Apple Forced to Pull Apple Watches from Shelves!

This week, Marques, Andrew, and David were hoping for a nice, easy week of news. But they were wrong! A lot is happening, including Apple not being allowed to sell certain Apple Watches anymore, Google paying $700 million after being sued by all 50 states, Threads joining the Fediverse, and a ton of EV news as well! Plus, they talk about the 2023 smartphone awards video that just dropped over on the main MKBHD KZbin channel!
Chapters
00:00 Intro
01:10 Apple Halts Sales of Apple Watches
16:01 Google Pays $700M
33:25 Trivia question
34:16 Wix (Sponsored)
35:14 Netsuite (Sponsored)
36:22 Threads is Federating
50:54 Smartphone Awards
01:25:01 Trivia question
01:26:07 Shopify (Sponsored)
01:27:10 Babbel (Sponsored)
01:28:12 Tesla Wireless Charging For Cars
01:35:05 Volkswagon Group NACS News
01:37:19 Mercedes New Color Lights
01:42:01 Trivia Answers
01:47:55 Outro
Links to stories:
Apple stops selling Apple Watches: bit.ly/4auPtVU
History of Apple Watch lawsuit: bit.ly/3THh4NA
Google to Pay $700 Million: bit.ly/474g5ud
30% of Google's Profits stat: bit.ly/3Rsw8fs
User choice Billing: bit.ly/3GSgHs1
Threads & ActivityPub: bit.ly/3GR83Ke
Flipboard Federates: bit.ly/4aJyL5B
Tesla Inductive Charging: bit.ly/3NEKc4l
MKBHD Smartphone Awards: bit.ly/3TA4Vdh
New EV Companies Sign On to NACS: bit.ly/3TA4u2D
NACS Certification: bit.ly/3RBde6l
Mercedes Self-Driving Blue Light: bit.ly/3Hd5O4t
Shop the merch:
shop.mkbhd.com
Shop products mentioned:
Samsung S23 Ultra at geni.us/JiXWof
ASUS Zenfone 10 at geni.us/AUTNv
Samsung Z Flip 5 at geni.us/4V6L
Apple iPhone 15 Pro at geni.us/FJ6qT6X
Google Pixel 8 Pro at geni.us/QZDJa
Google Pixel 7a at geni.us/4MAxB
Samsung Galaxy A54 at geni.us/RQxUT
Apple iPhone 15 Plus at geni.us/QPrD
Honor Magic V2 at geni.us/ShB9j4
OnePlus Open at geni.us/i8eq5
Nothing Phone 2 at geni.us/CTUnyq
Google Pixel 8 at geni.us/qLeWM7
Instagram/Threads/Twitter:
Waveform: / wvfrm
Waveform: www.threads.net/@waveformpodcast
Marques: www.threads.net/@mkbhd
Andrew: www.threads.net/@andrew_manga...
David Imel: www.threads.net/@davidimel
Adam: www.threads.net/@parmesanpapi17
Ellis: / ellisrovin
TikTok:
/ waveformpodcast
Join the Discord:
/ discord
Music by 20syl:
bit.ly/2S53xlC
Waveform is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

[@luisfranco6099]

Shout out and congrats to Andrew. I honestly missed his viewpoints while he was on leave. Owning up to something as small as dismissing the Apple suit is refreshing in the podcast world.

[@nchtwnd]

I agree 110%

[@geekmangreg1677]

You are underestimating the importance of the blood oxygen sensor because you have no personal use for it. However, as someone who had lung clots a few years ago, it’s one of the reasons I bought and wear an Apple Watch today as I have to monitor my oxygen levels constantly. It’s too inconvenient to carry a monitor in my pocket. I know at least three other people with health related issues who use that feature on the watch heavily. If Apple were to discontinue the feature after I purposely bought the watch for it, I would expect a refund from my watch and I would switch to something else that offers it.

[@glittery_ponies2035]

The Apple Watch was never FDA approved as a pulse oximeter. If you have a medical reason to know an accurate measure of your blood o2 levels, why risk it on a non-medical device for convenience’ sake?

