Apple 2026 Predictions Show w/ Rich DeMuro (Apple Bitz XL, Ep. 366)

All right, everybody, we are at the beginning of 2026. You know what that means? Oh, yeah, it is time for a prediction show. So buckle up. You know what time it is. Let's get to the show. what's up everybody welcome to the show it's the apple bits excel brian tong your host doing the most for everything good and bad inside the world of apple it is a fun it is a special episode happy 2026 i'm just about to jump on a plane in a few hours and pack up to go to ces That's 2026. I will be hosting again. So that's where I'll be for the next week. But you know what? We were not going to leave you without a podcast for the week. So this is a fun one. I'm not even going to take time. It's a new year. We don't have to do sponsors. We don't have anything do anything. Let's just jump into it. Special guest, friend of the show, Ristamur and I throw down our predictions for 2026 for Apple. So here it is. Okay, everybody, I had to bring a big brain back in the show. I don't think he's been here for a while, and that's probably my bad. But Rich Demiro, KTLA tech reporter extraordinaire. Rich, welcome back. Thanks, Brian. Thanks for having me on the show. Appreciate it. And it has been a while, but we're here and we're ready to go. We are ready to go. Rich, can you tell people maybe some of the other ways that they can find some of the work that you do beyond just KTLA? Because I know you do a lot of stuff. Sure. I mean, I do three main things. Obviously, I'm on KTLA Morning News Channel 5 in Los Angeles, if you happen to be there. The thing that most people don't know is my segment is also syndicated. So sometimes people will be in Hawaii and see it and they're like, oh my gosh, you're on my TV. So that's kind of fun. I also do a radio show every weekend, also out of Los Angeles, and that's syndicated. So people will hear me in New York and different places from there. and I talk about all consumer technology. And then I also do a newsletter, which I started kind of on a whim. And I'll be honest, Brian, it has taken on a life of its own. It's fun. I call it my third job at this point because I do sit down and take the time to write this. And it's one of the most fun things I've done. Man, okay. So what's the name of the radio show slash podcast show? Oh yeah, so you could search Rich on Tech in your favorite podcasting app and the newsletter is at rich on tech dot tv you can sign up it is free um and of course since this is a podcast crowd i can explain that some people are like well why would i pay for that because there's like a paid level that's if you want the podcast without the ads so you get like and you also get a higher quality audio so it's kind of you know you gotta save some stuff for the preview give them a little higher quality audio on that rich that was uh you know it's it's a whole story behind that, believe me, but it's one of the things you get. Well, hey, we're going to do some high-quality stuff here today because this is always fun. Someone who's been around the industry like me for years, we see each other at every event possible, basically. We've been friends for a while. And this episode, we're going to talk about our predictions for Apple in 2026. Now, Rich and I have no idea what either of us wrote. We have some interesting ones, I'm sure. Some we might even have the same ones. I don't know. But because you're the guest, Rich, I give you the honors to start and kick things off with one of your first predictions for 2026 and Apple. Okay, I'm going to go with my biggest prediction of all. And it's not going to be some of the things that we've already heard about. But I think the biggest prediction that I have is that Apple will actually take a commanding lead in AI. Now, I know that sounds wild because they are at this point so far behind everyone else in AI. But here's why I believe that when Apple finally flips that switch, they are going to have a product like none other. And that is because they have everything you need for AI to be super helpful for their target person, which is the iPhone user. You've got your photos in iCloud. You've got your emails on that phone. You've got your text messages on your phone. You've got your calendar on that phone. And I think the reason why Apple has been so hesitant in releasing anything is because they want to get this right. And if you look at Google with what they've done with Gemini, it's a great product and they built it in. It's like almost throwing paint at the wall. They've thrown it at every Google product you have. And yes, a lot of people use Gmail. A lot of people use Google Calendar. A lot of people use Google Photos, but it feels very fragmented and no one really understands how to use it. I think with Apple, it's going to be unified. It's going to all work through Siri. And I think that people, when they finally use it and say, hey, what's in my calendar for tomorrow? Or add this to my thing? Or tell me about those emails? All that stuff that they teased years ago is finally going to come to fruition, and people are going to be very impressed with it. So I actually love this prediction because I think you can look at the way you explained also, you can look at a lot of different ways, right? You could arguably say right now in the consumer tech space that Google and Gemini is the leader, right? In this moment of time, as of this recording, right? From a standpoint of how it's on devices, how it's integrated, how it's actually accessible and usable. But to your point, when Apple gets into any platform in general and something as broad as you think of every iPhone user and it will support at least, let's say, easily the past three generations or so, all right? And if you think about that, okay, And then you roll this out. They're going to make this as simple as possible to at least understand. And look, when Apple first pitched Apple Intelligence and what they showed us, although whether it was complete or not, the idea of actual contextual AI understanding and connecting all the dots of your stuff in an easy way, there's a reason why reporters, content creators got actually genuinely excited about that based on the promise that they were showing because you could see it how they could do it. They still haven't executed on it yet, but if they do execute on it, this is a long race. We actually know that AI is far from reaching any type of mature level from a consumer standpoint. It's still very young. It's in its infancy. So I like what you're thinking. I would agree with that prediction that right now I say they could be, and I like how you're being definitive. They are going to be. and the only thing that would potentially hold them back is what they actually actually finally show us right right well and and not okay i would actually change this to they have to be this is a have to i mean they cannot apple cannot go another year without getting this right and yes they built siri into the iphone and they may have a deal with gemini but they have to get the ability for the average person to tap into their, like you said, the context of their life on their iPhone using the device that they already know and love. And if they can get that right, which I think they will, I just think it took them a little bit longer to figure it out because they want to be private and they want to make sure they're not doing things that don't work. Apple takes a little bit longer to do just about everything. But when they do it, there's that little bit of polish that you're like, oh yeah, why didn't anyone else think about that? And I think that's the magic of Apple. And it will take this phone that's going on, you know, almost 20 years old. It'll make it amazing again, like like it's fresh and it's new. And so I think that that's it. That's going to be a big one for Apple this year. Yeah, you can even see some of the connective tissue. If you just imagine what Google Gemini can do in a organized Apple and clean way, that's that's the voila like secret sauce if they can do it. Now, again, there are people that are way smarter than you and I that are the ones that have to connect all these dots. I honestly feel bad for them because this is not easy. This is not easy work to do, quite honestly. And then to have someone be like, I don't like this, right? This is taking at least two, three years for them to finalize, but it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. So I like that prediction. I'm going to piggyback off it a little bit because I did have an Apple Intelligence one, but I'm connecting this and the launch of Apple Intelligence. And I think this will tell us a lot about the direction you're going. My prediction is that although Apple