Nov. 13, 2023

New M3 Macs and Using an iPad to Plan a Garage Gym

In this episode:

The shorter shows are a hit!
Apple has new MacBook Pros and iMacs powered by M3 chips, should you upgrade?
RIP Touch Bar
How Tom used the iPad to plan out his recently installed garage gym

Links from the show:

Question or Comment? Send us a Text Message!

Contact Us

Drop us a line at feedback@basicafshow.com
You’ll find Jeff at @reyespoint on Threads and @reyespoint@mastodon.sdf.org on Mastodon
Find Tom at @tomfanderson on Twitter, and @tomanderson on Threads
Join Tom’s newsletter, Apple Talk, for more Apple coverage and tips & tricks.
Show artwork by the great Randall Martin Design

Enjoy Basic AF? Leave a review or rating!

Intro Music: Psychokinetics - The Chosen

Show transcripts and episode artwork are AI generated and likely contain errors and general silliness.

00:00 - Intro

02:35 - Shorter Format Sticking Around

03:33 - Mac Event Recap

15:29 - Garage Gym Planning with iPad

34:53 - Close

WEBVTT

00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:01.004
This is a dork party.

00:00:01.004 --> 00:00:13.201
The more, the merrier, and just like that we're back.

00:00:13.201 --> 00:00:15.285
It is a new episode of Basic AF.

00:00:15.285 --> 00:00:17.449
Tom and Jeff back at it again.

00:00:17.449 --> 00:00:19.873
Jeff West coasting it again.

00:00:20.960 --> 00:00:33.481
Here I am on the West coast in another Dahmer basement, the brother of Jeffrey Dahmer it's a family tradition, it seems it really is.

00:00:33.481 --> 00:00:37.451
And the bodies underneath the concrete are in a family tradition.

00:00:37.451 --> 00:00:40.518
Actually, truth be told, this is legit.

00:00:40.518 --> 00:00:42.482
So sad story.

00:00:42.482 --> 00:00:46.911
My niece is one of her bunnies had to be euthanized.

00:00:46.911 --> 00:00:47.231
This week.

00:00:47.271 --> 00:00:49.255
I know we're starting off on a solid moment.

00:00:50.360 --> 00:00:51.223
Yeah, yeah, welcome.

00:00:51.223 --> 00:00:53.310
Welcome to the Basic AF show.

00:00:53.310 --> 00:01:00.000
But we were going through, like, how many animals are buried in the back yard?

00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:10.757
This is like dude, some archaeologist is going to come here and think it was a cemetery, or or the family home is going to be writing a new novel.

00:01:11.381 --> 00:01:15.914
Yeah, this is that I moved here, I think about when I was five.

00:01:15.914 --> 00:01:18.000
It was shortly after my next brother was born.

00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:21.843
My parents had a house across the back fence.

00:01:21.843 --> 00:01:33.396
They were renting a house across the back fence and Mr Hugley I think that was the guy's name sold us, sold my parents this house and sold me a tree in the back yard for $1.

00:01:33.396 --> 00:01:35.942
So I owned a tree, kind of sweet.

00:01:35.942 --> 00:01:38.712
Yeah, gave me a little deed written on a piece of paper.

00:01:38.712 --> 00:01:39.474
It was pretty cool.

00:01:41.421 --> 00:01:42.683
But yeah, I've lived here.

00:01:42.683 --> 00:01:48.412
I'd lived here for a you know, until I left home Nice.

00:01:48.412 --> 00:01:49.914
This is, this is the place.

00:01:49.914 --> 00:01:51.837
This basement didn't exist at that time.

00:01:51.837 --> 00:01:53.760
Right, you know, jeffrey Dahmer has to.

00:01:54.501 --> 00:01:55.987
And you said that your brother studio now.

00:01:55.987 --> 00:01:56.349
Is that right?

00:01:57.099 --> 00:02:02.632
It is my brother studio so he does, you know, some voiceover stuff here and some music and stuff like that.

00:02:02.772 --> 00:02:02.953
Nice.

00:02:03.221 --> 00:02:07.623
He was kind enough to share, share his space with me, and here I am.

00:02:07.623 --> 00:02:08.346
It's actually pretty cool.

00:02:08.346 --> 00:02:11.433
You know, he's got a bunch of music stuff around.

00:02:11.433 --> 00:02:17.574
It's way more decorated than is my spot at home, which I have to change.

00:02:17.574 --> 00:02:20.986
Yeah, well up, surrounded by clothes.