[@phartferd5738]

You shouldn't be using it to replace medical equipment anyways

[@yellowadil]

Every week clear my schedule for MKBHD videos, not just for the spicy takes and fire camera comparisons, but because my 2015 self who discovered a dude filming phones in his room wouldn't believe I'm now glued to a tech king's pronouncements.

[@pr0adam]

sussy

[@BAMTech22]

It’s impossible not to pull for him and the crew. Those dudes are just loving life.

[@yellowadil]

@@pr0adam how!

[@howdoilearnkorean1687]

I fall asleep to this podcast like it’s a lullaby and then watch it again later lol

[@jairokachow]

D1 Glazer

[@brandonmalin4178]

David saying "attourney's general" correctly made me chuckle. He knows his stuff

[@sergioolivares3273]

A little take on the Apple Watch, I'm a retail employee for a wireless company. We were told we could only sell what we already had in stock but in the event of the sales being suspended, no more Apple Watches Series 9 and Ultra 2 were going to be sent. So we can only sell Watch SE

[@ncard00]

When your computer is idle, or when you're only doing light work, you can run the software "folding home" in the background, which uses the computer's CPU and Graphics Card to help scientists calculate complex data sets used for medical research aiming to cure diseases like cancer.

[@errinwright]

how in the world did you decide to post this comment here @@ncard00

[@divano1014]

2 HOUR PODCAST! This is the greatest Christmas present

[@clairesilvermoon]

RIGHT!!

[@UnpossiblePOG]

I believe that those 3 guys are perfect combo for TECH PODCAST. David has a curiosity of knowing fundamentals (basics) of any technology. Andrew, although sometimes wrong, is pretty good at speculating things in tech world. Marques has a lot of experience on new cutting edge technology and also some old versions of them so that he can compare the upgrades.

[@FirestormX9]

Ellis and Adam are part of this podcast quite considerably as well I'd say.

[@orchidmsc]

The key is that all 5 have, based on their background, have a distinct role.

[@abhijeet1in]

That cheese-verse joke from Marques was standing-ovation-slow-clap-worthy. 👍

[@DiamondMaster115]

Are you guys going to make a video going into more detail about the results of the blind smartphone camera test? I think i can speak for everyone that we definitely like seeing the data...

[@asimmoideen5960]

also marques is very good at explaining and analyzing data

[@ConLLee]

Amen

[@charlesmuneri]

I second this comment

[@mathewboyd903]

1:06:20

[@DiamondMaster115]

@@mathewboyd903 Dang, that sucks. There's still a whole lot that has changed under the hood, and the iPhone winning the night mode was definetly a radical enough change to make a video about IMO.

[@mon699]

Anytime David says “A little bit of history…” I know it’s about to be a fav episode

[@johso87]

[@johso87]

[I believe you meant to refer to David at 00:01:36, isn't that right?] =)

[@mon699]

@@johso87yes I did, thank you!

[@NoorAtaVFX]

As an anemic person, the blood oxygen sensor on fitbit is what helped clue my doctor into ordering me an iron infusion. I was exhausted and barely functional for the 2 months leading up to the infusion. Most people may not benefit from the health features, but for people with known conditions, it can help a lot.

[@ellisrovin]

why did NO ONE tell me my hair looked like that

[@DavidImel]

Have you seen my hair on literally any given day

[@Christian-iv8fz]

F

[@skygaz3r]

Throughout the whole Google lawsuit thing, all I could think of was “then why doesn’t Apple have to open its iOS to allow side loading?” Frankly it’s so anti-competitive in this time and age

[@ivanchizhikov9939]

i'm not the tech expert, or a lawyer, or anything, but... Apple makes their own hardware and software, so it's their proprietary product/platform as a whole. it was like that since forewer. people who buy apple products know what they sign for. and developers never developed apps to sell outside of appstore. so they can do whatever... google , on the other hand, is not. that's the first reason. second reason is that android kinda always was and kinda "advertised" itself as an "open" platform... but, in fact, in recent years especially, it's not so anymore. when i try to install something that is not an google store from apk file i get an error. that's defeat the whole purpose of an open system. so if a developer developes an app for android, and it's simply aren't compatible to your phone because it's not on play market - it's gating.

