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Clockwise
641: Across the Country the Short Way
00:29:59
Will we use Apple's new Creator Suite, smart home tips for a new homeowner, the utility of Apple's Continuity Camera feature, and the last time a smartphone release impressed us.
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- [00:02]
A
It's time for episode 641 of the Clockwise podcast from Relay, recorded Wednesday, January 28, 2026. Clockwise, four people, four tech topics, 30 minutes. Welcome back to Clockwise, the tech podcast that's also a time machine. It just runs forward at normal speed. My name is Dan Moran and I'm joined as always across the Internet by my good friend and my pal and the one and the only and my good friend and pal. I don't know why I'm repeating myself. It's Micah Sargent. Welcome. Hi Micah, how are you? Hello.
- [00:46]
B
Welcome back to me to the show.
- [00:48]
A
Co host, how are you?
- [00:51]
B
I am great. It is good to talk to you over the Internet, Dan. We are saying weird things today.
- [00:58]
A
All hail our robot overlords. No reason. This is of course the show where we talk about four tech topics. With two fantastic guests to my left this week. It is podcaster and fiber artist and all around wonderful human being, Aline Sims. Welcome back, Aline.
- [01:14]
C
Hello. My current status is fighting with my yarn while you're talking.
- [01:20]
A
That's good. I like a little multitasking when we're doing the show. Get that show, that yarn, who's boss.
- [01:25]
B
Perhaps our creative director would be able to do something with that. It's Christopher Finn joining us back on the show. Welcome back.
- [01:33]
D
Hey, thank you so much for having me. I genuinely do not dare to fight yarn. My wife, so many of my friends are crocheter, knitters, macrame artists and I very much leave that to them because it scares me. By the way, go and have a research of ferrite core memory after you've listened to the show, folks. Amazing thing.
- [01:55]
A
Oh, all right. Bookmarking that for later. But right now we gotta get to the tech topics, the first of which comes from me and it's this. Apple officially launched its new Creator Studio bundle today. I'm curious if you have any interest in this new offering, whether or not it's something you will be subscribing to. Do you use any of these apps and or do you have any other strong feelings one way or the other about this bundle? A lean start with you.
- [02:22]
C
Oh my gosh. So my first reaction when I heard about the Creative Creator studio was are they actually going to update the apps? Because Apple does have a history of having apps that they kind of let languish for a long time. I still still feel a little salty about the way they abandoned Aperture, which was a photo editing app that I loved. And so I'm like, well, there's, you know, pixelmator now, again, theoretically. And I just, I don't know, I don't know if I trust them to get involved or invested in an ecosystem to actually keep up with it in a way that's compelling. I'm not feeling enthusiastic about it, obviously, so I'm just gonna kind of wait and see what happens and hopefully they will get more attention than some of their stuff has historically.
- [03:16]
B
Yeah, I use many of the apps that are part of the Creator Studio bundle and kind of bothered by them. Yeah, all being part of this one subscription and how that could impact things negatively. But each of the individual apps that I use, I use Final Cut, I use Motion, I use all of the iWork suite, are all sort of necessary parts of my toolkit. And so in that way I think that those tools are sort of getting some level of attention and that does make me feel a little bit hopeful. But what that means going forward is obviously yet to be seen. What do you think, Chris?
- [03:59]
D
A bit like Mica, I use a bunch of the tools anyway. The fact they appear under a bundle is mostly a financial, commercial thing really. It gives me shades of when Adobe brought together a bunch of apps under the Creative Suite, as it was first called then. I remember going to launch that in New York many years ago and it annoyed me then and annoys me now that we call this a suite called Studio in this case. But it ain't. There's not specific interoperability between the apps. If you look at what Affinity did, for example, with photo and Designer and so on, that was a much more considered coherent suite of apps that all work together, in fact. Now obviously under Canva you just get one canonical app and that does everything. It's just got different Personas for whether you're doing pixel, Vector or page layout stuff. But one thing I will say in closing is I found out about a new app through it. I'd never heard of Mainstage before. I had to go and look up what it was. And it strikes one as one of those apps that obviously professionals tend not to use as an app as an accompaniment to Logic as a live performance controller. But I bet that for everybody who uses that, they'll be watching this announcement and just desperately praying, hoping that this means a further investment in that, because I bet they rely on it.
