I'm very quick to say remove this. And that way I can keep track of what I actually want to watch. And the bigger thing, the more important thing, the thing that I appreciate about it is again being updated when new episodes are available right there in the app and not having to go and hunt for them in the third party apps. Except again for Netflix, which refuses to play ball in that way.

[Rosemary Orchard]

Yeah, it is amazing being able to see these things. And one of the reasons why I do love this is because it does support other apps. Now. I found, interestingly Enough, the Apple TV app on iPhone does not support as many apps as the Apple TV app on Apple TV itself. And that is one of those bizarre things. I'm not gonna look into it too far, but you can see here I was watching Dory's Reef Cam. I say watching it was on as a background thing because Dory's Reef Cam is just, I don't know, it's like a five minute loop that plays continuously over about three hours of Dory and friends swimming around. It's kind of fun. But yeah, it is really nice to be able to see things here. And you can also see things that you have purchased. Because something I think people have forgotten in the age of streaming is you can still buy digital media now. Some people might be a little wary of this occasionally, because what if they change the terms? And so on. There was that whole thing with Amazon removing copies of 1984 from People's Kindles, which was horrendously ironic, hilariously ironic at the same time. But I've never had an issue with anything I've bought through Apple tv, and I really recommend that people, you know, have a look. If there is a film that you really love or something like that, then you should absolutely take a look at buying it.

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[Micah Sargent]

If you like what you heard and you want more of this week's top stories in tech, well, subscribe to Tech News Weekly. Every Thursday, I talk with the journalists making and breaking the Tech news When it comes to Apple tv there are, as Rosemary points out, the agreements that are in place between these different devices, between the different companies and how it impacts the devices. I've also found to be really strange. It seems like what these individuals want or what these companies want is for the on an iPhone for you to download the individual apps and watch things there. When it comes to the iPad, that is where the experience seems a little bit better. When I'm trying to watch something and I don't want to fool about with third party apps, I do either go to the Apple TV or I go to my iPad because on the iPhone and on the Mac if you launch the TV app, those experiences are different. I have over time started when it's possible subscribing to the different third party services with within Apple tv which you can do by way of the channels feature so you can kind of manage your subscriptions there. The nice thing about that too then is that you get kind of one place to manage your streaming media subscriptions, which is quite nice versus having to go to those individual apps. But Apple and many a third party developer does a good job of making it possible for you to kind of sync between them and watch stuff freely without having to jump between apps. Different companies all do this differently. Roku has its own take on this. Google TV has its own take. All of them kind of play in this space a little differently. But I for the most part am pleased with what Apple has done to again make it easy to just get to what I want to watch. I'm kind of curious. Rosemary, do you end up using the search feature on your Apple TV to find stuff or are you more of a hunt for swipe, swipe, swipe kind of look around person?

[Rosemary Orchard]