[@obsydian806]

I think it's because as closed as apple is, they seem to be playing fair. Google was incentivising apps to come into the play store at a discounted price while Apple never had such a program

[@eliaskouakou7051]

​@@ivanchizhikov9939are you implying some that pay for an iPhone doesn't own it?

[@davixpixie243]

​@@obsydian806so you are saying Google was competing with apps while apple just don't have to complete... donno man, some sounds hella anti-competitive

[@obsydian806]

@@davixpixie243 Not exactly what I was saying. Google wasn't competing as much as they were making an uneven playing field. Apple takes a 30% cut, period. This allows big apps and small apps to pay the same "apple tax" and reach the same demographics. Google on the other hand claims to have a 30% cut across the board but unfairly discounts some applications. That isn't exactly encouraging competition since some applications have an implicit advantage. Hence why Google lost their lawsuit and Apple didn't

[@BradMeyerlive]

Ellis touting his iPhone 12 Mini is always a joy.

[@mattjgraham]

Merry Christmas from the UK guys. Thank again for all that you do! Its the weekend in the UK and its now Christmas Holiday too :)

[@herbertho]

I hated 'baby on board' bumper stickers too but then i learned it was originally intended for first responders to know to look for a small human in your mangled car instead of just the folks in the front seats. Whether that's why everyone uses those stickers is another thing but I've come around to giving a little grace for these sticker bearers.

[@thecapone45]

Dang man that’s dark. Never thought about that.

[@Manganellia1]

That's a super fair point I'd never thought of! Reminds me of the sticker they gave us to put on our bedroom windows so if your house caught on fire a fireman would know there was a child somewhere

[@marklabonte2925]

Something…something…Burt Ward!

[@frozencold199]

blood oxygen is very important in sleep tracking, it can tell you if you have sleep apnea or not, not having the sensor is a serious downgrade if they are forced to remove it from the next applewatch

[@nishantrajani7372]

I don’t think it would be a problem in next apple watch because they will tweak something to make it different but that is 9 months away.

[@YKSGuy]

@@nishantrajani7372 Change the algorithm in the current one to keep sales going / making it suck, then release a new one that works much better next gen... That is what they did with noise canceling in the air pod pro's

[@SnappyJCM800]

Usually in those big lawsuits where the companies pay out to a big group of people it’s like a sign up and the higher up you are in the lawsuit the bigger percent you’ll get. I always sign up for these big suits and usually will get a check for anywhere from $3.46 to $9 years later lol

[@thecapone45]

Yep! Same. Starkist Tuna. Red Bull. Pine Sol. Lot of those lawsuits I’ll sign up for and get a check the next year lol.

[@ChrisSmithy]

The Apple Watch spo2 sensor is actually very accurate, when I was sat in the back of an ambulance the Apple Watch matched the ambulance sensor on the finger 100% and every fluctuation was also picked up.

[@Kabopple]

It'd be sick to see a whole podcast episode shot on phones. I'd imagine you've got enough phones to do the multi-camera setup. I think audio would be rough haha

[@Metro_Gnome]

Audio would be the easy part just usb digital mics there are options and they sound fine. The issue would be heat. Multiple phones running good mic’s and recording in 4K continuously..even an iPhone 15 pro would overheat trying that past 30-35minutes, even at 1080p

[@commonsensebuyer]

So true.

[@epicchris1985]

Also Apple can’t just remove a feature from a product that’s this new as then customers would have a right to refund it as they loose something they paid for. Not a feature i personally care about much but for sure just removing it off a brand new device via software update would be crazy.

[@timfngwena]

... didnt seem to matter for force touch on series 4 watch. That got removed after the fact.

[@epicchris1985]

@@timfngwena ohh really. Legit didn’t know that. That being said this is a health item and this product is only sales wise 2 months old so I’m sure customers wouldn’t like it to simply disappear few months after buying it!

