Top Five Tech

Welcome to Top 5 Tech, my weekly show about to watch, listen to, read, download, and something

deep every week.

It is iPhone week, we have a brand new iPhone foldable, the iPhone Duo, so I'm gonna link

to a lot of that stuff.

First, if you wanna watch a great video with long shots of the new iPhone Duo so you can

really get a sense of what it's like to hold, what it looks like, how the software functions,

SuperSaf I think has the best video.

He has really long shots of the hardware, both colors, him using it, what it looks like

closed and open the animations in between. I really really enjoyed it.

his video for a look at what the iPhone Duo really is in the hand. So highly

recommend watching his video. And if you want an in-depth look at the new iPhone

18 Pro camera with variable aperture, Tyler Stallman just posted his video as

I'm recording this episode and he is the go-to guy that I want to learn about the

new camera in the iPhone. He talks about the new photographic styles which adds

things like grain, skin smoothing or not smoothing, and of course the actual

physical variable aperture, white balance, you can have manual white balance, manual

focus. So from a photographer.

I always look to Tyler to learn about the new phones and the new features, and Austin Mann,

of course, I'll be watching for his review in the next couple of weeks, but highly recommend

Tyler's video as well. On what to listen to, I'm going to plug primary technology because Jason

and I, I think had a great discussion about one of the key features of the new Apple Watch Series

12 and Ultra 4, which are Siri recaps and live replay, which means that the Apple Watch is

actually listening to audio 24/7. Now you can change that setting, have it only active at

at certain locations, certain times.

We talk about the privacy and security implications of that,

what that could mean in the workplace.

So I highly recommend the latest episode of Primary Technology

that just came out yesterday.

I'll link that below as well.

And there's timed links if you're watching an Apple podcast,

and those links pop up as I'm talking about all the different content.

And on what to read, I'm going to plug my co-host Jason Aten's piece

on Tim Cook's brief appearance in the iPhone Duo event.

One of my favorite moments from this event was actually right at the beginning

when Tim Cook briefly appears on screen and says,

and says no no no that's your guy and he

to John Ternes. It was a quick moment, but I think from a leadership perspective from an Apple changing CEOs perspective

This was the first Apple event with a brand new CEO John Ternes

I really enjoyed this moment and the feelings that encapsulated Jason Aten wrote it really eloquently

So I would recommend reading his piece the Apple News link is down in the description

I'll link the Apple News version down below and in the timed link

I want to download a friend of all the shows basic Apple guy did the great work of getting the iPhone do a wallpaper that you've

seen in all the videos and you can

download both the desert scene in the day for iPhone and Mac and the desert duo for

night on the iPhone and Mac.

I'm probably going to be running this as my Mac wallpaper for the foreseeable future and

it just has it for free.

And if you're ever looking for more wallpapers, I love all of Basic Apple Guys wallpapers.

I basically use his on all my Apple devices, but that's the download for the week.

And on something deep, I really want to hear from you.

If you get the newsletter version of this podcast, which you can subscribe at the link

down in the show notes, I deliver all the links and a little more commentary in that

every Friday newsletter.

But this new feature, which is only Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4,

you cannot do this on iPhone by itself.

The two new features are Live Rewind and Siri Recap.

Live Rewind means you can double click

the crown on Series 12 and Ultra 4 Apple Watches and see a transcript of the last

15 seconds of audio just happening around the Apple Watch.

That means if it was a conversation,

if you were in a meeting, if the server at your table,

which is the example Apple uses in their event, if they rattle off the specials,

click the digital crown and see the transcript.

Now, that means your Apple Watch is always listening.

That microphone is always on.

For years and years, I've had to try and

convince people and tell them that their smart devices and their homepods,

their phones are not listening to them.

Well, to be honest, that's no longer true.

If you get an Apple Watch Series 12 or Ultra 4, it is always listening.

Now, that's an opt in feature.

You can turn it off so it never listens or only has that on at certain

locations like at work and at certain times of day.

But that's Live Rewind.

then Siri recap his

listening throughout the day and we'll actually provide summaries of different conversations.

You'll actually see these recaps in the Siri AI app. You do need an iPhone 16 and newer paired

with the Apple Watch, but this feature is Apple Watch only and you will get little cards showing

here's a conversation that happened at 9 41 a.m. for 10 minutes. It was at this location and you'll

get bullet points and a summary of that conversation. You can save it. If you don't save it within seven

days they do get deleted. Now the privacy and security implication audio files are not saved

and no one can access the audio that is actually being quote-unquote heard not even Apple. All you

have access to are the bullet points. You don't get a full transcript. There's no speaker

attribution so you can't go back and read verbatim what was said nor can you see who was saying it.

But this Siri recap means someone with the Apple Watch Series 12 or Ultra 4 could have it always

listening and making these recaps throughout the day. Now I think there's going to be a lot of

feelings about that especially in the workplace. Whether you just have a very secure type work

environment. I have an uncle that works at a very

investment company and they are probably going to not allow these devices honestly on certain floors or in certain areas

But also if you have maybe a toxic work environment with a very overbearing boss who does not want anything recorded

Are they going to ask do you have one of those new Apple watches? Do you have that feature turned on?

Are you gonna have to show the setting of your iPhone that this is manual only or it's not on right now?

There's gonna be a lot of interesting applications. This is not coming with iOS 27, which does launch this Monday, September 14th

Apple said this is coming later this year.

I do wonder if they're trying to gauge the reception and decide whether they're actually

going to ship this feature, but they said it's going to be later this year, the Siri

Recaps Live Rewind, and it's only on the new Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4.

I'm going to be covering it on my YouTube channel and of course on primary technology,

so get subscribed and follow everywhere, and I really want to know what you think.

So subscribe to the newsletter, you can just reply to that email when you get it on Fridays

and I see all of those messages, and would really appreciate a five-star rating and review

an Apple podcast if you enjoy this show.

Thanks so much for listening and watching. I'll catch you next time.