I mean it depends on the mood that I'm in. Sometimes I do just kind of like a oh, I fancy watching something. I don't necessarily have a particular something in mind. So at that point it's nice to just sort of swipe around and be like ah yes, this inspires me. This is what I would like to watch. Other times if I know what I want to watch I have used search from the Apple tv But there is also another service which I have to recommend for this because it also works really well because you can send your friends the link to it and it doesn't matter where they are in the world. You the the this works pretty much. It's called just watch and if I know I want to watch something then I can just open just watch and I can type in what it is I want to watch. Now, I should note it's also, it's also a website, so you don't actually have to download the app for it, but say, I wanted to watch Babylon 5, which I've actually been rewatching with some friends recently. I can type in Babylon 5 and I can see there's various different Babylon Fives here, including the original series which came out in 1994 in. Yes, folks, I am on the latest sci fi trends here. And then I can see more information and then I can actually see where I can watch it. Now, in this particular case, this is not something I can stream. It's something that I would need to buy. And I can see that I could buy it through Amazon, through Apple TV or through Zavi, or you could do what I did, folks, and you could buy it on DVD off of eBay, secondhand or from a local charity store and then get it, you know, and just rip it yourself. Say, I wanted to watch the Princess Bride. Now here I can see where I can stream it. So Lionsgate. Or I can stream it through YouTube with ads. Yeah, not sure about that. Or I can rent it from a bunch of different places or I can buy it and it'll even show me the price. And so if I were looking to buy the Princess Bride, I of course already own multiple copies of the Princess Bride, then I could buy it cheapest on Amazon for 3.99 or Rakuten TV. And I just find this is really useful for, to be able to find something, you know, And I can also input in my account which streaming services I have, so I can say, hey, I have Disney plus. I do have Amazon prime and I think I've got the Amazon prime free with ads 1. That sounds about right. I have Apple TV, I have BBC iPlayer, because I live here in the UK and I think I'm officially running out of services that I actually have because I am not paying for all that many because I found it significantly cheaper to buy DVDs and go old school. But that's okay, you're allowed to do that. And now when I, when I search for something. So say, for example, I went back to the Princess Bride. If, if I could watch it for free with one of my services, those would be promoted to help me. So, yeah, that makes it really, really nice and easy. And it's, yeah, it's useful to be able to see where you can watch something because stuff does move around streaming services. That is an unfortunate fact of licensing Life. Unless that company is the company that created it, somebody else holds the rights and they're going to go with, huh. Netflix isn't making us all that much money at the moment. Maybe we'll put it on this service instead. Maybe we'll put it on that service instead. You know, like, maybe we'll shop at Hulu or whoever and they'll just see how much money they can make out of it by moving it to another service. Which is very frustrating when you're in the middle of watching a TV series. So, yeah, it's nice to have an option to find where to watch things that works across services and around the world.

[Micah Sargent]

Absolutely. Yeah. Just Watch is awesome. And I think sometimes people forget about it. It's especially great having that app available on all of the platforms and being able to find content that way. And I find that it does a much better job versus what we've seen from some of the other apps that are. Or not even apps, but online services that attempt to show you where to watch a show, but they're often hampered by the. By having sort of advertising deals essentially, where certain services are highly featured and some are not. Oh, Ella Enchanted. So, yeah, I. I really dig Just Watch for sure. One that I want to mention, this is not an app that I had ever really heard of or used and didn't realize what a cultural icon it was until I moved to Portland. And it was basically like, get your Portland driver's license, pay your Portland taxes. I'm trying to think of the third. Probably grow a mustache. Were three of the four requirements for being a Portlander a male presenting Portlander? And then the fourth and final one was, what is your letterbox account? Oh, wait, you don't have one. Well, you better have one. Literally everyone that I talk to here is like, what's your letterbox? They're not asking for your Instagram. They're not. They want to know your letterboxd. So Letterboxd is an online service that has an app as well. And I say it that way because the app is. It's very clear that this is very much an online service that just has sort of a portal in it in the form of an app, but it is a tool for kind of tracking films that you watch and that your friends watch and then getting reviews and sharing your own reviews of different services. I don't know think I have the attention within me to spend time writing reviews of films that I've watched. And so my Letterboxd is not very populated, but it is a Cool. Way to keep track. What I have found, though, is that it's more a fun conversation starter. Just the other day, a friend of ours had gone and seen the second Wicked film. And I won't say anything about the film itself. No spoilers is what I mean. But this person did not like the film and ended up giving a half star rating, like a half star total. Not two and a half stars, just half star total. And that then sparked conversation the next time we saw them where it was like, so tell us more about what you were really hated about this film was someone like punching you in your face the whole time you're watching it or what's going on. So that can be kind of a fun thing, not getting punched in the face while you're watching a film, but being able to talk with your friends about their experiences. I think for me, the one thing that I did that was then fun to see from other people is you can choose, like, your top films. And so it's a little bit like, you know, the. You. You got your personality tests that you do and you talk about and you've also got, oh, so what are your top five favorite films or, you know, television shows? So, yeah, that's Letterboxd. It's available for free in the App Store. It does have in app purchases to be able to, like, remove ads and all that jazz, but it's gotten a lot of awards. It's an editor's choice, I think, again, most for the service rather than the app itself. I think again, the app kind of, to me, leaves something to be desired. But yeah, if you are into films and adjacent content, it appears that letterboxd is one of the places to be. I believe you have some more suggestions, Rosemary.