00:02:21.707 --> 00:02:24.253
So it's better than that.

00:02:25.341 --> 00:02:27.105
Cool, and that dress looks great on you.

00:02:27.105 --> 00:02:28.790
You're looking so hot.

00:02:29.151 --> 00:02:31.960
Doll up for you a little bit I appreciate it.

00:02:31.960 --> 00:02:33.302
Real quick.

00:02:33.302 --> 00:02:35.328
You know we're on the shorter format.

00:02:35.328 --> 00:02:40.000
We did the last show came in at about 30 minutes care for take and we did get some good feedback on that.

00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:42.826
And so yeah, we were excited about that.

00:02:42.826 --> 00:02:50.979
We felt like that show turned out pretty well and I think a few people did get in touch with this and they like the shorter format, so we're going to stick with that.

00:02:50.979 --> 00:02:55.393
I think it helps us stay more locked in, more on focus.

00:02:56.485 --> 00:02:57.979
Yeah, I struggle with that anyway.

00:02:57.979 --> 00:03:00.389
So anything to help is good.

00:03:00.389 --> 00:03:02.181
Yeah, we got some.

00:03:02.181 --> 00:03:10.915
We got an email this week actually about the subscription stuff which and actually the cost of subscriptions going up.

00:03:10.915 --> 00:03:16.307
So thank you to a Mr Abe Frenes for sending us a little note.

00:03:16.307 --> 00:03:17.028
We appreciate that.

00:03:17.028 --> 00:03:18.110
So there's your, there's your.

00:03:18.110 --> 00:03:18.852
Shout out, pal.

00:03:18.852 --> 00:03:27.972
Send us another, we'll do it again yeah pretend that you like us and we'll pretend that we like you back, right yeah?

00:03:27.991 --> 00:03:28.432
Easy peasy.

00:03:28.432 --> 00:03:37.237
So also, as we released that show a couple of weeks ago, that was the same day that Apple had scheduled their scary fast events.

00:03:37.237 --> 00:03:38.000
So they did have that event.

00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:39.596
Nice, I thought the event was.

00:03:39.596 --> 00:03:40.000
It was kind of cool.

00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:46.953
It was a different take for them with the Halloween theming and the dark backgrounds and some of the effects and things.

00:03:46.953 --> 00:03:50.979
They had strictly a Mac event, which everyone kind of expected.

00:03:50.979 --> 00:04:02.068
But we did get the M3 chip and three and three, three flavors and three flavors, and three flavors, yeah, and the M3 Macs on the MacBook Pros.

00:04:03.932 --> 00:04:04.274
Which thing?

00:04:05.682 --> 00:04:05.842
I.

00:04:05.842 --> 00:04:10.000
You know I'm not in the market at the moment, although I'm back in the Bay Area.

00:04:10.302 --> 00:04:11.979
So we can run that stuff for the 5000.

00:04:16.004 --> 00:04:17.346
But I like it, I.

00:04:17.346 --> 00:04:21.851
What's pretty interesting is these computers are getting so juicy.

00:04:21.851 --> 00:04:29.567
Now for the average person you know, like Joe me, who sits here and types words and sits doing a podcast, it's, it's a lot of bang.

00:04:29.567 --> 00:04:31.798
It's a lot of bang for the buck.

00:04:31.798 --> 00:04:33.050
So I like them all.

00:04:33.050 --> 00:04:40.288
I'm not in the market for any of them, so there's nothing about it that gets me that way.

00:04:40.288 --> 00:04:44.598
The one complaint that a lot of people have had is go for it, tom.

00:04:44.598 --> 00:04:45.000
What is it?

00:04:45.903 --> 00:04:47.550
8 gigs of RAM on the entry model.

00:04:48.923 --> 00:04:51.451
Feels like we've had 8 gigs of RAM for a long time.

00:04:51.451 --> 00:05:08.971
Yeah, and you know Apple's line is which I'm not going to argue with this honestly is that 8 gigs of Ram with that Ram on board the main chip, like 16 gigs, they say, of regular RAM.

00:05:08.971 --> 00:05:11.487
I know there's a lot that you can wrangle about.

00:05:11.487 --> 00:05:14.057
You know you can get a $200.

00:05:14.076 --> 00:05:16.959
You'd like me to do that a little bit, or are we going to try to stay positive today?

00:05:18.709 --> 00:05:18.910
No, no.