intelligence has been slowed and has, from what we can tell, slowed down Apple's smart home launch, right, they will be able to reinvigorate and reignite the smart home revolution from a standpoint of it sounds bold-ish. but if Apple can put out some sort of a smart tablet, and I think because they've been waiting, I'm hoping we see more than just a tablet. I think we need to see more of an ecosystem of products. We've heard rumors and rumblings about maybe a smart camera. If they can do that, and if they can do it in this year, I think they have a chance to actually get people to be like, okay, if Apple intelligence delivers the way that you're hoping and expecting it does, and if they can plug in that intelligence into their smart home launch, that becomes a little force of nature that I think brings a little more excitement and would actually make me consider, because I haven't forever, consider updating and upgrading my smart home setup. Could it be legitimate 4K, clean Apple style video that we expect, right? An actual great signal that is recorded and stored on the cloud has the security that you expect. and is this smart home clever enough and sexy enough to outdo what we've seen from Google? Because right now I'm really deep. I'm a mixture of Google and Amazon right now with my smart home stuff, honestly. Yeah, same, same. It's a mishmash that I actually don't. Apple has to do something really compelling to smart home to make me really switch over because I've just cobbled it together and figured it out. But piggybacking on your Apple intelligence, I think they have an opportunity to make some moves in the smart home, although it's eight to ten years too late. That's okay. So let me just think about what you're saying here. You're now you kind of tiptoed around the idea that was one of my predictions, which is, you know, they've got to update the HomePods with some sort of display HomePod. Right. And we've heard rumors about this. So it's not like I'm making this up, but it makes so much sense. You've got an iPad. You've got a HomePod. Put them together to make that smart display that people want in their kitchen. They want it on their bedside. You've got your photos in Apple Photos. You've got a screensaver built in. So there's so many reasons why Apple already has these pieces. The problem is, number one, Apple needs not only that, they need a smart camera like you just said. They need a smart doorbell. They need smart speakers, which they kind of already have. maybe an alarm system. This is, like you said, Amazon with Ring is way too deep into this. Google, I would say less or so, but I do see a lot of that stuff around, all the Google smart home stuff. I mean, I have the Nest Home and all that, but it's going to be tough for Apple to break into this. And I'm not sure that this year they will be able to do it. I mean, I just don't know because they've got so many other things that they still need to do to get that smart home in order and uh it'd be nice and i think apple fans want it i just don't know if it's possible for them we'll see yeah you know part of what i said is right if they can deliver multiple products because i do not believe just a smart home hub is going to be enough it no it just seems like we'll wait and see and to me if they're really going to jump into the smart home thing they need to they need to show us like a movement right not not just a product that happens to kick it off i I do feel like a lot of what Apple has been doing with maybe, although the platform is mature with smartphones, this idea of slow playing things. I don't think they need to come out with a bang, like a more impactful bang if they do that. And I don't think they will. I don't think they will. They don't do that. That's not Apple. They can't. I mean, and I do think if they came out with that, you know, tablet based HomePod display thing, they would sell a lot of them. Because, you know, like I said, it would show your calendar. And if they had the Apple intelligence that we've sort of talked about here, you could ask it the questions about your schedule and what's coming up. Almost like, you know, what they showed off with Alexa Plus, which I don't think is, you know, totally. I'm looking at mine right now just to make sure it's not going to go off. But, you know, it's one of those things where they're so far behind in that, that they still have to get the intelligence right and then build upon that. And also, and this is something that I think weaves throughout my entire prediction list, is Apple is so protective of what they've built. Everything with Apple plays into each other for a monetary financial reason. And they probably don't want to have the HomePod base because that means less people buy iPads or less people buy a HomePod speaker. Same thing with all these things that Apple puts out. Why don't we see a touchscreen computer? Well, same reason. So it's very tricky for Apple to navigate what they've already built to build upon it without ruining the I don't want to call it a house of cards, but that, you know, almost as Jenga puzzle beneath them. You know, I also think that it would be exciting, and I think this is against how Apple's DNA has been built now over the years. If they really truly had like kind of a skunkworks special project team inside in-house of Apple, that was really trying to do these bolder things. Because to your point, look, we see every time people say, oh, Apple's dead, Apple's slowing down. I don't know if they look at the revenues, but they continue to break records every quarter still to this day, right? Which is wild. Every quarter, new record, new record. So, right, they've become so large and so massive. They're this big ship that when you turn that ship, it's not like a little quick motorboat or a skiff. It's a big barge that goes. And because of this, you know, that's why we see slow, steady, safe. Right. These are these are these are almost on Apple characteristics when they first started. They're almost un-Steve Jobs characteristics, but this is a different company today, right? Yeah, and they have to be like that. They have to. I mean, you can't just change the direction of this entire company and say, okay, like every phone that comes out from every other competitor, the design wildly changes from year to year. Now, Samsung has slowed that down just a little bit over the past couple of years, but almost every other manufacturer, I mean, OnePlus especially, it's like every single time a phone comes out, it looks different. And it's like, oh, what are the whims of all the manufacturers this year? Google, same thing. The Pixel has kind of settled upon a look and a feel for the last couple models. But again, it's like Apple people don't want a lot of change. They like what they have. It works. And the evolution is small, but it's meaningful. And they add features that people really like. So I think a lot of this stuff that we're talking about is it's really tough for this big company that makes a ton of money, like you said. just on cloud services alone. It's just tough for, you know, and people are so ingrained in this stuff. All right. You want me to go to my next one? Yeah, let's go. This is an easy one. I mean, this 100% has to launch this year. No doubt about it. A foldable iPhone. Oh, 100%. Well, let me hear your thoughts on it first because I got thoughts. Well, here's the deal. I thought it was going to be a clamshell style iPhone until about last week when I saw some rumors about the book style. And it really has made me think now, what style would Apple want their customers to have? I would think a clamshell style is more natural for their customer because it's the same exact phone once you open it. But it's fun because it's small. It can come in different colors. Now, they could surprise us and come out with both form factors. I don't think that's going to happen, but it could because we've seen Apple come out with these super premium products that are like the Apple Vision Pro that they know not a lot of people are going to buy, but they still do it. So that could happen. And I think the thing there is that they already have a form factor with the iPhone Air. You put two of those together, you fold it like a book, and you've got that nice big screen inside. and I think that people that want something between an iPad and an iPhone would get that. And they would sell probably a decent amount because people would add up how much does it cost to get an iPhone and those are going to be your Pro Max people. They're not going to be the standard iPhone people. And then how much is it to get a tablet? You put that together and it's not a bad deal if you're spending 2,000 plus on a phone. And with the smaller phone, the