[Rosemary Orchard]

Yes, I do. So one of the apps I've been using for years is Tractor, and that's T R A K T. And again, this is a web service that you can use on the website as well, and it is free overall. But there is the option of paying for some of the premium features. I do have the premium, so some of the things I'm showing you may be premium. One of the premium features I do use is actually Scrabbling from my Plex server. So that's DVDs that I've bought and I've ripped and I've put on my hard drive so I can watch them as my own personal version of Netflix essentially anywhere I want to. I have that hooked into tract so that I can then see what I've seen and it will do things Based on that, what I love about Tract is you can create multiple lists of things to watch. So I have some suggestions of things that I might want to watch with somebody called Joe. There's a bunch of kids stuff there. There's Christmas Things, which includes a horrendous list of Hallmark Christmas films because they are the perfect thing to put on as background stuff where you actually need to concentrate on other things while you're doing holiday stuff like wrapping presents and so on. One of the other things that I do love is it does also have a calendar feature. So if you've put things on there. So for example, there's a series that you watch, such as the Simpsons, then you can see when the next or most recent episode aired. So a new one came out yesterday as we record this as a new episode of the Murdoch Mysteries coming out today. And Zootopia 2. Yes, Zootopia, the second film is coming out tomorrow as we record this show. And so that's very exciting. I'm looking forward to that. I would like to watch that, please. So, yeah, I'm. I'm able to see who's in that and all these things. So it's a little bit like IMDb. It's just a different place for the data. And I really like the fact that I can hook into this. I can build lists, I can share those lists with other people publicly if I want to, or I can keep all these as private and I can mark things as watched. I can review things if I want to. I haven't watched this yet, so I'm not actually going to rate Zootopia. That would be really evil mean. But yeah, it's just a nice way to be able to see stuff. I also like the fact that you can see extras from this. So you can see like the different trailers and so on. You can see collections and related films. And much like IMDb or similar, this is a great way of being like, oh, okay, so if we like Zootopia, then we're probably gonna like Madagascar Monsters, Inc. Finding Nemo. Yeah, that all sounds like, you know, stuff that's down the right. Down the right street. I can search for things and put it on my to watch list. You know, I can see recommendations. So this one is on my to watch list. I haven't actually seen either Wicked film yet, folks, because I decided I wanted to watch the two of them together because that just made a bit more sense to me. I didn't want to get stopped halfway through. So, yeah, it's just really nice to be able to go through, you know, you can see things that you search for recently. So I was talking to somebody the other day and they were like, oh wait, you haven't watched Uncle Buck. But you need to watch that. That's a holiday film. And we're not convinced. Actually, after further reflection, that is a holiday film, but it does contain Macaulay Culkin who played Kevin in Home Alone. So, you know, just, it's gonna be good fun. We're gonna watch that sometime soon, I'm sure. But yeah, it's just a really nice service and it's a really polished app. They massively overhauled everything earlier this year, I believe it was. So yeah, it's also thanks to Tracked, by the way, that I discovered that there is an extended cut of A Knight's Tale, which I have now purchased on ebay as a DVD. And there's an entire 10 minutes of footage that I've not seen before. So I'm gonna have to re watch this.

[Micah Sargent]

That's interesting. The other thing I will mention is Apple has added, I believe it's called Insight. And now I'm forgetting for sure. But there's a new functionality for Apple TV shows where if you're watching and you go now I feel like I know that that actor or what is that song that's playing right now? And you can pause it and you actually don't have to pause it, but you can sort of tap and have the bottom of the screen pop up and then you can choose Insight and you are able to learn a little bit about what is happening on the screen. Amazon had this feature for a long time called it X Ray, but it does give you that nice ability. I am very much of the IMDb mindset. If I'm watching something and I'm trying to remember where someone's from, immediately pulling it up and looking to determine where I've seen this actor before. So I will cut between the two. And then IMDb of course has some other other integrations where you can use it to do just like we showed earlier with the Just Watch. It'll sometimes show you what street, you know where it's streaming, so you can also watch it there. But again, as I mentioned earlier, this is one of the places where I think it is hampered by agreements that are in place where when you use Just Watch, it feels a little bit more neutral and will show you all the different places that it'll be. So I do think I like that better. But yeah, those are some of the ways. Anything else that you want to mention on this segment before we move on with the rest of the show?