[@ReviewThisTestThat]

Ask google how they handle that lol

[@epicchris1985]

@@ReviewThisTestThat true story 😂

[@ReviewThisTestThat]

@@epicchris1985 Amazon’s halo band did the same thing and they bricked that to E-waste

[@johso87]

I love that you have an audio only podcast available, but seeing you guys do the magic of team cooperation live is just so much better

[@rubenmoreno407]

Kudos to Andrew for being so respectful of his coworkers allowing them to talk. Also, I use the Ghost case from Dbrand for magsafe, it's amazing (I don't like stickers on my phones).

[@tmywu]

find someone who talks about you the way Ellis talks about his 2021 iPhone 12 Mini

[@starstuff11]

Happy holidays guys! Loving the festive sweaters 🤩

[@Fairphone]

A shoutout from Andrew is pretty much equal to winning the award 💙

[@alwinhuynh]

I’d like to see Andrew be more confident with his questions! A couple times he thought he was gonna ask a dumb question but i thought all of them were interesting and what i was thinking too

[@Lord_Reset]

Correction, on Samsung phones both of them are on the home screen on setup. As far as I'm aware it just used to be the galaxy store, I think only having the Play store might be a requirement for everyone but Samsung because they're the special one.

[@nunojct12]

Almost 2h wow, what a great early Christmas gift. Thansk guys!

[@lowerleftside]

If you think Google moves slow take a look at the FDA. They move at continent drift speeds.

[@jevarius72]

😂😂

[@ItsTechnicallyMagic]

I work in biopharma at the small scale/clinical level. Trust me it’s slow. It takes at a minimum 10 years to maybe bring a new drug to market and that’s if it passes clinical trials. Plus you need to pay a $500M filing fee just for the FDA to begin their revision process.

[@shakh_ikromov]

1:32:50 - he is describing exactly a trolleybus!

[@JPringle-rz6gc]

Just a random comment for anyone with a Samsung S23 who wants great battery life. - go to the Performance Profile setting and switch to Light. This isn't the same as power saver mode, it just optimizes battery in respect to processing speed. I have gone from a solid one day battery to a little over under two full days with this setting on my S23+. I have noticed absolutely no downgrade in performance/speediness in my day to day (tho I do not game either). I highly recommend doing this. Just got reminded about it when he mentioned the iPhone 15+ battery life. I feel like I barely have my phone on a charger anymore. It's great.

[@thebossdawghomie]

"y'all don't wanna hear me, y'all just wanna dance." Marques was right, 21 years later 🤯

[@U2haveaniceday20]

Hey All Happy New Year.Have not been on in a while but glad I'm catching up Now.Thanks so much for sharing. ✌️

[@mattjgraham]

Love the Christmas jumpers!

[@cavaaritaylor3409]

Can you guys link the mag safe thing?

[@reliableralf1]

Love the pod! I wanted to comment- I’ve had a spontaneous pneumothorax (collapsed lung) that randomly happened a few years ago. So it’s important to keep an eye on my blood oxygen level to make sure that it’s at normal levels. I realize that most people don’t need to worry about that issue but I wanted to post it because I know that there are others like me.

[@johnworkman4571]

Hey guys, I had a long drive today, so thanks for the longer episode!

[@tal1296]

Thanks for the LCD connector tip 👍🏻

[@toddw]

Blood O2 is pretty dang important if you have sleep apnea.

[@LIVElifeHii]

Or COPD

[@ToniBlyden]

I agree

[@shashankpadwal]

So will android prompt to allow side load app have confirm button in the prompt only or it will still go in settings and I need to enable it

[@cutieapplepie]

That Car jersey talk was my favorite part

[@chrismaynard_]

This was a blast!! Merry Christmas from my iPhone to yours 🎁🤘🏻

[@morgangowen958]

You guys mentioned that you’re not sure why the temp sensor feature exists. From what I’ve read that actually has been revolutionary feature for a lot of women when it comes to cycle tracking especially since the Natural Cycles app for example got FDA (and European) approval recently to integrate with it. Meaning it can now act as an approved method of contraception and fertility tracking as well.

