Lick It Twice

November 28, 2025·1 hr 13 min·5 clips

Federico calls Apple's WWDC 2024 Apple Intelligence announcement a 'fever dream' that gets more insane the further we get from it.

It starts with a calendar problem. Federico and Mike are recording on Thanksgiving Day, but the episode is landing a day late because Stephen, fairly, did not want Jim editing on the holiday. Stephen is off mic, so the holiday edition of Connected becomes two Europeans trying on Thanksgiving from the side: warm, slightly crooked, and genuinely thankful for Jim. There is a little talk about holiday plans, then the Apple thread gets serious quickly. One host wonders if Apple is holding back until iOS 26.2 before it pushes the update to the automatic update crowd. That turns into a release pattern conversation: which point release matters, how much Apple is moving into earlier updates, and whether Apple Intelligence changed the rhythm after last year's rollout. Nobody pretends to know the timing. It stays in educated-guess territory, which is probably where it belongs. The useful bit is the performance angle. Apple may be able to sell performance as a feature, not with benchmark theater, but with the answer normal people actually want. They ask whether updating will slow a phone down. If Apple can credibly say this update is meant to make the phone faster, that is a cleaner upgrade pitch than another emoji. The panel keeps it loose. One host lays out the theory, the other pokes at the assumptions, and the whole thing avoids turning into a rehearsed keynote argument. The Thanksgiving framing, missing Stephen, editor thanks, sponsors, and CortexBrand sale all orbit a practical software update question. It winds down softly with pointers to MacStories, Federico's social accounts, Mike's The Enthusiast, and CortexBrand, plus a little Stephen appreciation in absentia.

As heard by us

A relaxed Apple software conversation about update timing, performance, and why faster phones may sell point releases better than new features.

Connected uses its Thanksgiving-week, two-host setup to settle into a relaxed but pointed Apple software discussion. Federico and Mike spend the strongest stretch on update timing: whether Apple is holding back the wider automatic rollout for 26.2, and why these early point…

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Why you'd press play

Stephen took Thanksgiving off, so you get two Europeans and an unusually good iOS update take.

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