[Rosemary Orchard]

No, just other than that, make sure to spend some time eating wonderful snacks and watching lovely films with your friends and family over the next period of time.

[Micah Sargent]

Absolutely. This is the time where I remind all of you that you can, of course, get in touch with us by going to your email program and typing in iostodaywit tv. When you email us there, you can let us know some of the services that you use. Use, for example, to help you be able to track the films that you want to watch, to. To. To track the shows, rate the shows, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. All right, with that, I believe it is time for us to move on to our news segment. The news is next.

[Cohesity Ad Voice]

Resilience isn't just about bouncing back. It's about being ready. It's how you show up every single day. Because every name in your system is a person who trusts you, and every password is a door you're responsible for locking. And when the threat comes, and it always comes, you hold back the chaos. Learn [e-mail] Resilience Guys, thanks for helping.

[Rosemary Orchard]

Me carry my Christmas tree, Zoe.

[Micah Sargent]

This thing weighs a ton. Drewski, lift with your legs, man.

[Rosemary Orchard]

Santa.

[Cohesity Ad Voice]

Santa, did you get my letter?

[Micah Sargent]

He's talking to you britches. I'm not.

[Rosemary Orchard]

Of course he did.

[Micah Sargent]

Right, Santa, you know my elf, Drew Ski here. He handles the nice list. And elf, I'm six' three. What everyone wants is iPhone 17 and at T Mobile, you can get it on them. That center stage front camera is amazing for group selfies, right, Mrs. Claus?

[Rosemary Orchard]

I'm Mrs. Claus, much younger sister. And AT T Mobile, there's no trade in needed when you switch. So you can keep your old phone.

[Micah Sargent]

Or give it as a gift.

[Rosemary Orchard]

And the best part, you can make the switch to T Mobile from your phone in just 15 minutes. Nice.

[Micah Sargent]

My side of the tree is slipping. Kimber. The holidays are better. AT T Mobile switch in just 15 minutes and get iPhone 17 on us with no trade in needed. And now T Mobile is available in US Cellular stores with three for monthly bill credits for what we call qualified customers plus tax and $35 vice connection charge credits and imbalance due if you pay off earlier. Cancel financing agreement. 256 gates. $830 eligible for it in a new line. $100 plus a month plan with auto pay plus taxes and fees required. Check out in 15 minutes or less per line.

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[Micah Sargent]

Have you heard of Club Twit? Well, here's what it gets ad free versions of every show, a feed of bonus content and members only. Shows you won't hear anywhere else, like my Crafting Corner and Stacy's Book Club. It's the easiest way to support the work we do and stay even closer to the tech community around Twit. Join today at TWIT TV Club Twit. I wanted to mention, I believe it was earlier this week as we record the show. No, late last week as we record this show, on November 25, Apple launched a new little accessory in the App Store or in the App Store in the Apple Store. And it's interesting because Apple has been kind of releasing some new accessories lately that have gotten a lot of fun. Flac, the sort of sling for the iPhone. But there's a new Hikawa MagSafe phone, grip and stand. And this is a tool that was released in celebration of Apple's, I believe, 40 years of accessibility focus. You know, the company has long been a champion for accessibility in tech and making sure that their tools are able to be used by all sorts of people. And now there is a $70 device or again, accessory that is like a phone stand, but it's a bit of a grip as well. And this, this tool was created after interviews. So I'll actually read Bailey Hikawa, who is the creator of the product. The Grip was designed through an extensive process to support varied ways of holding the iPhone while reducing the effort needed to keep it steady. It has two bright colors, Chartreuse and I guess Crater is technically not bright, but it is certainly it stands out and Crater is a recycled material, but that Chartreuse version is that way so that you can see it very easily and kind of find where it happens to be. It's made with silicone, so it's soft to the touch. It lets you have your phone in portrait and landscape mode. The stand grips to the back of the phone by way of a magnet and lets you kind of move it around. So it has the kind of ridges and bumps to make it much more easy to hold it. It does appear to be sold out in both versions at the moment, but we'll have to see if more stock flies in. This was, I think, a pretty cool little product that some people might end up really liking for their phones.