clamshell style, it's your basic iPhone user that can easily upgrade to that. They're the iPhone 17 users that want, or the standard level of phone, the base model, I guess. They want something that's a little fancier, a little more fun. And of course, again, Apple will throw some unique things we have not seen before on the foldables, notably maybe better battery life and the no crease. But here, Brian, let me tell you what I think is going to be the reason why Apple will succeed with the foldables faster than Samsung, who's been doing it since 2019, I believe. Yeah, it's about seven, eight years. Yep, yep. That's crazy. But here let me tell you why One word developers They have the support of software developers through and through So from day one, these foldable phones will take advantage, the apps will take advantage of that new form factor. Unlike when you open up 99% of apps on the Samsung Fold or Google's, they don't even use the screen to their advantage. It's almost like, oh, hey, here's your same app, but just on a bigger screen. Apple, not the case. You're going to find new uses for the phone and new ways of doing things because they are so ingrained with their developers and they're so in step with them that that's what's going to make this very successful. Okay. I like what you're saying. I'm going to give you a reason and I'll talk more and piggyback on what you said because obviously the iPhone fold is on my list of predictions, but if they sell it for $19.99 or higher, because there's been rumblings that it might be between $2,000 and $2,500, it's going to work against them. And the reason why, here's the thing, I know you're holding it in, but you're going to have to listen to this for a second. There's plenty of, I never underestimate the power of the Apple consumer, right? Now, will this be a success? I don't know what we're talking about from a unit standpoint, but I'm going to say because looking at the feedback that I get in these videos constantly throw up, it's a mixed bag right now, quite honestly, right? There's definitely a audience that says, I want this. But if I had to guess the audience that would get this and I want this, and it doesn't need to be massive, but it's probably around 10% of the audience that's really sane, right? And I like the idea of a floating phone, but Vision Pro, technical marvel, technical marvel, too expensive, not attainable for the consumer. I'm not saying that $19.99 isn't, but if they even go up, I just feel like they're going to go higher than $19.99. I just feel like in my bones, I feel like it's going to be at least $22.99. And that thing needs to be $19.99. It's not going to be less probably to be a success. But if it's higher, I think they're going to have some trouble convincing consumers to really throw down for that. knowing that although you might people can debate this the the current state of the economy i don't see people in my comments saying i'm ready to open up my wallet for two thousand dollar phone just flat out so i think yeah no i i would agree with that but i think that's a challenge i i think pricing is a challenge here under 2000 would be amazing because that 1999 really sings it's an easy number it's a premium product you can justify it because you know an iphone a good iphone costs somewhere in the $1,200 to $1,400 to $1,500. It could go up even more if you get the totally maxed out version. So you can justify to yourself, hold on, I'm getting a great phone, and I'm getting a tablet, and it's a cool, cutting-edge Apple product. So you can justify that little extra money. And let's be honest, most people are buying these things on payment plans. And so you've got to look at the numbers there. If someone's paying $30, $40, $50 extra bucks a month, I don't know. I mean, I have to do the math on that part. So they have to take that into consideration. I don't think that a $2,500 price tag totally kills this product, but I think that you're right. It is tough for people to stomach that number. But the only reason I would think it would do better than Vision Pro is because it's something that you use every single day. Whereas Vision Pro is a, I have all the tech gadgets in the world. Let me add one more to my arsenal. And by the way, if you bought that, you're probably not really using it very much. I can confirm that, although very cool. One thing that I wanted to talk to you, which I thought was an interesting point, and I agree but also sometimes hesitate, you mentioned the power of the developers for Apple, right? And I think the big plus about this is because it is on the iOS platform. And who knows if they're going to transition this idea of when you open it up, it's an iPad OS. That's kind of actually interesting to me, right? But they have those developers there. What I have found, though, I feel like there's definitely been pushback where there was this golden age of developers rushing to whatever Apple made. And I think they're a lot more hesitant and more measured about this. You know, you could look at the Vision Pro as an example, although it's a very niche product. But we had thought and Apple had talked about this idea of developers developing for this product. There's other obstacles like, again, the consumer actually needing to buy this for developers to then buy in. That's the chicken and the egg thing. But this, you have the phone. You have it already. You have it. It may not be a lot of users, but it will still be enough where you can develop an app. And by the way, it's a whole new gold rush for the hot app for this device. And it may be more iPhone-y, it may be more iPad, but at the same time, there is an opportunity here for this thing to eventually become bigger. And you can have an idea for a new app and a new form factor that could be totally different. I think that what handicapped the Vision Pro a little bit was the fact that there was no support from YouTube. There was no support from Netflix. When those big companies are not supporting something, that sends a big message saying, we're not even going to give this the time of the day. which, by the way, Netflix has an app for everything dating back to my 3G Sprint Plus smartphone. Like, give me a break, Netflix. Like, you couldn't spend five minutes making an app for the Vision Pro? Like, come on. Yeah. The other thing that I'm curious about is, I don't know how you feel about this based on the rumors. I like, I love the original Pixel Fold Passport-style book feel. Like, it is a little wider, but it felt like a familiar object in the real world. and then the fact that those dimensions could lean into when you open up to actually be a 4x3 screen. Do you like that idea of that form factor or do you like this typical maybe more Samsung, a little more candy bar-ish style that opens up to a square? It's a good question. I will tell you when I remember specifically the Fold from Google, I was using that when I was in Berlin. And I remember loving that, like walking around town and it felt like a passport. And it was such a cool form factor that I will say I have not used the Samsung Fold in the same way because I do think that outside screen is too thin for me. It feels like I'm missing out on that outside screen. I think it is a cool form factor. And again, I think that Apple, the way that they kind of put their polish on things, will figure out like, hey, how do we make this good on the outside and great on the inside? And I think it's a matter of preference for a lot of people. we're so used to. I feel like when I'm on that Samsung Fold, I feel crunched and constrained. When I get to a regular phone, I'm like, ah, I breathe a sigh of relief that I could actually use the whole screen again. On the Google one, I didn't necessarily feel that way. I felt like it was a good, nice wide screen. Sure, it was a little short, but it was like, fine, this is great. And then when you open it up, I think it actually gives you more of that inside screen to take advantage of because of that form factor. Yeah, I'm also curious. The reports are because if people aren't familiar with this, the company that is making the display for Apple's foldable display is Samsung Display. And the other flip of this, the other part about it, this is that there are reports that Samsung is potentially and most likely going to be releasing their own foldable that is this wider passbook style because they have the display made. and they'll also release their candy bar z fold 7 display and that's going to be interesting to see who who kind of wins that battle because now samsung i mean the z fold 7 personally is my favorite device of 2025 actually the z folds wow the engineering on it i actually like it's it's a cleaner os experience it's just when you