- [05:20]
A
I am not the target audience for most of this. I do use Logic to edit podcasts when I need to edit podcasts, but I do it exclusively on my Mac because the iPad version of Logic is like podcast hostile. So this doesn't directly Affect me because I also think it's one of those things where the current version that I'm using will continue to be sufficient for my needs, basically, until they stop letting me run it. At what point? Whatever point that is. But I feel like I got several years of Runway before that happens, probably. And I'll deal with the next. That next step at that point. I've used Final Cut Pro on occasion to do some video editing projects, but it's such a thing that I do like once in a blue moon that I don't, you know, I don't own it. I didn't buy it. The idea of a subscription where I could turn it on for a month and use it would be fine for me. I didn't use pixelmator before, but that's. It's a nice app. Like, all the creative stuff I think is fine. I think it's fine to bundle that. I'm glad that for the moment, the Mac versions still have standalone purchases, because it does feel a bit like they're saying, yes, we realize many of you just use a tool on the Mac to get this done rather than the iPad version.
- [06:28]
D
How much longer?
- [06:29]
A
Yeah, I don't. I mean, but that's the thing. It's like nothing is. Nothing is ever certain for the long term, right? Like nothing is ever assured. So in that sense, I can't sweat it too much because that could all change in a year or two. Who knows? The iWork integration stuff that they've done is by far the most bizarre. And I will add frustrating. As of this morning, I updated numbers on my MacBook to the version in the App Store now listed as 14.5 and got a pop up when I, when I launched it, saying this version will no longer be updated. You have to go get the new version, which is part of Creator Studio. But the apps themselves are free, even though they're part of Creator Studio. But some features are locked and I'm just like, I opened the new versions of the apps on my iPhone. Even there, it's like telling extolling the virtues of Creator Studio. And it's like I use numbers and pages pretty often. It bothers me more that these have somehow been, you know, absconded into this Creator Studio app with a kind of more threatening future there. So that bothers me a little bit more. I'm kind of waiting to see how it shakes out because I. I'm not going to pay for Creator Studio just to get access to those new iWork features. That feels like a bit of a Crock. So not thrilled about that. But I think overall the idea that it was moving all the software into a creative bundle, well, you know, that's pretty much as you've all said, that's what Adobe and Affinity and all those other companies have done. So it doesn't shock me in that way. But we'll see how this continues to develop and maybe if the apps get updated more timely now, then it will all be worth it. But thank you all for your thoughts on that. Let's go to our second topic which comes from Aline.
- [08:08]
C
Okay, so I have moved four and a half times in seven and a half years. Three of those moves were across the country, as Tony Sandler likes to point out. My dear DM on Total Partical. They've all been across the country the short way, so I guess they count less than if I was going the long way. But my husband and I have moved. We're buying a house close on Friday. Knock on wood. It's been a minute since I paid attention to like the home tech market. So I'm wondering like what products do you use and love? Like what should I be looking into acquiring and do you have any tips for getting set up in a, like a new house? Like obviously I've moved a lot and I've been set up as a renter, but I haven't been able to like put holes in the wall or paint the walls or make any cool changes.
- [08:56]
A
Just my homeowner advice with just holes in the walls everywhere, just make as many holes as you want.
- [09:01]
C
It's great for resale value.
- [09:03]
B
Yeah. So for me I think that the Lutron Caseta line is to this day one of the best things that you can get in terms of home lighting. A lot of times obviously you're buying a house that's already built and so you are working with what you have and it's very easy to turn non smart lighting essentially into smart lighting. As far as other technology, I do think that Philips Hue is still rock solid. I know I'm going with a lot of lighting, but that just is the, the, the state of things in terms of where you can find some of the best stuff. When it comes to the rest of it, it's all over the place. Honestly. I think you can find really good low budget stuff like Aara and it will give you what you need or you can invest in, you know, one specific platform. It just, it depends on kind of your unique setup at that point. But I think specifically when it comes to lighting, Lutron Caseta is the thing that I recommend first and foremost. Chris, what about you?
