Big Macs, New Pixels
Uncanny Valley | WIRED
WIRED
4.1 • 570 Ratings
🗓️ 22 October 2021
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Yep, it’s still product announcement season. This week, Google officially unveiled its new Pixel phones and Apple showed off new MacBook Pro models. Both device families sport substantial upgrades over their previous designs—though in the MacBook's case, many of its "new" features are just ones that Apple has omitted from its most recent laptops. All of these devices have received their biggest updates in years, so naturally we have some nitpicks.
This week on Gadget Lab, we bring on WIRED products writer Brenda Stolyar and WIRED reviews editor Julian Chokkattu to rant and/or rave about the features on Apple and Google's new devices.
Show Notes:
Read Lauren’s story about Apple’s return to its old MacBook style. Read Parker Hall’s story about all the MacBook’s new (old) ports here. Dive deeper into Apple’s new M1 chips. Deets about Google’s new Pixel phones. Everything Apple announced this week. Also read Julian’s review of the Evolve Hadean electric skateboard.
Recommendations:
Brenda recommends The Bold Type on Hulu. Julian recommends trying out an electric skateboard. Lauren recommends Kneipp bath salts. (No, you don’t smoke them.) Mike recommends the Curious Creatures podcast.
Brenda Stolyar can be found on Twitter @BStoly. Julian Chokkattu is @JulianChokkattu. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Lauren. |
| 0:00.7 | Mike. |
| 0:01.4 | Lauren, how much do you love the MacBook's touch bar? |
| 0:07.4 | This is a trick question. |
| 0:09.6 | Yes. |
| 0:11.7 | I'm touched you would ask, but I very rarely used it. |
| 0:18.1 | Okay. |
| 0:18.5 | Well, we're going to talk about that feature and many more things that we both love |
| 0:23.0 | and don't love on this week's show. |
| 0:24.7 | Sounds like a touchy subject. |
| 0:30.6 | Hi, everyone. |
| 0:35.6 | Welcome to Gadget Lab. |
| 0:36.6 | I am Michael Collory, a senior editor at Wired. And I'm |
| 0:39.2 | Lauren Good. I'm a senior writer at Wired. We are also joined this week by Wired Product |
| 0:44.4 | Reviewer and writer Brenda Stolier. Hello, Brenda. Welcome back to the show. Hello. Thank you for |
| 0:50.3 | inviting me back. Of course. Anytime. And we also have on the show Wired Reviews |
| 0:55.8 | editor and, I don't know, honorary third host, Julian Chokatu. Hi, Julian. Hello. Thank you |
| 1:02.2 | for having me. Today we are talking about, you guessed it, more product announcements. Both Apple |
| 1:08.0 | and Google had big virtual tech presentations this week to show off their flashy new |
| 1:13.0 | hardware. Apple revealed some new yet rather familiar MacBooks, and the following day, |
| 1:19.4 | Google unveiled its newly redesigned pixel phones. There's been a whole bunch of these product |
| 1:23.7 | events in the past month, as regular listeners of this show will know. So this time, |
... |
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