pick up that thing and how thin it is it's just it's just luxurious, man. I'm like, damn it. This is the foldable I wish Apple made quite honestly, right? When you think that, you know, they're doing something right. So now in 2026, it's going to be really interesting to see how these foldable wars play out because Apple is Apple and they should, I'm going to say, use air quotes, should sell more, but I don't know if they will because until we see the designs and these extra foldable features, we don't know, no, but we know where ecosystem loyalties lane, that's really what decides what phone you get. Even though the Z Fold 7 is my favorite device, I haven't switched over to Android. You can't. You can't. That's the tough part. It's so tough. At this point in life, it is so tough to make that switch. Now, I switch between Android and iPhone a lot, but most of the time, I'm not switching my SIM like I used to. I used to switch my SIM into every phone I was testing. That has become really tough to do. So I switch a secondary SIM into there. So it's like my base is like the iPhone and the Apple Watch. And I've got cellular on the Apple Watch. So when I'm testing an Android, I can still get my messages and things like that. But I admit it's not a perfect system. But when it comes to switching for the average consumer, I mean, Brian, I just spent a week with my family. I'm telling you, and I know the average tech consumer because my shows appeal to them, right? My radio show, TV, over-the-air broadcast, that is a very traditional crowd, right? You're a little more high-tech with your crowd because they're getting you via podcast and YouTube. And so it just leans to a crowd that is a little bit more tech-savvy. I feel for the regular people out there because this stuff is not easy. I mean, I'm setting my dad up with a password manager. And the first time, he's like, oh, how do I get back into this? I'm like, oh, hold on. Let me remember what the code was. You know, it's like, oh, and by the way, when you go to a website, you got to copy paste if it doesn't autofill. Like, wait, what? I mean, so switching, I'm paying for Google Photos and iCloud. Do I need both? I'm like, I don't know. Do you have photos in both? Probably if you have, you know, smattered here and there. So my point is, you're right. The ecosystem loyalty is so deep these days. And I do think that the tech companies, you know, they announced that Google and Apple were working together to make it easier to switch between the two. But the average person probably doesn't really want to. You know, it's just it's too much for them. The only audience that is going to make a drastic shift in current times would be the more tech enthusiast person. Really? Yeah. They're willing to understand the headache and know that there might be a learning curve and they're curious enough to do it. But at the end of the day, you're my mom is not switching to any other platform ever. Right. Like, it's so funny how you talk about, you know, I've been thinking of eventually maybe doing some music video involving tech people about, like, how we all do tech support every holiday season. Like, it's the thing we do, right? And I've had stuff where, you know, with my parents who are, like, in their 80s now, the idea of remembering just one password for one website, that's already hard enough. we had them physically write like doing every cardinal rule you're not supposed to write it on a piece of paper no that's actually that's fine no well i don't know about taping it to the refrigerator behind your computer okay what happened the next time i came home that paper was not there they didn't remember their password so what's the point there's a point where you're just like no this whole idea of switching is not happening yeah not it's not like your mom's sitting there. She's like, hey, Brian, I'm hearing this that Google Photos just added a new feature that lets me ask about my photos. Do you think I should switch? And should I export all 272,000 photos I have in iCloud? And should I do that with takeout or should I do that with a flash drive? How do you think I should do that? No, they're not thinking about any of this stuff. So average person, I think you're right. And also, by the way, when it comes to these foldables, there has to be a reason. Right now, I will say as someone who tests every phone, you love that fold you said. But at the end of the day, the audio and video quality, or at least the video quality, and the camera quality is going to be better on an iPhone than that Fold 7. So I would expect the foldable iPhone to maybe not have as good of a camera setup as a standard iPhone. But it's probably going to still be pretty good because Apple, like you said, they've gotten the basics down so well now. That any iPhone you get, it's just so good. But like so many parts of it are really good. Like even the iPhone 17 this year, it's like everything we wanted is just like there. It's like all the things like people wanted a higher refresh rate. They wanted, you know, USB-C for all these years. They wanted a better battery life. They wanted more cameras, better cameras. It's all there. Yep. It's the phone that I wreck. Everyone who asked me what phone should I look at this year? I'm like iPhone 17. like unless you need the telephoto zoom really bad or feel like you need to have the best phone just because it's the best phone there's no reason to get that pro get an iphone 17 like i myself could be 100 fine other than right on an iphone yeah in fact i have an air because it's good enough for me right i love the design i chose the air as my daily driver literally oh wow oh yeah I've been oh wow oh yeah and so what and you just zoom you just you just pinch to zoom on the screen and watch it pixelate or what is the the biggest issue is ultra wide so what I do is I bring my other phone when I have to do a video shoot but beyond right it's the air has changed my life and how I like it's hard for me to hold another phone it's kind of crazy so what drives me crazy is the fact that I know that they could have put a second camera there and they didn't because Baby steps. Yeah, they're slow playing me. Okay. So, you know, love all those comments about the Fold and the iPhone and the future of it. But, yeah, we started Timeout 17. That's just an incredible phone for anyone. It's an incredible phone. Okay, let me see. Where do I want to go with this? You're up. Okay. Although we're buzzing about the iPhone Fold, we'll just say it gets announced. I actually think potentially, in my opinion, the new MacBook Pro with a new design and an OLED display would be the product of 2026 for Apple. And I'm not talking about sales per se, right? We can always say what's the number one selling product of Apple, blah, blah, blah. That doesn't define what a great product is to me. But sometimes you got to go back to the basics and you have the Air, which is incredible. there's the macbook pro is an incredible machine and there's a lot of people that get a pro just because it says pro and they don't necessarily use all the power or need all the power because i always tell people get an air but they still i went air this last time and i'm not kidding it's it's i caught my workhorse the thing is incredible and i'm not you know i'm not i'm not grinding out like 8k videos and i'm not even i'm not even doing the level of like editing that you are per se but But it's amazing for how light it is. It's been around the world. It works. It's fast. I went with the two-terabyte drive. I mean, it's just amazing. And I can't wait to buy the MacBook Pro you're talking about because I know it's probably going to be thinner and lighter than what I've got right now. But go ahead. Keep going. Yeah. You know, the reports are the rumblings with a new design, right? A sleeker body. An OLED display. Basically, the MacBook Pro we've been dreaming about for 10 years that we wanted Apple to make, but they decided to slow play us and not make it. So I think just also, and I hope, we saw with the Air, Apple kind of leaned into this, hey, you thought we weren't good at designing stuff anymore? We still have our design chops, whether Johnny Ive is here or not. That was, to me, a statement piece of, uh-uh, we can still do this. So I think this new MacBook Pro in 2026 will be their kind of voila product of the year. I don't think it's going to be – there will be arguably more buzz around the fold just because it's a foldable iPhone. But I think when you look at how is Apple trying to define themselves, we already see how they revolutionized silicon for laptops and how they completely revolutionized that. and it's almost forgotten how big and how important that was and to your point what you