[Rosemary Orchard]

Yes. I could see this potentially being a little easier for some people than a MagSafe Pop socket, which is what I have on the back of my phone. You know, I really love my MagSafe MagSafe pop socket. I like the way that it functions as a stand and everything as well for me. But I know some people don't get on with the MagSafe Pop socket. And this, like, the fact that you slide your finger through it, I think is really nice for just making sure that it doesn't go flying quite as easily, because I'm sure we've all done that. We've picked up our iPhone and just had a moment of butterfingers where despite the fact that we thought we were holding it securely, it's just gone flying off somewhere in some way, shape or form. I remember doing that with my ipod video as well back in the day, and those were significantly more delicate machines because unlike the modern iPhone, they didn't have solid state memory.

[Micah Sargent]

Yeah, yeah. So there you go. That's a little something from Apple. As we're starting to round out the holiday season. Moving right along, we've got some feedback. This feedback comes in from Matthias. Matthias writes in and says, dear Rosemary and Micah, thank you for your kind shout out for my app, transloader, on iOS Today, episode 775. I appreciate it more than I can say. Have an awesome week. Do you want to remind everyone, Rosemary, about Matthias's transloader app and what you can do with that app?

[Rosemary Orchard]

Yeah. So Transloader, it's a great app for. Oh, I've got this thing and I like, I want to download it, but I want it downloaded on my Mac, like, and maybe even specific Mac, like my work Mac versus my personal Mac. And from your iPhone or indeed another Mac, you can be like, cool, go download that over there. It can log in with your credentials and do all sorts of magic on top of that. And it's just one of those utility apps that I've been using forever, and I'll go for a little period of time and not use it, and then I'll suddenly have a whole bunch of things I want to do something with in, like, a short period of time. And there's a flurry of use of Translator. And it's just such a great app. And it was really lovely to hear from Matthias to find out that, you know, he'd heard us mention it on the show. And, yeah, it's. Eternal Storm Software is a small company in Austria. So it's. It's, you know, it's Matthias and Matthias and that's it. So it's really nice to know that it's. It's appreciated because we really appreciate all of the Eternals Storms apps, including Yoink the Shelf app, which a lot more.

[Micah Sargent]