00:05:18.910 --> 00:05:22.326
What would the show be without you Bitching little bits?

00:05:22.600 --> 00:05:30.127
Well, no, I was going to say so when we started testing the MacBook Air as it worked, the first model we got was an 8G model.

00:05:30.127 --> 00:05:31.786
No, I'm sorry, that's incorrect.

00:05:31.786 --> 00:05:33.908
It was the M1, 13 inch MacBook Pro.

00:05:33.908 --> 00:05:38.346
It was an 8G model and for what I do, it really was fine.

00:05:38.346 --> 00:05:47.745
So I don't think, performance wise, if you know like us and you're gonna just do emails, web browsing, things like that, I think yeah, okay.

00:05:47.745 --> 00:05:57.005
I think the biggest issue I have with it really is this is a $1,500 laptop.

00:05:57.005 --> 00:05:59.331
That the entry level model is.

00:05:59.331 --> 00:06:06.807
So I think MacBook Air starting at 8G, mac Mini starting at 8G, especially the Mac Mini, because that comes in around 500 bucks.

00:06:06.807 --> 00:06:13.511
I think that makes sense, but a $1,500 laptop, it seems cheap, right.

00:06:13.511 --> 00:06:27.245
So it's 8G and the real kicker is so today all I'm doing is browsing and doing some emails or whatever, but say, six months from now, I decided to start a YouTube channel and I wanna do some video, because I've always.

00:06:28.379 --> 00:06:29.463
Oh, I like this stuff.

00:06:29.463 --> 00:06:31.625
Now I can't upgrade the RAM.

00:06:33.161 --> 00:06:36.367
Right, right, and that is problematic.

00:06:36.367 --> 00:06:37.182
You gotta think ahead.

00:06:37.740 --> 00:06:43.245
Right, and a lot of times, though, you don't know what you don't know and it's like, okay, well, jeez, now I guess I'll get another laptop.

00:06:43.245 --> 00:06:47.944
It's not that the 8G laptop couldn't do it it could.

00:06:47.944 --> 00:07:04.369
Now, if you're and kind of the asterisk there for all of it is the people that need more than 8G know they need more than 8G and they'll get 16 or 32 or whatever it is, but they do have to pay extra to get it, which goes back to that.

00:07:04.369 --> 00:07:08.625
If this is a pro laptop at $1,500, 16g seems like it should be the starting point.

00:07:09.942 --> 00:07:20.728
Yeah, I don't disagree with you and I can tell you, my rule of thumb on buying any of these things for the last many, many years is double, whatever the base model is.

00:07:20.728 --> 00:07:23.327
That's the way that I've played the game.

00:07:24.120 --> 00:07:25.343
So but I would say it does.

00:07:27.040 --> 00:07:33.098
And if they started with 16 gigs, I wouldn't be, I wouldn't double that, that's the notion and they know that.

00:07:33.160 --> 00:07:34.163
Yes, they do, don't they?

00:07:34.163 --> 00:07:36.406
They've got very smart people there.

00:07:36.406 --> 00:07:46.548
Marketing cats got smarts or the money making people have smarts Firehands offices is dialed in at Apple.

00:07:46.548 --> 00:07:47.463
No question about that.

00:07:47.463 --> 00:07:48.904
Yeah, they know the deal.

00:07:50.163 --> 00:07:51.267
So, but that has been.

00:07:51.267 --> 00:07:56.651
It has been a complaint about Apple computers since Long time.

00:07:56.651 --> 00:08:06.908
The first little Mac showed up in a little bag that you plopped on your desk and stuck a couple of discounts into you know that not new.

00:08:07.480 --> 00:08:10.267
So we have a new color space black.

00:08:10.267 --> 00:08:12.384
Yeah, I haven't seen it.

00:08:12.384 --> 00:08:13.581
Have you Not in person?

00:08:13.581 --> 00:08:14.685
No, I've only seen pictures.

00:08:14.685 --> 00:08:17.788
It's not black, it's darker gray.

00:08:17.788 --> 00:08:31.026
And one thing they did mention was that they've got a new coating that should reduce the fingerprints, because I think that's a big complaint with the midnight MacBook Air is it seems to accumulate fingerprints quite a bit, which I think still is a nice color.

00:08:31.026 --> 00:08:34.803
I've seen that one and it looks nice, so I'm sure this looks good too.

00:08:36.100 --> 00:08:39.808
Yeah, sure it's great, I always buy silver, just because I just buy silver right.