can do with an air a machine that thin the battery life how quiet it is it never runs hot it's it's i never think about charging it i never think about charging my laptop ever since i got in in general the m chips were just incredible for battery life and efficiency but this latest one i mean i just it's not even a thought in my head that I need to charge it. And it's very rare that it even gets down to like half. And I use it all the time. And it's changed the way I think about computing. So I think that that'll be a fantastic product. What do you think besides the OLED could they do to make it better? Or is it just a combination of OLED and design I think it a combination of three things right It even the chip See we seen these gains in the chip like little incremental 10 15 And I'm the person who bought the M1 Max, fully loaded my laptop, and have never updated it since. Never upgraded it since. But it's that impressive, right? It's still good. I don't. And people are like, what? I'm like, no. So saving 30 seconds on an export on a 15-minute video is not going to make me spend $6,000 for a fully loaded machine. But I think that a new design, an OLED display, and this new chip arguably maybe on the 2nm process, which now will really be even faster and more power efficient, that makes me excited about that. So, you know, and as we've seen this direction, not that we need it anytime soon, it feels like this could be one of those machines that, again, I could use as a pro level user for five to seven years easy without blinking an eye. And it'll be that next thing. So, you know, I just think something to me tells me that that's going to be like when you look at the entire year and look back, you're like, damn, that was like one of those like hot. Ooh, Apple did it again with the products. I don't even think it's going to sell the most. I do not expect that. but i think no it's a smaller product for them i think it could be a signature product for them in 2026 so that's what i'm gonna go against the idea of the fold being the signature product okay well i think i think the fold will definitely get more buzz as it always does i mean i can't tell you the last time a macbook pro has gotten mainstream media attention but people that use them know what just how good they are and how long they last i mean you could easily like you just said use that for five to seven years and then give it to a parent or a family member. And it's still good. As long as Apple is doing those security updates for it, it's good to go. It almost never runs out because it just keeps going forever. I'm going to piggyback on what you're saying with the high-end MacBook Pro. I think that this is the year that Apple needs to get into, and they can finally, the low-end laptop. And I'm talking Apple's version of a Chromebook. They have all the pieces they need, and they are getting eaten alive in the education market, which is somewhere that they used to dominate. When you think about Apple back in the day, what did you play with when you were in elementary school? That was your first time you ever used a Macintosh, right? Everyone, same thing. That's where Apple kind of got in with these people, the educators and this and that. So I think that they need to have a product that is going to be a Chromebook equivalent for sub $500. and this kills Apple to do this, by the way. Ooh, sub 500 rich. Now your times are crazy. I like it though, keep going. But they already have the chip there. If the rumors are correct and they're gonna use one of their old iPhone chips or even any of their old chips, they can still do this. I mean, they're so powerful that it doesn't even matter. So the battery life will be incredible. The screen technology, they already have. I mean, they already have all the pieces in place. They can make a cheap laptop. Now, I think they've been hesitant to do this in the past because they're still getting those pieces in place. And now that the iPad is pretty mature, their laptops are pretty – I mean laptops can still grow a lot. I mean most people think of a laptop, they think of Windows, a lot of just businesses and things like that. And then Chromebook, that's what people think of when they think cheap. They want something that's cheap. But a Chromebook is fine, but it's very underpowered. And it's just – it's good, but it's not good. You know what I mean? It's not good enough. It's not good enough. It's not good enough. And if they want to build that halo effect around getting people to use their products early, I think that's a good way to do it. They sacrifice on the profit because they're not going to make a lot on these cheap machines. But again, all the pieces inside are kind of mature. So they've run their time of getting that R&D investment or that return on that R&D. And so I think that's an easy win for Apple. So I'm hoping they do that this year, but I can't be 100% sure. But this is a prediction show, so there you go. Well, you know, even just hearing what we have talked about and what we haven't talked about yet, 2026 is going to be a pretty crazy Apple year from a product standpoint. I remember someone posted an article like, here's the 20 new products we expect to see in 2026. And when you start kind of like looking down the line, you're like, this is going to be a really busy Apple year. Are they, in general, more incremental steps or things we've seen before, but they're coming from Apple now? Yes, but they move the needle because they're freaking Apple when they do that stuff. Just this last time, look at – you had new AirPods, two new versions, three if you count the noise cancellation on the lower-end ones. You had three new watches. You had a brand new iPhone 17 or an iPhone Air. And then you had all the regular iPhones all in one launch period. Plus the accessories. That's a lot of products just from one launch day. That was a lot. Am I missing anything from that? No, but you're right. It was a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot. And yes, there were refreshes, but every single one of them had a meaningful upgrade to people that use those products or are looking to upgrade their products or even get those products for the first time. And so it's, again, you mentioned that idea of Apple becoming this giant ship. It's like they're doing things, I think, very slow, but they do them at this point so right that it feels wrong. Now, wow. I don't know if I should clip that soundbite and just play it over and over and over for Apple. Rich DeMuro of KTLA says, it'll be on that screen. It's like, you know, watch out MKBHD. My quote's coming. Oh man. But they are, that's, they're doing, they're doing a lot of right things, but I, you know, what's interesting, the tech world and there's, you know, there's some subtle differences between our audiences. You see it, how in my comments, people are just thirsty for you know they're behind we all know they're behind actually right we actually all in general right but they're doing fine the revenues tell us they don't care they don't they literally don't care just like you know us as creators and competitors i don't i literally don't care what my peers are doing like i respect and enjoy them all when we see each other but i just don't care You just kind of got to do your own thing. You're on your path. Yeah. You're on your path, just like Apple. And look at the one thing where they took the big swing this year or two years ago, whatever it was, was the Vision Pro. And it failed in a big way. But by the way, you never heard Apple make much of it. They never, you know, I keep getting the stuff that the updates and they keep making these immersive films and things like that. It's not like they've given up on it. But they were early to that technology. But they're not like a company like Meta that's making the smart. A lot of these other companies just throw stuff out there and see what works. And that's why we have these wide swings of the format of these products and what they look like and the designs. So I love that as a tech person. I love the fact that Meta has smart glasses that are $800 with a display in them. Does anyone need those right now? Probably not, but it's a step forward. But Apple is a different consumer. And yes, you have the people that are just thirsty for more. and every product that Apple makes, it's like, why didn't you put this feature in there? There's a reason. And the reason is my audience. They don't want a holographic display on their iPhone just yet. You know what I mean? They don't need that. They don't need all that wild stuff to happen right away. They want a slower progression of things. And by the way, most people are not upgrading their phones every year. They're upgrading every three