- [10:07]
D
In terms of specific things, I'm going to echo Micah with Philips Hue, but specifically one approach, one philosophy with that, which is I've been basically adding Philips Hue lights to our various houses over the course of. It must be pushing 20 years. It can't be as bad as much as that, but 15 years at least. And it started off with like the starter set which came with the bridge and three bulbs. And gradually more and more things been added to that that are Homekit compatible. And it's a huge, it's a nicely organic system because you can just do that and you can kind of configure and reconfigure and things like we've got a big strip adapter behind the TV that's got power sockets in it and USB sockets so that we can have some mood lighting that's controlled in scenes. That Christmas tree comes on and off automatically during the festive season based on those rules. But it is the very kind of aggregate kind of vibe that I like about it. You can just, you don't have to have it all figured out. You can just like do one or two rooms and things can accrete as they go. But I will say over that 15 years, whatever it is I've been using, I'm still using that original starter set. And I think those were probably the first LED bulbs I ever had. And it's astonishing to me and delightful that those things are all going. I actually don't know how to replace a HomeKit light bulb in a home and you know, as a drop in replacement so that all, all the scenes and accessories and stuff still to do the same thing. I don't have to re. Add something and then go through the process of defining my scenes all again. But it's delightful. It can be moody, it can be bright. And just being able to say hey Siri, good night and then all the lights go down. My kids night light comes on to the right level. That sort of stuff is brilliant. The one thing that I would like to be able to add to my home that I can't currently because we do rent is a Homekit compatible lock. I know that some people have got a lot of very good skepticism about like Bluetooth locks, but I would like to be able to just tap that button that says good night and know that the house is locked.
- [12:08]
A
My wife was really frustrated when we had smart bulbs because it meant you can't, you know, fiddle with the switches or whatever. And sometimes you just need to turn something on and off. And the casitas I've had for a long time, I have them in throughout the house. I don't have them on every switch because I don't feel like every switch needs it. But I have them in a lot of places where we end up using it. And she's endorses them wholeheartedly because you can always just turn the lights off. I've never had a reliability issue with them. They've been totally solid for me. Smart locks. I have three level locks basically on the external doors of the house and everything. I think Chris just said, like, I totally agree with that. I will 100% use those. They lock at night. When I say good night, I can lock them remotely. They have, the ones on our main external doors have nfc. Uh, so I can unlock them with my watch or my phone, which is great. Uh, I honestly am at the point where I carry keys still, but I don't remember the last time I had to use a key. I think one of the other things that's sort of an approach to think about is looking at sort of roadmaps for some of these products insofar as you can, like, you know, nothing's perfect. And a lot of these things, it's a lot. There's a lot of transition right now. We still had like that matter protocol that's still gaining speed. There's now one for smart locks as well, a liro. I don't remember what they call it, but like, essentially like a, like a standard that's going to be across the industry. So trying as much as possible to find stuff that is going to adhere to these standards going forward, I think, you know, obviously it's beneficial because it extends the longevity for you and also makes your, your smart home stuff a little more portable if you're working with different platforms. But that said, I also have gotten a lot of value out of a, you know, super cheap smart plug that I've plugged in somewhere that works with Homekit. And I just don't, don't worry about it. Aline, why don't you wrap us up?
- [13:59]
C
Yeah. So we've been in an Airbnb for the last several months, since mid November. And the thing that I have missed most is talking to my little cylinder speaker and saying, hey, turn off all of the lights. And having all of the lights turn off. I don't have to, like, I hate realizing that I, like, left the bathroom light on as I was walking out before bed and like, having to get out of bed and the floors here are concrete, so it's cold and got to go turn the light off and then get back in bed. It's terrible, awful, horrible. How did we survive before Smart Lights? But the other discussion that we're having is what we want to do about security cameras. How many we want to have. How much of the street do they get to see? Because some of the panel probably remembers that I have been very anti like Nest doorbells for a long time. Anything that software controls, what gets uploaded to a server, I just don't trust it. So we're like, okay, can we strategically place the cameras so it's like keeping an eye on. We can keep an eye on our property, but we're not capturing the street and it's not being uploaded to a server we have no control over. And you know those kinds of discussions that you need to have in 2026 in the US but I'm really looking forward to getting the smart lights back.