[@hacim04]

Next time y'all do the blind camera test you should ask for the participant's daily driver phone. I wonder if the phone camera that they are used to adds any bias.

[@REVIEWSONTHERUN]

Thanks for sharing it. ✌️

[@danielt91]

How can we purchase one of these Christmas sweaters? 😢

[@since1990kevin]

I don’t know who came up with the green bar that shrinks down at the bottom of the video during the sponsorship part but it is genius 👏🏽

[@MrJudgi]

What is the advantage of NACS compared to the ccs 2 (the europe one and not the american one)?

[@JamesMorganMcGill]

3am in Australia right now, u blokes always give me something to think about on the late nights at work :))

[@mananahuja4656]

such cool sweatshirt yall are wearing!!

[@legit3575]

man I still remember when in August I putted a reminder for every day of December to comment on the 2023 awards that the Google fold won best foldable during waveform in August and it did not win 😭

[@KaleyDuke]

you guys should do a revisiting episode where you look back at stuff you've discussed because a lot of topics end with "we'll have to see" and don't get revisited. like in the objective phone tier list episode you guys talk about tiktoks implementation of payed packaged content and we now see how content creators utilize it.

[@kellcd]

happy holidays everyone 🎄☺️💜 p.s. 11/10 episode! longer the better!

[@ReviewThisTestThat]

you just need dewalt to make a car and we just swap the battery packs lol

[@Fuentes6544]

Sooo I have the series 9 watch. can I return it if doesn’t work properly? And I’m doing a cellular plan payments

[@elih5367]

Am I crazy or is the shot at 1:22:38 an iPhone and not a Pixel?

[@armchairracer4900]

The McLaren Speedtail's wireless charging pad is for trickle charging the hybrid electric motor battery pack, not the 12V lead acid battery

[@stijill]

You already have a very capable robot... a car. Tesla will have the car position itself over the charging pad then either the car will lower or the pad will most likely raise itself for that optimal wireless charging. The Roomba has been self charging for over a decade and this method is perfect. If a car can parallel-park itself then it can pull up forward to a charging port, exposing contact pads from the "bumper" using IR sensors to guide itself in like the Roomba. Think about it... since the 60's we have been pumping combustible liquid through a rod at 35,000 ft while traveling at 375 mph.

[@kylevanness6182]

I knew it was activity pump when Elis said Shaqtivity pump accidentally 😂 He looked kinda guilty too

[@yushiroske]

Ok.. now I need the MKBHD christmas sweater

[@AdamTyree]

Shout out to Andrew for the Instagram for iPad comment, haha!

[@pmpetry]

F for Adam, miss you

[@pinakinchoudhary9071]

David in thumbnail tho🔥

[@imicca]

1:33:00 that TROLLEYBUS

[@mightypine]

Could you share the overall camera winner with a chart? Last year it was the Pixel 6a, and the chart was helpful seeing where all the phones landed.

[@tomasholm8235]

Merry Christmas 🎄🇩🇰🇺🇸

[@TheMaristBoy]

Project Butter was a real thing though... Remember, it was that whole Android thing where they wanted to standardize that 60 fps smoothness in the UI.

[@DavidImel]

Yeah that's what we're making the reference to.

[@TheMaristBoy]

Okay, glad I wasn’t dreaming that lmao

[@jedimmj11]

33:14 As someone who also has a "ch" in their name, I appreciated hearing Ellis accurately pronounce Chaim Gartenberg. Kudos to you.

[@Dfso200x]

23:25 Correct me if I'm wrong, but if they needed to put that rule in place it was because Google was blocking apps like Samsung Store (a pre-installed app store) to have that "installer permission" pre-set, so if you as an user wanted to install anything from that store you needed to give it installation permissions, which would be additional friction and considered a deterrant from installing anything from outside the Play Store, similar to Microsoft Edge telling you to keep Edge anytime you try to download Chrome or something like that

[@KyleJones_TN]

Andrew’s interpretation and translation between people (and between Verge articles) is very cool. You remind me of a college roommate who did this same skill among our friend group.

