• 2 days ago
Transcript
00:00["Pomp and Circumstance"]
00:27Ah, the internet.
00:33There is no shortage of controversial opinions out on the internet.
00:39Of course, you can always find great analysis and awesome thoughts and wrap ups of things
00:44everywhere, but tucked into the corners and in the comment section, there's always just
00:49a couple extra little controversial fun statements people are willing to throw out into the world.
00:57Now I love hot takes because they are guaranteed to ruffle some feathers and get people worked
01:02up, but also by definition, there's got to be just some, some element of truth to it.
01:09Just, just a little hint of truth.
01:10So today I've gathered some of the hottest takes for you guys from around the tech world
01:14and we're going to actually see if they are good takes or not.
01:18Also shout out again to Jimmy High Roller for the initial concept and the inspiration
01:22for this series.
01:23If you haven't already seen his NBA hot takes, they're hilarious.
01:27They're incredible.
01:28I'll leave a link below.
01:29Go watch them.
01:30And also I'll leave a link to the Chevron sweater below because it's the perfect time
01:34of year to get one of these things.
01:36Okay.
01:37Let's jump in to the hot takes.
01:38So here's our first one, Cybertruck.
01:41Tesla Cybertruck isn't as overpriced as everyone says it is for everything you get with the
01:46price you pay.
01:47And you know, this is a fun one.
01:48I like this one.
01:49This, you know, if you, if you search up Twitter or thread, it's not very hard to find a lot
01:53of harsh reactions to the Cybertruck, right?
01:56It's, it's obviously not a cheap truck.
01:58It's an expensive truck.
01:59But also I think the key with this one is this has got to be the biggest Delta between
02:05what was promised and what was delivered from Tesla on paper I've ever seen.
02:10Like it was a massive over promise under deliver moment for them.
02:14Like if you literally go back and watch the four year old event now, when they first unveiled
02:19the Cybertruck and the specs, they had all this stuff on stage.
02:22They were saying zero to 60 in as low as 2.9 seconds, up to 500 plus miles of range,
02:2814,000 pound towing capacity, 3,500 pound max payload capacity, and starting at $39,900.
02:35That seemed killer.
02:36But today the new specs are out and the truck that's actually starting to ship now in 2023
02:41is zero to 60 in 2.6 seconds, which is, it's crazy.
02:45It's a party trick, but then up to a maximum of 340 miles of range, 11,000 pound towing
02:50capacity, 2,500 pound payload capacity, and starting at $60,000 going well up into the
02:57six digits.
02:58So when you compare what we were promised versus what they actually delivered, not only
03:02was it late, but it just feels like, oh, this, this thing is crazy overpriced now.
03:06I would have been happy with a $30,000 truck with hundreds of miles of range, but now they're
03:11trying to sell us 300 miles for a hundred grand.
03:14Like that seems, it feels overpriced.
03:17But if you compare it to the exact competition in its segment, other electric pickup trucks
03:25that are shipping right now, let's say, then it actually kind of falls right in line.
03:29I mean, there isn't really many things that we're talking about here.
03:31It's F-150 Lightning and Rivian R1T and the Hummer EV pickup truck.
03:37That's kind of it.
03:38And it's right in line with those.
03:39So I'm not going to be counting the Silverado pickup truck because again, they have a promise,
03:43but they're not shipping it yet.
03:44So just for truck shipping right now, either they're all overpriced or none of them are.
03:48And that's not even mentioning any of the other innovations related to the Cybertruck
03:52that might've taken some serious R&D, whether it's the durability or the 800 volt architecture
03:58or the steer-by-wire system that's first in any truck we've seen, if people care about
04:03that stuff at all.
04:04I actually think the real honest take for me anyway, is that if this, if this Cybertruck
04:08came out this week and didn't have that announcement event four years ago with all those over-promised
04:15specs, it would have been a much more universally interesting car.
04:20It would have been very, very exciting for a lot of people in a way that it isn't now
04:23because it had these promises that weren't met.
04:26So that's my argument for not announcing things until you're right about to be ready to ship
04:29them.
04:30Cybertruck isn't overpriced maybe, but probably overhyped.
04:34Good take.
04:35All right, next one.
04:36iPhone 12 mini would have been the most popular phone if it had the battery of the Max.
04:41This one will never not be funny to me because there, there are always lots of, when I asked
04:45for hot takes, there's always a lot of like, this gadget was the best of all time versions
04:49of that sentence.
04:50And it seems like the mini iPhones just have this like cult following where everybody loves
04:56them.
04:57And they only produced this thing for two years.
04:58It was the iPhone 12 mini and the iPhone 13 mini.
05:02And they were definitely great.
05:03Now, yes, the iPhone 12 mini did have a tiny battery and some real battery issues that
05:07came with it.
05:08Some of that was fixed with the 13 mini, but it felt like the second it was announced and
05:12people started reacting to it, it had this like this cult, like fan energy where when
05:16it went away, you would have people believing the only reason it went away is because fitting
05:20that amazing flagship phone and all of that capability and such a tiny body would be a
05:25battery sacrifice.