- [15:23]
A
All right, that's two topics down, two topics left to go. Which course means it's halftime here? Clockwise. And guess what? This week's episode of Clockwise is brought to you by Surfshark. Secure your privacy with Surfshark. Go to surfshark.com clockwise for four extra months of Surfshark. Internet security is more crucial than ever. So why not protect your online life with military grade encryption? Enjoy a secure, unrestricted Internet experience. With Surfshark vpn, you can shield your data on public WI fi and avoid identity theft and fraud. It keeps you safe even in the most insecure online environments. I set up Surfshark this past week on my Mac. I was very glad to do it. It's nice to have that sort of VPN access to provide it because I spent a lot of time working in coffee shops and libraries and stuff like that where the obviously the WI fi is not under my control. So having additional layer of security there always makes me feel better about using that public WI fi. It was very easy to set up, create an account, get all that stuff running on my Mac, and then I just didn't have to worry about it. Plus, they have all these other features where you can use like exit points in other countries and stuff if you need to access stuff in local countries or a variety of other security tools. I think in general it's just like a really solid suite of security apps there. Never worry about who's spying on your data again. Surfshark's got you covered. And geo restrictions are a thing of the past with surfshark you can break through online barriers and access content from all over the world and it can save you money on flights and haul hotel bookings by eliminating location based price differences. That's a secret travel hack that's always in your back pocket. It's time to take control of your online security. Try Surfshark today and enjoy their 30 day money back guarantee. Go to surfshark.com clockwise or use code clockwise at checkout to get four extra months months of Surfshark VPN. Secure your digital world now and start surfing securely. Our thanks to Surfshark for the support of this show and all of relay. All right, halftime is over. Maika, what do you have for us?
- [17:18]
B
I'm curious if you've ever used Apple's continuity camera features. There are actually quite a few, including being able to import scans, use your iPhone as a webcam, take photos and have them pop up like the iWork Suite. If you do use Apple's continuity camera features, what do you think of them? Chris, we'll start with you.
- [17:38]
D
I actually use the webcam feature quite a lot now normally, as folks behind the scenes in this call will know, you're talking to me in a beautiful Sony ZV10 with a f 1.4 Sigma 60mm lens and I look gorgeous. Nothing to do with me, but the quality of the video is impeccable. But I do use the iPhone sometimes as my webcam. Either if I'm just going to be somewhere else or if this camera is out of commission for some reason, I'll put a little Belkin Magsafe adapter on my monitor and use my phone. But it's pretty reliable and I find that having that big, big, big step up in quality from the built in Webcam on my 16 inch MacBook Pro, which is in part a step up, yes in sensor quality but also the fact that you're not sort of double chinning and somebody looking up your nose as you look down at a laptop Webcam is itself a big quality life upgrade. If you look on my Mastodon account, which is just Chrisfin at Mastodon Social, you'll see a picture of me using it when I was on the road with the camera set up in my car, with my iPhone rather set up in the car and it looks great. And yes, I was tempted to set up my Sony camera for that call because I have it with me, but I managed to restrain myself. Be very proud of me. It's a great feature, it's surprisingly robust and it's a great one to have in your back pocket.
- [19:03]
A
Yeah, I do use continuity camera, although my use cases for it are a little weird. I have a couple regular D D games that I play both online and off these specifically for the ones that are offline. My wife is in my group with me and so it's usually the two of us sitting on our couch and we do a zoom call on the Apple tv. So I use the continuity camera feature there so I can put our. I put my iPhone like I have that little magnet thing that goes on top of the TV and I put my iPhone there and that way it can capture both of us. I have some frustrations with that setup mainly because we are just far enough away from the TV that the iPhone microphones are not great at picking us up. So people miss us talking sometimes, but it's convenient to be able to do that. Previously I was using like a laptop on a, you know, ottoman or something in front of us which was less than ideal. But the features are nice. I think the pictures are great. The cameras on the iPhone are so good that they are really ideal for that sort of thing. And it's nice that you don't have to go out and buy a separate camera. I've used it occasionally for like, you know, video podcast or whatever here on my Mac. Although I did invest in a 4K camera, a separate webcam, the recently, so I haven't needed it as much. It's a great feature. I also want to highlight of course that this feature was somewhat pioneered by a third party company, Camo, which has recently sued Apple over this feature. So that's an interesting development too and those guys did a lot of work to make that feature work without, you know, the sort of the built in support that Apple has. And they had a lot of other extra features there that are really, really nice. But it is still a great feature and it's very convenient for people.