People know and use. Yeah, absolutely. All right, let us round out today's episode with our app caps. These are the apps or gadgets we're using now or have been using for some time that we think are great and want to share with all of you. I'm going to kick things off with mine. Switchbot is a company that is well known for making a. The original SwitchBot, which is a small little device that you can attach to something that has a button, like the device that you're trying to use it with, has a button that you need to be pressed and that you want to be able to kind of press remotely. So it's just a little like robot finger, essentially, that just boop, presses a button. And I recently purchased one because I was on Instagram one morning and there was this delightful video. And to be clear what I'm about to describe, I do not usually have this problem because my dogs are very snuggly and cuddly and sweet. But the video, the premise was how to convince yourself that your dog actually likes you. And it was, I think it was actually specifically how to convince yourself that your chihuahua actually likes you. And it showed this person, and they had taken a heated blanket and placed it next to them. And they said, basically, you just unplug it and plug it back in, wherever you are. And then by the end of the video, the person had made like a the floor is lava sort of situation of four heated blankets leading from the dog's bed to the sofa where they were sitting. And I thought, again, I don't usually have this problem. They love to lay next to me. But what I Thought was, how have I gotten to the age that I am and the age that my dogs are and I have not gotten them a heated blanket. Like I've had heated throws, but I have never gotten them one. I was like, this needs to be addressed immediately. So that morning, right after watching this Instagram video, ordered a heated blanket and I was so excited and they love it. But the problem is, it's not a problem. It's a safety feature. It shuts off after I think four hours. And so I got a Switchbot to put on there and it basically just throughout the day as the sun goes down, and first thing in the morning will press the button and turn it on so that it is warm and ready for them. Point is, then I started paying more attention to what Switchbot had on offer, especially now that its products have gone MATTER enabled. And I came across something that I thought was going to be kind of a silly billy thing, but it's actually pretty cool. This is the Switchbot Smart candle warmer. And the way that it works is you place a candle at the base and it has a downlight in it that is specifically made to heat up and it heats your candle. And so you don't need to have a flame going, you can just have it heat the candle that way. And it has on it a little power button, a button for being able to change the brightness, which of course changes the heat of the light, and then last but not least, a little timer. But you don't need to use any of this because it's matter enabled. And so I'm able to control it using my phone. Now the fun thing about it is, yes, of course you can use it to warm a candle, melt the wax and have scent flowing through your room. But you know what else you could do with it? You could put a little cup underneath here and keep your beverage warm using the little candle warmer as a beverage warmer. And so I have yet to decide if I want this to be truly always a candle warmer, how I have been using it, or if I wouldn't mind a little beverage. I have a ember mug, but I don't always use it. And so if I could just have this on my desk and then it just keeps my beverage warm, I thought that could be kind of a fun thing. In any case, normally $40 black Friday stuff means that it's on sale for a little bit less. And I believe if not now, by the end of the year, all matter Enable accessories will automatically be works with Apple Homekit accessories. They'll sort of have that certification. So you will be able to be controlled within the I already can control it in the home app, but there's no issue with that going forward. And so that's quite nice too, because then I can set up all the automations that I want and I'm thinking about getting a couple more of these just because it does mean a safer thing than going, wait, did I blow out that candle before I left the house? I don't think I did. So yeah.

[Rosemary Orchard]

It also reduces the amount of dirt that releases into the air of your home because of course with candles there is a small amount of smoke and soot and all these things. And people who burn a lot of candles may find that they actually do have to wash their walls and sell them more frequently because they start going a little bit gray over time. That's not great. So thank you so much for Ike for this because the link was in the document. I already ordered mine before the start of the show. It's arriving on Monday. Yeah, the problem with this now is I now need to go back and buy the really lovely holiday scented candles that I restrained myself from buying previously because I don't trust myself with actual candles.

[Micah Sargent]

Oh, and I will say too, I was happy to see that it came with an extra bulb in the box. So you get two one to put in and one extra. So it'll be a while before you need to get a new one. So pretty nice. Tell us about your pick.

[Rosemary Orchard]

Okay, well my pick does actually this year for the first time have an iOS version of the app, but I actually really want to recommend the Mac app. So this is Festivitas Festivitas. This is a wonderful app by Simon Stovering, who has created other apps that I frequently recommend like JSON and dataJar and runestone and other amazing apps. And he's an indie app developer and he has made some some really nice apps over time, including Festivities. Festivities allows you to decorate your Mac or your iPhone with Christmas lights or Halloween lights or any kind of lights that you like. And on iOS, which this app is a new app this year you can add widgets to your home screen with little festive lights around them. It's so cute. I really love it. The website does appear to be loading a little bit weirdly at the moment, but if you go to Mac Festivitas app, then it has a whole bunch of, you know, screenshots and and little animations and videos showing you how you can decorate both the menu bar of your Mac but also the dock of your Mac And I. I really love this. You can choose the effect of your lights. Do you want a twinkle? Do you want a wave? Do you want to chase? When you move your mouse near them, they're going to sort of like, shift a little bit to try and get out of your way. So if there's a button behind some lights, you can get rid of them. You can actually have different light designs. Do you want oval, circle, champagne cocktail, snowflake, bat, ghost, pumpkin lights? You know, leaves. Leaves even. Not leaves. And yeah, you can just have the light show when your desktop is open, or you can have the light show all the time over the top of other applications. And you can also automate them and add snow using shortcuts. This year, yes, Simon has added shortcut support.