05:26And that's the reason they didn't keep doing it.
05:28But they would be wrong.
05:29And they'd be right about the fact that there was a battery sacrifice.
05:32But look, I love small phones as much as the next guy.
05:35I give a trophy out for the best small phone every single year.
05:38But the simple fact of the matter is people just don't really buy small phones.
05:43Like when given the choice, it just feels like people think they're getting more value
05:47or they just prefer the bigger screen, whatever it is, but people are just gravitating towards
05:51the bigger version of phones in general.
05:54But then on top of all of that, just have a look at the arc for the most popular iPhones
05:59ever.
06:00Like the best sold iPhones of all time.
06:02It isn't the newest iPhones.
06:04It's the iPhone six.
06:06Like we're talking in their absolute peak, like 200 million plus units sold of that phone.
06:12So in a lineup of several other iPhones, like it was the 12 mini and the iPhone 12 and the
06:17iPhone 12 pro and the iPhone 12 pro max, there was no way, even if you had world-class battery
06:23and the best everything and a dozen other exclusive features, like there's no way the
06:27mini would have outsold the bigger phones.
06:31It was noble of Apple to try, but it underperformed so much that it is even below Apple's expectations.
06:36And they discontinued it and literally replaced it with the 14 max, the opposite of the mini
06:43iPhone because people, they want big phones.
06:45So yeah, all the takes about the mini iPhone being a great idea and being one of the most
06:51well-liked phones ever are true.
06:54But once you add the, it would have sold a ton part, that's, that's when you lose it.
07:00That take.
07:01Okay.
07:02This one, hear me out.
07:03Four by three is the best aspect ratio for most video content.
07:07So, okay.
07:08Yeah.
07:09That it's clearly a pretty crazy take, but the reason I liked this one and picked it
07:12out is because think about this for a second.
07:16Back in the day, not even five, six, seven years ago, I was super against vertical video.
07:22Like if I saw someone taking a video or a photo like this, I'd be like, Hey, just, just
07:26turn it like that.
07:27Like the widescreen video, the video I'm shooting right now, widescreen.
07:30The only debate was like, what's better, 16 by nine or a little wider, two by one.
07:35What's your favorite?
07:37Everything was horizontal video.
07:38And that made so much sense today in 2023.
07:43I've had to soften my stance on that because look, the default for most people now, when
07:48they go to take a video is this.
07:51And then there's TikTok and Instagram reels and YouTube shorts.
07:55And even if you're just somebody texting someone a video from your phone to someone else, they're
08:00going to view it on their phone like this.
08:01So just people just take vertical videos by default now.
08:04So it's kind of hard to argue.
08:07Vertical video has its place.
08:09And so now it feels like there, there has to be some sort of compromise.
08:13Like how do you just decide on one ideal video format?
08:16And I'm not saying four by three is it, but what I am saying is if I could only capture
08:20video in one aspect ratio from now for the end of time, from now till I die, I'd probably
08:29take something closer to squarish so that I could either crop it horizontally or vertically
08:36to its appropriate medium.
08:37Does that make sense?
08:38But I think the tiebreaker again, just to level it back on earth here is the future
08:43seems like it might actually be going back towards horizontal because of all the VR headsets,
08:48all of the spatial video and all of the horizontal video that works with VR headsets.
08:54Fun fact, iOS 17.2 just came out and there is a feature in the video formats where you
08:59can start shooting spatial video on your iPhone.
09:02I think it's only the pro iPhones.
09:04First of all, you can only watch those spatial videos in the headset, the Apple vision pro,
09:08but the other key is when you go to shoot that spatial video on your iPhone, it requires
09:12you to turn it horizontal again because it's using the horizontal distance between those
09:18lenses for the videos it's taking to match the distance between your eyes.
09:23And that's why it gives that spatial video effect.
09:26So spatial videos are going to have to be shot horizontal as long as camera orientations
09:30look like this.
09:31So I don't know, four by three, it's just kind of a general square, tall, wide aspect
09:37ratio.
09:38It doesn't mean it's the best aspect ratio to shoot, but I'm just saying if I had to
09:41shoot one, I don't know, it's a, it's a bad take, but it's a good take, but it's a bad
09:46take.
09:47All right.
09:48Hot take.
09:49If Apple came along and made dedicated GPUs, it would be over for everyone else.
09:53Wow.
09:54So this, it's an interesting thought initially anyway, kind of more just because of the fact
09:58that there are a lot of things like if you're Apple, if you're a multi trillion dollar tech
10:03company, like there are lots of things that people want you to make that you don't make
10:08lots of things, cameras, cars, printers.
10:13So it's pretty fun to let our mind wander and wonder if Apple made some other thing,
10:18would it also be this super premium, well-made, amazingly performing thing?
10:23So we did get the moment where Apple Silicon was a gigantic leap for Apple, especially
10:29for their laptops.
10:30Like we went from Intel chips and discrete GPUs to all of it, including a GPU baked into
10:37one chip and those laptops having amazing performance and great efficiency.
10:41Awesome.