to four years. And so to them, any changes that Apple makes are delayed anyway. And they're pretty impressive when it finally trickles down to the average consumer. When I do a lot of my reviews and I position it as like, who is this best for? And I'll say like, this actually makes sense for the person, like you said, three, four, five years ago. Or if you have this older phone, this is going to be a huge game changer. And people don't think about that, right? You've got these people that switch out their phone every two, three years or whatever, even the people that, and they're the most vocal, the people that switch their phone every year. I'm like, what else do you expect? Those people represent maybe 1% of the actual upgraders. Yeah, it's a blip. It's a blip for Apple, and there's always going to be something more you can add, or there's always going to be a design choice that you can say, I wish this was better. But I think that Apple, in the past couple of years, has really stepped it up a notch with just the innovations and even the small changes. Like it took me, I will tell you this, that feature this year with the selfie camera that takes vertical or horizontal. It took me until probably this month to realize like how big of an innovation that was. I was filming a video and I was trying to hold my phone one way and I was like, so annoying. I want to, you know, and I held it a different way, but I was like, oh my gosh. And I can still film that vertical video, even though I'm holding my phone this way. It's like, wow. And Rich, didn't we talk about this? didn't we say we had this conversation because at first I remember you were like, ah, we'll see how it goes. So it's fun to hear you see the, like you had the light bulb hit you, right? Yes. I had the light bulb hit me and it just makes sense. Again, it gives people options. You know, it just, it's, there's not one right way to do anything in this world. And that includes using technology. And so it's nice that there are options. And I feel like, again, we haven't even talked about accessories for Apple products. I mean, that's an entire behemoth in itself where you buy this thing and it's just entree to like a million other things you can do with it. And that's tough when you have that Fold 7 you're talking about. How many accessories are there for that phone? The crickets are chirping right now. Maybe like a one Samsung case or something like that. Yeah. I mean, they did make a nice case to that carbon, but they didn't have MagSafe in So why would you do that anyway? Yeah. Okay. Hmm. I only have kind of two left, and I don't think they're that strong, but I guess I should just throw them out anyways because it just allows us to talk about other things. We were talking about Vision Pro. We were talking about Meta Glasses. There have been rumblings, but I'm going to lean into this one. And because Apple feels like they're going to be so heavy on products this year, although I feel they need to announce it, this whole idea of their entry-level Apple glasses will not make the 2026 deadline. I think that, A, they kind of, from what I can tell and feel, based on the rumors and reports, all of a sudden pivoted real quick to be like, ho-ho, Vision Pro not really working. We've got to get a glasses out. if they really pivoted in that time of a year, the way that Apple operates, it takes them at least two to three years to really give this product the love and the type of polish that they typically lean into. One example of seeing how Apple rush things, Apple intelligence, they were caught off guard. They kind of made a move to AI. And based on the timeline, you could tell it was only a year in. Now, when we see Apple intelligence, it'll be, I think, two and a half years or so. And it sounds like they're ready to finally push it out. So I think although the glasses space, look, I don't know how many of you have seen, you talked about meta display. I just use these Rayneo X3s. It's very infancy. The processing is not there. The flow, the fluidity, the speed, everything is really slow right now. And these companies are pushing that category forward. They're making strides and doing things. I'm like, wow, this is a great idea. But the execution and the technology is just not there yet. But damn, we're getting a lot closer than I thought we would at this point in time. So I don't think Apple Glasses will make this idea of a 2026 deadline, nor do I think they should. I'd like to see this first push, even if it's a more basic meta Ray-Ban thing from Apple. They got to give me something else. Does not have to have a display in it. But I don't think we'll see it in 2026. I could be totally wrong. but if they're going to put the Apple polish on it, they shouldn't do it. I think that prediction is correct because, like you said, they've already got these tent poles of the foldable. They've got Apple intelligence. Those are two big things. Smart home. I mean, if that happens, I mean, yes, those are three huge things. Smart glasses, like you said, they're not there yet. Even the metas, people are still just understanding what those are, not even talking about the displays. I'm talking about the standard ones. People are still just discovering that those are a thing, and they love them when they do. Again, I think they're doing those really well. But anyway, I think Apple, like you said, I don't think it's on the docket for 2026. Also, a smart ring, probably not happening this year from Apple either. That was not one of my predictions, but I'll do my last prediction. the ongoing erosion of Apple's walled garden, which they have had a lead in so many things because of the setup of the iPhone. The fact that you couldn't install third-party apps, the fact that iMessage is the only game in town, the fact that you couldn't set default apps, all these things, the USB, the lightning, all this stuff, it has all changed. It's Tap to pay. Right now when you want to use tap to pay, you've got to use Apple Wallet, but they've unlocked NFC for other little things here and there, which is quite amazing. The action button, that is enabling things. They still haven't let me change. I would like Apple to let me customize all the buttons on my phone. I want every button to act like an action button. Camera control, maybe I want to use that as my power button. Power button, maybe I want to use that as my camera control button. Action button already kind of does all that stuff. And it needs to be in a little bit of a better place, I think. But I think this idea that these, Apple does not like this, I understand that, but governments are the leading force here. Not in the US, because the US is very pro-business, right? The corporation is king in America. And I I get that. And I'm, you know, there are pros and cons to that. And I think that Apple has written that very well here because they've gotten carte blanche for many years to do whatever they want. And so is Google. And so is Meta, right? But I think other countries, especially the EU, so I just call the EU a country, put that on. They're a collective. Collective. The EU collective. You know, they are for, they don't care. They do not care. And I think that that's one of them. Japan is another that we're seeing where they're sort of starting to crack down on some of this stuff. So I think that the benefit in all of this is that it actually makes Apple a better company and a better competitor. Because now you cannot just compete on the fact that iMessage only works with iPhones, iPhones, iPhones. Now you've got RCS, which works interoperable. It's great. There's less of that problem between the two devices or the two platforms. So I think this actually is a positive in the long run for Apple because it forces them to innovate more and it forces them to say, yeah, there's no longer a differentiator between Android platform and iPhone platform or iOS. It is really what these users can do with these devices. And I think that Apple still has a very long lead, especially when it comes to accessories and things that Apple does. I like that. That's a good one. So the prediction generally is like the erosion continues and opens up things and makes it a better place and better competitively. Oh, I like that. Okay. Yeah. That's good. That's good. Like you feel good. You feel good having an iPhone, not thinking like, oh my gosh, this is so one-sided towards everything just drives towards Apple products and services. It's like Apple is becoming more open where – I don't know if you've noticed on the iPhone, but there's like a lot of little things that they've done. Just that default app section is like you wouldn't have seen that five years ago on an iPhone. The fact that you can just go in there and