- [20:45]
C
So I've thought about using my iPhone while, you know, recording well, Total Party Kill is the only video podcast thing I do. I'm also kind of vaguely kicking around the idea of starting a YouTube channel and I've wondered about using my iPhone to capture video for that. I do have a mirrorless camera that I could use, but it's more photo focused than video focus. So like, I don't, I don't know, I don't know. I've thought about it. One of my favorite youtubers is Becca Forsace and one of the things that she's amazing. One of the things that she does is she kind of sticks like magsafe rings on surfaces, so she can just like pop her face phone, like anywhere she wants. And one of the things that she has done is she has a mag safe ring on the lid of her MacBook. So when her MacBook is open, she can have the camera peeking over the edge to act as her webcam, because that is the state of Apple's webcams. And so I've kind of thought about doing something like that. Like, I don't know I'm interested, but I just haven't taken the time to really look into it and come up with a solution for it. So maybe my answer to this will change in a couple of months. We'll see.
- [22:02]
B
So, yeah, I've used the alternative continuity camera features more so than the main one, which of course is the ability to use the iPhone as the webcam. I was a camo user for a long time and now have a Sony camera as well as my webcam. When continuity camera came about, I remember trying to make it work and it did not work as well as camo did. And so then I was done with it. Outside of that, the ability to do scans and bring in photos and stuff I think is a really cool feature. And I have found that to be quite useful at times when I'm working in a document. So I mostly kept it there and let the webcam portion of it all be handled through hardware more than software. Thank you all for your answers on that. Let's go to our final topic, which comes from Chris.
- [22:56]
D
We talk about this a lot, and we've probably talked about it on clockwise a lot as well. And I've missed some of the episodes we have. But I want to know, when was the last time that a smartphone release impressed you? Dan, why don't you go first?
- [23:07]
A
I'll get two answers. All right. One is that I thought last year's updates were very good and impressive. I thought the iPhone air was particularly impressive. When I got a chance to hold one in the Apple store, that made its form factor sink in in a way that the presentation did not work for me. But I was, you know, I kind of was dismissive of it. And then I held it in the star, I was like, actually, that is a really impressive piece of hardware. I'm also a big fan of the 17 Pro. I have the orange model, and I love the color, and I think that it's a really, really capable phone. I generally, you know, like it better than some of the more recent ones. If I had to go with one that really blew me away. I feel like the iPhone X is probably the easy answer here because it was so different. Sorry. It was so different from what came before it. It felt like the future. So, you know, I think that that comes along every once in a while, but it's not, certainly not the yearly norm. Right. Most of the time we're seeing incremental updates, but yeah, I think those are the ones that stand out the most to me. Aline, if, just out of curiosity, what would you pick?
- [24:19]
C
Well, Dan, it might surprise you to learn that I really thought the iPhone X was pretty dang cool when it was announced. The iPhone air this year also is pretty cool when you get your hands on it. My husband, actually that's what he decided to upgrade to and then eventually decided that he didn't want the air and went with a pro. But it's pretty compelling and pretty cool to hold it. If you're not enamored with having the best camera you can get your hands on, it's pretty neat. I keep an eye on some of the stuff that comes out of China. There's one, Marques Brownlee recently did a video where they partnered with Leica. And so the phone looks like a good point and shoot camera, like with a big lens. So when you turn the phone horizontally, it looks like you're holding a camera and that's pretty cool. Like the cameras aren't great on it. They're good, but they're not great. And I don't know, it was like just kind of whimsical and delightful. But I'm really struggling in more recent history. Like I think the fold technology is interesting but not compelling for me yet. So I don't know. I'm ready, I'm ready to really be blown away by a new camera or new phone here pretty soon.