10:42Does that mean that if Apple made their own GPU would also be amazing?
10:46No.
10:47Matter of fact, Apple's just never really been into GPUs in the first place.
10:52And to this day, they now make an M2 Pro Mac Pro tower with a bunch of PCI slots in it
10:57with a tiny, tiny, tiny list of supported GPUs for very limited functions.
11:02They really are not into discrete GPUs.
11:05I think you could argue that if they made their own discrete GPU graphics card just
11:11for their own Mac, like the Mac Pro, and you could slot that thing in, it could probably
11:16be awesome.
11:17It would probably be amazing.
11:18It could perform well for whatever functions they've designed it for.
11:22But that take said it would be over for everyone, everyone, meaning Nvidia, AMD, heck even Intel
11:29makes GPUs now, and they all make those for PCs.
11:33And if you think Apple is going to come along and make a great GPU for a PC, I just don't
11:40see that happening.
11:41I don't think it would be over for them.
11:42I think they'd be totally fine.
11:44So yeah, I'm going to say no shot, bad take.
11:47All right.
11:48This is one of the best ones.
11:49I think it sparked the most conversation at the studio.
11:51A flagship smartwatch that doesn't have a three plus day battery life is unacceptable.
11:57Looking at you, Apple.
11:58So strong take, true, but also not really true.
12:02I think the obvious rebuttal is, okay, you're saying it's unacceptable, but the Apple watch
12:05is the most popular smartwatch in the, it's the most popular watch in the world.
12:11And it has a two day, a one and a half day battery life.
12:13So clearly people do accept it, right?
12:16But why do we accept it?
12:18It's not good.
12:19Like that's the very least we have.
12:21Regular watches have super long battery lives, months and years, obviously, but they just
12:26tell the time.
12:27They don't do much.
12:28And there's even smartwatches out there that have weeks long battery life, months long
12:32battery life.
12:33I just reviewed the CMF smartwatch, which is under a hundred bucks, 69 bucks.
12:37And that thing has a five, six, seven day battery life if you just treat it like normal.
12:41And there's the Garmin smartwatches that have all these GPS functions and features and they're
12:45pretty big, but they'll last weeks at a time.
12:48So then what is the deal?
12:49It feels like a three day, two day, or like a one day battery life for a smartwatch kind
12:53of is unacceptable, right?
12:55But then I zoomed out a little bit and actually mentally just try this for a second and just
12:59replace the word smartwatch with smartphone.
13:02Just think about it.
13:05Okay.
13:06Three day battery for a smartphone would be pretty good because a decade ago, a one day
13:10battery life for a phone was nice.
13:13And today a full day battery life on your phone is nice.
13:18So manufacturers have clearly, they haven't stopped trying to improve on battery technology
13:22that improves all the time.
13:24But they also have kept aiming for that one day point over and over again, because it's
13:28accepted and they'll continue to make the phones more powerful, more capable, more useful,
13:33brighter screens, better cameras, all that stuff that takes more power.
13:38As long as they can still hit the full one day battery life, it will be accepted.
13:43That's like the industry standard now.
13:44And I do feel like with enough volume, Apple has kind of decided the same thing with the
13:49Apple watch.
13:50If you go back and watch old presentations of the Apple watch series, seven series, six
13:54series, five series, four, every single time they quote the same thing, 18 hours of battery
14:00life.
14:01And if there was enough pushback and if people didn't accept 18 hours, I think they would
14:05push for 24 full hours, 36 full hours.
14:09But because people have accepted it, they've started to push on other things like the always
14:13on display, a brighter display, a faster processor, more sensors, more powerful, more unique,
14:20more capable, as long as they can still hit that acceptable 18 hours and people accept
14:27it.
14:28It kind of reminds me of this Bjorn tweet about how his Nokia 2310 used to last a month
14:33and now phones these days only last like one day.
14:35Like how are people really happy with a one day battery life?
14:38And it's like, yeah, you're right.
14:40You're definitely right about that.
14:41But also that was a Nokia 2310.
14:45It didn't really do anything.
14:46It had a postage stamp size screen and probably three or four colors and about 75 pixels.
14:53Of course that phone lasted a month.
14:55If you use a phone today, it's doing a lot more things.
14:57So if you want to use a Nokia 2310 today, by all means, go for it.
15:03And you can still get a regular watch.
15:06But if you want a much larger screen, if you want fast processing, a whole bunch of sensors,
15:11the health data, the smart stuff that happens with an internet connected computer, and you
15:14want it to be small enough to fit on your wrist, well, you're going to have to charge
15:19it every night.
15:21And people have accepted that.
15:23Bad take.
15:24All right.
15:25That's about all the time I got for this one.
15:26But I think this was pretty fun.
15:27I enjoy reading your guys' hot takes because some of them are crazy hot, but some of them
15:32are kind of cold.
15:33It's just, let me know if you have any more in the comments below.
15:36I would love to continue this series and react to more good internet tech hot takes.
15:41Until the next one.
15:42Catch you guys later.
15:43Peace.
15:44Bye.