00:08:41.259 --> 00:08:45.504
If I were getting something new then I might get the.

00:08:45.504 --> 00:08:46.929
You might get that one.

00:08:46.929 --> 00:08:49.629
I kind of like that color yeah.

00:08:50.600 --> 00:08:52.184
Imax got updated as well.

00:08:52.184 --> 00:08:54.081
They did To the chips.

00:08:54.081 --> 00:08:57.667
No design changes on those, so still 24 inch display, 4.5K.

00:08:59.019 --> 00:09:00.225
Which those are great computers.

00:09:00.225 --> 00:09:03.105
One of my client has one of those and first of all she loves it.

00:09:03.105 --> 00:09:08.592
You know she thinks it's the best thing going.

00:09:08.592 --> 00:09:10.547
She said next time she would get a purple one.

00:09:10.547 --> 00:09:13.769
She got she refers to it as greeny she got a green one.

00:09:13.769 --> 00:09:15.182
She loves the green one, she really does.

00:09:15.182 --> 00:09:19.926
But when she gets, when she's in the market for a new one, it's gonna be purple.

00:09:19.926 --> 00:09:24.268
But yeah, and I like the color scheme on those, I gotta say, unlike the iPhones.

00:09:24.720 --> 00:09:27.068
I like to see that come down to the MacBook Air.

00:09:27.068 --> 00:09:28.886
I'd like to see some different colors for that.

00:09:29.139 --> 00:09:30.826
That would be kind of fun right.

00:09:31.701 --> 00:09:32.922
I agree that would be.

00:09:32.922 --> 00:09:34.726
That would be kind of a slick play.

00:09:34.726 --> 00:09:37.129
If they did that, I think you'd see a lot of people that would.

00:09:37.129 --> 00:09:39.000
That would buy those.

00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:42.625
And, by the way, macbook Air still, I think, a killer buyer.

00:09:42.625 --> 00:10:01.941
I was talking with my aunt and uncle yesterday and they're running, I think, a 2013 MacBook Pro and they're asking me what they should get to replace that, because it's kind of running, the battery's gone and to replace it's a couple hundred bucks but the computer can't even be updated.

00:10:01.941 --> 00:10:07.023
And they were surprised at first that I said MacBook Air is like no, I think this is.

00:10:07.375 --> 00:10:08.239
Yeah, they're so nice.

00:10:08.239 --> 00:10:20.706
Really are Love the one I have from work, and I think I told you the other day, if I were buying now, I wouldn't get the 16 inch Pro, I'd just get maybe the 13 inch MacBook Air or maybe the 15.

00:10:20.706 --> 00:10:24.865
I haven't seen the 15 in person yet, but the 13 is great.

00:10:24.995 --> 00:10:26.682
I did just see one of those.

00:10:26.682 --> 00:10:29.244
Another one of my clients got one and it's great computer.

00:10:29.244 --> 00:10:33.655
It's really nicely sized and still kind of lightweight, Mm-hmm.

00:10:34.735 --> 00:10:36.059
But, jeff, an important thing.

00:10:36.059 --> 00:10:38.119
Yes, we need to pour one out for the touch bar.

00:10:39.455 --> 00:10:43.096
The final touch bar model has been retired the 13 inch.

00:10:43.298 --> 00:10:47.481
MacBook Pro with M2 did not get upgraded, and that was the last one with the touch bar?

00:10:49.855 --> 00:10:51.581
I don't know that anybody's gonna miss that.

00:10:51.581 --> 00:10:56.422
I think it was a fun idea to try, but I don't think the value at was.

00:10:56.995 --> 00:11:04.682
Yeah, and people kind of you know, rip on Apple a little bit for not experimenting more, and then they do things and people rip on that.

00:11:04.682 --> 00:11:08.940
So it's like you know I'm sure they don't mind that I think the best thing I saw on that touch bar was.

00:11:09.722 --> 00:11:10.504
I'm sorry, go ahead.

00:11:10.504 --> 00:11:13.317
I just interrupted for the first thousandth time in this podcast.

00:11:13.317 --> 00:11:20.844
I think the best thing that I ever saw with the touch pad was somebody made it so you could play Doom on the touch pad itself.

00:11:20.844 --> 00:11:24.960
So Doom was running on the touch pad, so that was kind of fun.

00:11:25.181 --> 00:11:25.321
Yeah.

00:11:25.321 --> 00:11:28.327
Yeah, I mean it was an interesting idea, but where it was placed you?