[Micah Sargent]

There's snow now. I love that.

[Rosemary Orchard]

Yeah. And it's one of these things. This app has been around for a few years now, but I really love the amount of work that Simon puts into this every year. It is a name, a fair price kind of app, so you could theoretically get it for free. His recommended fair price is €4 or more, which is. I think it's about $6 or something. I recommend throwing. Throwing a little bit more his way because he spends so much time working on this. Like, all I have seen from him over the last couple of months has been just little, like, sneak peeks that he's published publicly. And then he's also sent me some messages letting me know that this was coming out and making sure that I had access to test the app. And honestly, it's so Good. Both the iOS version and the macros version. Um, so, yeah, you get to add some ambiance to your desktop. You get to decorate without having to worry about coiling the lights up correctly for next year. And that is just something I think we can all appreciate as it is, at least in the northern hemisphere, pretty dark and miserable out there at the moment. The weather has not been great. It's been cold. It's. You know, who doesn't want to be nice and cozy? And this way you can be cozy on your Mac and your iPhone as well.

[Micah Sargent]

All right. I love it. Yeah, I have. I have the app for sure. And I did not realize that there was snow this time. That's very exciting. I love some snow. It's just. It's just cute and fun, and I think it's great. Folks, that is going to bring us to the end of this episode of iOS today, if you can believe it. I want to thank you all for. For taking the Time to join us today. Of course, if you're here, you probably know about Club Twit, but if you haven't heard about Club Twit, let me take a moment to tell you the good word. Club Twit is the place where you can go Twit TV Club Twit to join in on the fun. What do I mean by the fun? I mean you get ad free episodes of every single one of our shows. You also gain access to to our special feeds as well. Those feeds include our feed for kind of bits and clips and special moments, behind the scenes kind of stuff. We have a feed for our live commentary of news events and we also have a feed for our club shows that includes the recent D and D adventure that we did in the club. That includes my crafting corner. I'm currently painting D and D miniatures. We also have Stacey's Book Club and the AI User Group. Those are just some of the events that you get to check out after the fact There in our feeds. You also gain access to the Discord, which is a fun place to go to chat with your fellow Club Twit members and those of us here at Twit. Currently we've got Nightscape bragging about getting 8 inches or perhaps getting 8 inches of snow today in central Minnesota. I don't know if it's actually a brag for Nightscape, but it is a brag for my end because I love snow and we don't get a whole lot of it here in Portland. It's very rare in fact for it to snow and stick. So I'm jealous of you Nightscape, or am I envious of you? I think it's envy, not jealousy for the pedants out there. In any case, very exciting stuff there in the Discord and I feel like I'm forgetting something but oh, I suppose also just a warm fuzzy feeling knowing that you are helping to bring these shows to life and have them exist and continue to exist. Thank you so much for your support. Twitter TV Club Twit to check it out, Rosemary Orchard if people would like to follow you online, where should they go to do so?

[Rosemary Orchard]

Well, the best place to go is rosemaryorchard.com which has got links to apps, books, podcasts and all the social media sites you can find me with the exception of the club tour Discord because you know that is a great place to find me. Love hanging out there during the show and chatting with people and also after the show where people leave us feedback. It's always lovely to hear what people are saying and answer questions. Micah where can folks find you?

[Micah Sargent]

If you're looking to find me online, I'm ikasargent on many a social media network. Or you can head to Chihuahua Coffee, that's C H I Hwayhua Coffee, where I've got links to the places I'm most active online. Thank you all so much for tuning in today. We will be back again with another episode for you. Until then, though, it is time for us to say goodbye.

[Cohesity Ad Voice]

Resilience isn't just about bouncing back. It's about being ready. It's how you show up every single day. Because every name in your system is a person who trusts you, and every password is a door you're responsible for locking. And when the threat comes, and it always comes, you hold back the chaos. Learn [e-mail] Resilience.