be like, okay, I want my browser to be this. I want this. One thing they need to do is let CarPlay users choose their default Maps app. Or just in general, when I ask Siri, it should allow me to do every other program, every other app at this point, it allows me to kind of pick and choose. I don't know why Max is such a problem, but that needs to change. I mean, I had a whole episode with a friend in the car space about just Apple standing with the car manufacturers and the developers, and it's not looking very good for them in the long term. It's not going to look very good, and if things hold as they are in the next five to ten years, it's not going to be very good for them in that car space. Okay. Ooh, let's throw this one out. This is not a shocker, but... Okay. A lot of rumors, a lot of rumblings. My prediction is Tim Cook will definitely step down next year, but it will be at the end of 2026, after the iPhone launch, in that kind of lull of the fall, and it would be a nice transitional time to say goodbye And I don have any suggestions for the successor yet i have ideas in my brain really yeah i i have well i mean here do you want me to say what i think i mean come on we we know what the rumors are saying well the rumors are saying john turnus right john and he makes absolute sense just from he's a safe he right safety apple he's internal he's been there under the steve jobs and Tim Cook regimes. So he's seen both of how those operate for better or worse. And he's a hardware guy. Like we need a hardware guy in-house, I think, to, it's not like he's going to upset what's going on, but I, you know, kind of like the iPhone air. We need more things like this, right? The new MacBook Pro. We just, we need some of those shiny dangly carrots once in a while, just to be like, okay, you still got it. It doesn't have to be everything. So Ternus is definitely the play and i mean i don't know how much of the stuff that you read but i thought what was a fascinating one which i don't think will happen but would probably shake up apple a lot more is if somehow they brought back the father of the ipod the founder of nest tony fidel and they're not going to because he kind of had based on what people are saying not my words a little bit of a jerk asshole complex but so did steve jobs yeah but but steve jobs i mean it's funny that number one not everyone knows that i mean no one knows what tony fidel is like in life i mean when's the last time the guy has done anything in the public light um i don't i think that's way too risky i just don't see it happening i'm not saying it's happening Is he still at Nest? Is he with Google? So Google bought Nest, and then he left. The reason why I like the idea of him is because, okay, you can live in Apple's garden and make these cool products that are tied to the ecosystem. Can you actually make a product outside of Apple? Remember, the Nest, when it came out, and it still is in my mind, it's pretty revolutionary from a thermostat perspective. Other companies have caught up. The design, the UI. When the Nest first came out, my first thought was, why didn't Apple make this? And then when I found out, oh, it was the dude who made the iPod, and then Google bought Nest. Now, unfortunately, I think the Nest direction is – it's still good, but it's Google-fied, right? It's all over the place. Yeah, right, right. And their camera, it's not what it was – when they got purchased and he made a lot of money. But if there was anyone that showed that they could come up with a product that still had that Apple DNA and actually succeed outside of Apple's walls, that's arguably the only one that i can think of that i've seen right like a yeah that is me so again i'm not saying what about the rabbit what about that little r1 thing that a that ai organize your life beer so yeah no no what was the other one that pinned to you that what was that one humane humane humane pin humane yeah any of those guys no no no no no i mean look i'm joking i think that one of those things will eventually land, but you're right. The Nest was a challenger product that was like an iPhone, like an iPad, something that had never been seen before, like an iPod as well. These are products that they come into the world and it's like, oh my gosh, why don't we think of those? And it's those kinds of products that will propel a company forward. I mean, I think Apple needs those, but like we've discussed, They also don't need them. They don't need them as often as they used to. And even think about this. Think of the trajectory. I'm sure there were egos involved. But if Apple had just said, you know what, Tony, your product's awesome. We're going to bring you back in. They would have had a smart home platform, right? Literally, you could have totally seen that slide right in to this Apple ecosystem and be a part of an actual smart home ecosystem launch that would have happened seven, eight years ago instead of now it's like, oh, we're going to put out this hub. I'm just saying, wow, you know, who knows what was going on behind the scenes and how hard the fallout was X, Y, and Z, who, because a lot of times it's all about relationships more than business. Yes, exactly. And also, also what you know at the time, like Tim Cook is a logistics guy and that's what Apple needed when they were, when they had the successful products that they had, the iPhone, the iPad, and some others, it's like they had to figure out how to get these in the hands of people. Tony Fidel may not be that guy. He might have been a design guy, an idea guy, kind of like Steve Jobs. But Tim Cook was necessary for a time where Apple was growing so fast. And I mean, it's just, it was wild how they got up and run. And we're talking making tens of millions of devices, not not one hundred thousand. It's like tens of millions monthly. Right. That's insane. I mean, doesn't this company sell like fifty five million phones a quarter or something like that? That's insane, right? That's yeah. It's like unfathomable. And the other thing, you know, as we're kind of talking about this, just succession, this idea of the future and what's going on with Apple people. I love this when people say, oh, Steve Jobs was the ultimate innovator. You know, Tim Cook sucks. And I'm like, OK, let's not let's also remember, although, yes, Steve Jobs was an innovator under Tim Cook's reign. AirPods, Apple Watch, Apple Silicon. You're telling me that those three things right there did not transform their industries. Right. 100 percent and you know let's let's throw in services he had a long time everything expanded right we want to down on services he said this years ago and now look at services i can't remember was it like was it like 30 percent or even more of their revenue now it's a it's a huge part of their revenue and it just can't and it's by the way just that it's infancy you know like and and Some of these things that, I mean, yes, Steve Jobs might have been the seed, but Tim Cook grew this business in the past, how many years has it been? Almost 15 now. I mean, it's 14. Yeah, whatever it is, it's like that may not have happened if you didn't have a guy that knew what he was doing. Totally agree. And he's quieter. He's not as in your face as a Steve Jobs, but he knows what he's doing. And clearly, like you said, a lot of this is relationship-based. He did something right. You know what I found? And you can attest to this because we've seen at least how things have transformed. Apple's a nicer Apple than they ever were before under Tim Cook. I'm just being real. The PR people, they were pretty – they're still – PR people have to have a hard line edge. they were near brutal um almost like an empire being run back in the steve jobs days yes there was no there was no like oh let's build a relationship let me prove myself let me show you like no it was like we like you we don't like you later it was that that's all i i remember i remember one of my earliest interactions with apple was asking for a an ipad for a demo i was doing on the Today Show. And they questioned me like you would not believe. I mean, any company in the world, you ask them for a product because you're going to show it on the Today Show, you'll have it by the end of the day. Next day delivery. Apple. Well, we don't know you that well. So explain. It's like, Today Show, what more do you need to know? I mean, it was that level of just the way that they operated. And I think that, like you said, they become a kinder Apple. I don't know if the average person understands that aspect of it, but people that do stories with them definitely understand. And you talk to NEPR people, it's almost like when you talk to someone that used to work at Apple, they must have taken some sort of oath