[@alighavam]

Dude the OnePlus sweaters look sick

[@dhk19]

Any idea of when you will review the Bose ultras 😉

[@fgyvmv]

Do you know if the apple watch 9 and ultra 2 will continue receiving watch specific updates, and will they have trade in value next year?

[@doyouuptown]

I have the same question. Someone said AppleCare will support. I’m wondering about pushed updates.

[@arnavs2791]

Zenphone 10 is the best smartphone out there

[@Jst4vdeos]

Missing proper US cellular band support though

[@bonniemclarty4269]

Lights for self-driving mode: really useful for those of us cycling or walking (making eye contact with driver to make sure they see you, etc. is going to change if you want to make sure the car sees you instead).

[@jennifergala]

I missed Andrew. You are all so great guys.

[@supermario1775]

On my motorcycle I would love the selfdriving indicator lights.

[@atre3]

Merry Christmas🎅 🎄EveryOne

[@_daniel.rad_]

Merry Christmas 🎁⛄

[@ErickQJaquez]

Ok my theory for the Pixel 8 pro temperature sensor is that they at first intended to add a LiDar sensor but something happened, either they couldn't find a supplier or they ran into patent issues or maybe they just couldn't find a way to integrate it into Google Apps but they already had the Pixel 8 pro housings made with the hole on them and just had to find something to fill it with which could explain why the thermometer app seems like they made it during a lunch break.

[@brendanvista]

The app not allowing a continuous reading makes it even more useless.

[@junedkhatri31]

Looks like Ellis has finally claimed full ownership of the mic

[@techboy95]

56:50 it’s incredibly annoying that I tried 3 separate products to add MagSafe to my iPhone XS Max and it just simply does not work. It generally charges a tad bit but then just stops working

[@jacobleetech]

I made a calendar reminder to comment "I knew about this 6 months ago because of the podcast" but didn't put what I was supposed to know about from 6 months ago so I didn't know what video to put it on lol

[@kreigerbailey3550]

Portland, JAMAICA in the Building!!! 👑🇯🇲🔥💥🌟⭐💯💎

[@anandamroy4727]

@1:37:30 since I started using FSD on Tesla in 2022, I always thought there should be a way to notify others that the car is on FSD for couple reasons. 1. Good promotion for Tesla 2. Less chance of road rage if car does something rude. Glad to see Merc is doing this.

[@Simfukwe]

Which Magsafe stickers is he using??

[@darthsigil]

Dod they say the sensors are wrong? The Apple watch is just as accurate as Polar H10, which is the standard for Heart Rate. Now the SpO2 is a different story. Oh, Dr Mike is not an expert on medical tech.

[@pmpetry]

Festivity Pro Max Episode!

[@shsd4130]

Ellis is the numtot king & makes this podcast so good

[@bogdanMr]

The blood oxygen sensor is not used only for viewing the oxygen level, but also in other algorithms, like sleeping and workouts. So it is as important as the heartrate sensor.

[@k8s347]

It was Christmas 5 months AGO? LOL

[@carloquibot]

34:57 wait, since when did marques got that red and black RE20? Looks cool!

[@anandamroy4727]

@1:31:36 are you using Tesla wall charger? That gives me around 44 miles an hour.

[@GabbiHilson]

Happy Holidays to my favs!!!!

[@robinn7183]

Google is allowing or not interfering with OEMs providing installer rights (permissions to install or preload) to certain apps that come preloaded on devices.

[@DiamondMaster115]

Why was the intro very slightly slowed down at the end?

[@AlexPetrusaitis]

Thank you for your honest and good natured take on this debate.

[@temple1_1]

That face Marques makes at 14:00 when he tries to imagine 14 billlliioonnnn dollars LOL. All the best Marques I'm sure you'll make your way there. Great work you do and all the best. Been watching your content for the last 12 years.

[@Texasgirl10]

I just ordered the 9 series today from ATT. Hopefully I receive it.