00:11:28.631 --> 00:11:30.019
know, no one's looking at that right.

00:11:30.075 --> 00:11:32.620
You're always looking at the display and I don't know.

00:11:32.620 --> 00:11:37.566
I'm a little surprised they actually released it, because it was kind of wacky.

00:11:37.566 --> 00:11:42.360
Like when you saw it at first you're like, wow, that looks cool, but the practicality of it just wasn't there enough to do anything with it.

00:11:43.355 --> 00:11:46.096
That was kind of handy for scrubbing through YouTube videos and things like that.

00:11:46.096 --> 00:11:49.956
But yeah, that's pretty much that and photos in your photo library, Right?

00:11:49.956 --> 00:11:51.499
Maybe music if you were doing something.

00:11:51.499 --> 00:11:52.360
You can sing through that, Right?

00:11:52.863 --> 00:11:54.907
right, yeah, so there we go.

00:11:54.907 --> 00:11:55.980
That's the event pretty much.

00:11:55.980 --> 00:12:00.139
It was 30 minutes shot on iPhone, which had some people worked up.

00:12:00.139 --> 00:12:02.700
Of course, everything Works everybody up these days.

00:12:02.700 --> 00:12:05.638
Gotta have something to post about on YouTube and social media.

00:12:05.697 --> 00:12:13.320
But Right, and the funny thing about that, by the way, is people complaining that they were using lighting and that they were using dollies.

00:12:13.320 --> 00:12:17.322
It's like you don't say what kind of crack are you guys smoking?

00:12:17.322 --> 00:12:20.325
Have you ever seen what happens when people film stuff?

00:12:20.375 --> 00:12:22.923
Right, they did use the $10,000 camera.

00:12:22.923 --> 00:12:24.503
Guess what they just still had.

00:12:24.503 --> 00:12:26.600
Those same things, Exactly right.

00:12:27.035 --> 00:12:35.461
And I think the point is and this is pretty amazing really is that the iPhone, because they're able to shoot directly to disk.

00:12:35.461 --> 00:12:39.283
You know, they can shoot directly to an SSD.

00:12:39.283 --> 00:12:49.403
This is pretty a lot of bang for your buck for being able to use that phone as a camera.

00:12:49.403 --> 00:13:02.166
And you know, I'll say that one of the things that was surprising to me and this is 10, maybe 15 years ago that people were starting to use SLRs, digital SLRs, as professional film cameras.

00:13:02.166 --> 00:13:05.724
This is kind of the next iteration of that.

00:13:05.724 --> 00:13:08.783
This is a phone that can pull that kind of stuff off.

00:13:09.215 --> 00:13:14.359
So you know, your average guy who can't afford a red camera, you know one of those.

00:13:14.359 --> 00:13:17.701
I don't know what those things cost now $10,000 or something like that.

00:13:17.701 --> 00:13:30.330
You know you can use an iPhone Pro Max and once you have the right lighting, you can shoot just like the pros do.

00:13:30.330 --> 00:13:37.921
I mean, come on, steven Soderbergh's been shooting on the iPhone for a long time, you know, not in a gimmicky fashion and they were doing some fun stuff.

00:13:37.921 --> 00:13:43.340
They were using wheelchairs and Soderbergh was using wheelchairs and stuff like that, as Dolly used to move the camera.

00:13:43.340 --> 00:13:45.056
It's something you know.

00:13:45.056 --> 00:13:46.581
I think it's.

00:13:46.581 --> 00:13:55.142
It puts a lot in the hands of someone that's willing to do that kind of work and it's gonna take lighting, no matter what.

00:13:55.414 --> 00:14:03.619
Yeah, and a lot of indie people have used iPhones for several years with the filmic app and things, so I think it's just, you know, keeps getting better and better.

00:14:03.799 --> 00:14:08.821
but it's Agreed, so the complainer's gonna complain, but it's pretty impressive.

00:14:09.034 --> 00:14:10.859
Yeah, that's how we do podcasts as we complain.

00:14:12.361 --> 00:14:12.884
Well, right.

00:14:12.984 --> 00:14:13.465
I'm here for that.

00:14:13.465 --> 00:14:16.140
You're getting well yeah you always offer.

00:14:18.455 --> 00:14:23.119
By the way, I just want to point out that the lighting in my studio is way the hell better than yours is right now.

00:14:23.298 --> 00:14:23.900
Look at this dude.

00:14:23.981 --> 00:14:26.634
I just I just want my face looks.