that it's like you're not getting anything out of them. They'll dance around in circles around any story but they're not giving you the exacts ever like no matter they take that to the grave yeah so it's it's do you have any do you think like if you you know i don't know if you have any other ideas do you think it's turnus or even say no it's not turnus like for just the future of apple the only reason i think it's him is because i saw him walking with like the other like high level execs at an event one time and i was like all right and this would be for the rumors so I was like alright it's him like why would it not be him you know but I just that's the only person that I think that there's no one else on the executive team at the high level that's like you know like you got Eddie Q and these other guys like they're ready to retire like they're ready to be done with Apple so you need someone that can take them for another 10-15 years at least 10 years under their leadership and he's a youngish guy I don't know how old he is. Do you off the top of your head? I'm going to guess he's late 40s, early 50s. Yeah. So he's easily got until retirement age, 65, let's say, at that company to do that. And I think that, like you said, he has that base of knowledge from the Steve Jobs era, the Tim Cook era. He brings us all together. To bring someone in fully new, I'm not sure. I don't think that could happen. I really don't. It would not be a smart move, nor would that person last. It'd be like bringing in that guy from Pepsi. Remember that? What was his name? John Scully or something? John Scully? Yeah. It's like you bring Pepsi to run Apple. No. It's like you think these things are interchangeable. They are not. Next thing you know, you're adding red dye number seven to the Macintosh. Hey, people have been wanting more colors from Apple for a while. Yeah, I know. It actually makes sense. He was a genius. Hey, let's add red. We can get a good deal on orange number seven. Let's make an orange computer. Man, man. So, yeah, I mean, those are all my predictions in general. I don't know if you have any other things that just popped in your head. I don't know. I don't think so. I think I'm good. I mean, sadly, I don't think the iPad was mentioned at all. I mean, I think the one thing that people have wanted is that touchscreen laptop, like a merging of the iPad and the Mac computer. I don't know. I don't know if that'll happen next year. Or I guess, should I say, in 2026. If Apple really wanted to shock us, they'd put it on the new MacBook Pro. That would be shocking. Right, right? Like, and the thing is, you know, whenever I have touchscreen laptops, which I actually do like, and sometimes I accidentally like reach them. I just do it just mostly for scrolling, right? Or literally it's scrolling and closing a window. Only two things I do on the Windows laptops that I have their touchscreen. Maybe moving around, but yeah. Yeah, that's it. It's like, I'm not doing anything else on those. But that's not to say that my use case – I mean there are so many use cases where that could be useful for people. But I'm just saying what I do, and it's always like there's no reason for it. But it's kind of fun to have. I mean here's one thing. When you talk about the iPad, here's what's interesting. Okay, so for the longest time, people wanted more advanced multitasking, better screen management windows, right? I was one of those people that was like chirping on that. so Apple gave it to us and I was like I don't like this you're not using any of it no and you know the way it snaps and the way like you to size it and just no it's not clean and it's like just give me back the split screen two app thing that was there before that's not there anymore right so it's kind of like sometimes you might want something and they give it to you and then you end up not doing it right and I'm not saying you shouldn't try but it it reminds me of like, oh, everyone that wants a touchscreen Mac. To your point, what you said of how you and I have used it, it's just like two or three basic things. It's not like, I want this iPad experience on a Mac. People may say that, but you probably don't. You use them for different things. Long live the touch bar. I did have a MacBook with that. And that was like, that was the least useful feature on an Apple product ever. I thought you were going to reminisce on how much you loved it. I'm like, that thing was garbage. No. In fact, my dad is still using that computer. And my son, when we were out at my dad's, he was using my dad's computer. And he looked at it and he's like, oh, this thing. All it showed when we were browsing was the long URL from Google. He's like, what is the point of that? I'm like, I have no idea. It's like they just found things to put in that little bar. And it was brutal. That whole thing was brutal. And it was like, I think some of the use cases are like, hey, emojis. I'm like, no. No. Yeah. You know, hey, got to try sometimes. You got it. And that's okay. Look, they wouldn't be here if they didn't try all that stuff. So, okay, Rich, this was fun. I guess I didn't create a checklist, but it'll be fun to see which of our predictions kind of comes together or not in some way, shape, or form. It may not exactly be on the nose, but I'm pretty sure we got pretty close on a good amount of these. Let's hope so. Let's hope so. All right, Rich. Can you once again just remind people really quickly where they can find you or follow you, and we'll leave it at that. Sure. Once again, my full name is Rich DeMuro, but most people call me Rich on Tech. So you can search that. I've got a website, richontech.tv. I'm most active on Instagram, at richontech. I've got my newsletter. You can sign up for it. It's free. I've got my radio show and podcast. Just search Rich on Tech. And then, of course, if you happen to be watching TV, you'll see my face come across your screen sometimes. And I will be at the – whatever Apple events happen this year, I will hopefully be there. But before that, Rich, we'll see each other at CES. Yes. Las Vegas, baby. The only show where Apple is the only company that's not there, which is so wild. But there's still the influence of Apple is so great at CES. But I was actually writing my CES script, one of my CES scripts today. And I've been covering it for like 15 plus years now, which is wild. And it's actually, I think CES has only gotten more important than less important over the years. It's just, it had a little lull, I think. but now it's like it's like it's like that fireplace that you like finally got it like rip-roaring and it's like it's burning you know what i mean like you have to be there if you're a company to you know get noticed or just in general like i in ai this year it's going to be really interesting to see all the stuff that comes out but anyway it's always ccs is a behemoth and i know you're a big part of that show oh man it's it's it's a beast but damn it is fun um rich i i already know this we talk about we this is the stuff we would have talked about on our own anyways it's like just everything pretty much yeah we're just like oh this is normal so so maybe a little bit more baby talk in there but oh yeah you're right oh man baby watch coming in case congrats or uh i will say congrats on the impending newborn it's very exciting your your life is about to change woo you know that you know that you know that well and i will lean on you when i need to with those delirious text messages i'm here i'm here for you brian i can't i can't i can't say all my advice is the best but no no it's all good so rich thank you so much buddy we will talk to you and see you soon and we'll do it again man thanks brian all right thanks so there are our at least some of our predictions for 2026 did you agree with some of them did you disagree with some of them i don't know, let me know what you think. You know how you can get to me? You can send a voice memo or email to applebitsshow at gmail.com. But that is going to do it for this episode. We are here. 2026, a brand new year. Wow. Exciting things to come and really a jam-packed year from Apple. Now, before we go, we got to give a shout out to our platinum Apple supporters at the $100 level. Brandon Ledford, Gil Cabrero, Wesley Frater, Jared Lewis, Michael Gigliotti, Atari Koenigsegg, and Gregory Ford. Thank you so much for your incredible support. And thank you to all of you who continue to support my podcast and my content and have allowed me to do this for eight freaking years now. Man, what a blessing. Thank you so much. So, hey, here's to 2026, here's to CES, And here's to Apple in 2026. And we'll see if they can deliver. But until next time, take care. It's the Apple Bits XL, baby. Peace.