- [25:37]
B
I want to kind of change the word, I think, because impressed it would be a while, but intrigued. Some of the stuff that Nothing puts out I just think is fascinating. Weird blinky lights and clear stuff is all cool to me. And so even though it's not impressive in this sort of, you know, spec sense of the word, it's very intriguing. And so, yeah, I have to give props to Nothing's design team. Chris, why don't you round us out?
- [26:07]
D
You're a child of the IMAC in 1998, you haven't moved past that translucent plastic man.
- [26:14]
B
That's true. It's true.
- [26:16]
D
It was Xiaomi, by the way, Aline, who did the 17 Ultra, which is that collaboration with Leica. Which is really. Imagine if Mike did a collaboration with Leica. Get on it. I think the Z fold 7 is the first one of those folding phones I've gone. That looks really cool. I actually like the Flip variant as well. Apparently I haven't moved past the Motorola Razr myself. For me, actually, my answer is the same as dan's. It's the 17 line and it's because of the selfie cam. Specifically the selfie cam, not just the fact that the square sensor and it can do the orientation switch thing, which is really cool and surprisingly useful. But actually there have been. I mean, call me vain for sure, but there have been multiple times since I got the 17 Pro that I have looked at selfies with me or with. I have friends and gone, you know what? The quality of that is X. But it's definitely a huge step up from what we've seen before. The Pixel seems to be working much less hard. It's much less of a strain to get a pretty looking image out of the selfie cam on the 17. And I wasn't really expecting that level of quality. But it was for the first time in a big old time, maybe since the 10, actually, that I've gone, oh, that's actually quite impressive.
- [27:32]
A
All right, that is four topics down. We have just enough time for a bonus topic. But first I want to quickly remind you that help support the show, you can go and buy some swag. Clockwise swag at clockwise social. Hats, shirts, tote bags, mugs, everything. Everything just plastered with that clockwise logo. Anyways, we appreciate it. Clockwise social. All right, bonus topic. Time. Pick your favorite time mach from popular culture. Unless you have a real time machine, in which case just pick that aline.
- [28:01]
C
So there's a really good episode of Futurama where they go through future history and then time loops and they go through all of human history again. And they do that like several times for reasons, but it's like a cozy looking little time machine. And I think that's what I would pick.
- [28:19]
B
Somebody on this podcast has to say that tardis, right? Whether it's just a time machine or not, of course is. You know, that's a whole different thing. But I think it's. It's a pretty cool time contraption. Chris, what about you?
- [28:36]
D
I don't even have to say words. All I have to say is this.
- [28:43]
A
I'm sorry, I gotta cut you off because they're gonna. The copyright police are gonna be after us.
- [28:49]
D
Come on, you can. You can't see anything other than the glory. It has to be, doesn't it, Dan?
- [28:54]
A
It's, you know, it's a good choice. It's, it's one of my top two, but I'm gonna pick, I was gonna pick my other one, which is, sure, the TARDIS is great, but it's kind of cheating by making it as big as possible on the inside. I say the phone booth from Bill and Ted's. Excellent adventure. I. There's not a time in my childhood where I did not get into a phone booth and try pressing the bottom two buttons just to see if it was a time machine. Hey, as a reminder, if you'd like to get ad free episodes with an extra unwound episode every week, you can become a member of Clockwise. Just go to Relay FM clockwise and sign up for just $7 per month or $70 a year, and you'll help support the show. We really appreciate it. And with that, we've reached the end of this week's episode and all that remains is to thank our fantastic guest, Aline Sims. Thank you so much for joining us on Clockwise this week.
- [29:38]
C
Always a joy to talk with you all.
- [29:40]
B
And Kristen, Christopher Finn, thank you so much for joining us.
- [29:43]
D
Thank you, Micah. Thank you, Dan. Thank you.
- [29:45]
A
And we will be back next week, of course. But until then, we remind everyone out there listening, watch what you say and
- [29:51]
B
keep watching the clock.
- [29:53]
A
Bye, everybody.