00:14:26.695 --> 00:14:32.741
Well, yeah, yeah, I'm in the closet man, it's yeah, lights right in my face.

00:14:33.903 --> 00:14:35.177
That's a whole nother story Keeps me awake.

00:14:35.177 --> 00:14:37.100
We can get around that.

00:14:37.100 --> 00:14:38.259
I'm in San Francisco.

00:14:38.259 --> 00:14:39.101
We can work that out for.

00:14:39.274 --> 00:14:46.375
Well, we'll come up with a special episode, We'll travel there together and the rumors will really fly All right.

00:14:46.375 --> 00:14:55.158
So the event all wrapped up, I think short suite to the point it was, and so I think upgrade wise if you are on an Intel Mac.

00:14:55.158 --> 00:15:01.159
Oh, no question yeah when you're ready and want to do it, you're up in for a treat.

00:15:01.159 --> 00:15:03.942
I think you got a lot of options all the way down the line now yeah.

00:15:04.615 --> 00:15:19.162
If you're on an M1, yeah, probably not M2, definitely not Again, unless you're in that really high but small percent of folks who need to eke every last bit of performance out.

00:15:19.162 --> 00:15:21.720
Or you need to do reviews on YouTube.

00:15:21.720 --> 00:15:24.818
Yes, you can get that, but otherwise I think you're good.

00:15:26.001 --> 00:15:26.243
Agreed.

00:15:26.243 --> 00:15:27.024
Okay.

00:15:27.024 --> 00:15:29.100
So, like Tom, we're under the next step.

00:15:29.100 --> 00:15:30.023
Let's do it.

00:15:30.023 --> 00:15:34.403
So this is a mostly tech podcast, and we've got some exciting news today.

00:15:34.403 --> 00:15:36.162
Well, tom has some exciting news.

00:15:36.162 --> 00:15:48.384
I have a pile of pictures not right in front of me this second, but I have a pile of pictures that Tom just sent me of the new gym you set up in your garage.

00:15:48.384 --> 00:15:52.153
So you've moved from the closet to the garage where on our way out the front door.

00:15:52.153 --> 00:15:59.889
That's a good thing, but it's it's a Really amazing set up.

00:15:59.889 --> 00:16:10.360
You've been wanting to do a home gym for a while, and so I want to have you tell us a little bit about the kit you put together, what you did, how you, you know, set everything up, but I'm telling you I would come work out at your gym time.

00:16:10.764 --> 00:16:11.732
Would you're welcome anytime?

00:16:11.732 --> 00:16:15.289
Good, that means six hours away, but anytime you want to come, yeah.

00:16:18.380 --> 00:16:22.532
Right, yeah, right now it's definitely six hours by plane away, right, um?

00:16:22.532 --> 00:16:24.325
So tell us?

00:16:24.325 --> 00:16:30.929
So tell us a little bit about Kind of the, the design, the dream, what it is that you did, what kind of kit you got for that?

00:16:30.929 --> 00:16:34.788
Very slick, very colorful, I want to say very old Apple color.

00:16:34.788 --> 00:16:39.524
It is, yes, it's yeah, tell us a tell us a little bit about it.

00:16:40.226 --> 00:16:47.789
Yeah, so the I, I have been Pretty much regularly going to the gym since I was in my mid-20s.

00:16:49.120 --> 00:16:50.443
Doesn't necessarily look like it.

00:16:50.443 --> 00:16:51.547
I'm not a big dude.

00:16:51.547 --> 00:16:52.389
You look hot now.

00:16:52.489 --> 00:16:53.631
Well, it's just for you.

00:16:53.631 --> 00:16:57.883
But um.

00:16:57.883 --> 00:16:59.922
He did.

00:16:59.922 --> 00:17:01.427
I think the desk fell apart or something.

00:17:01.427 --> 00:17:02.610
I like that.

00:17:02.610 --> 00:17:13.342
Sorry for trip here, but I like that ace Oakland ace thing back there behind you on the oh yeah, it's at a door or window or wall, I don't know what that is, but no, that's it, that is the wall.

00:17:13.582 --> 00:17:18.272
Okay, so it's old, old ace, when ace were still kind of in the Bay area.

00:17:18.272 --> 00:17:25.404
They are, but and then, anyway, yeah, ace dubs Raiders once upon a time, yep.

00:17:26.086 --> 00:17:26.268
Okay.

00:17:26.268 --> 00:17:29.546
So anyway, back back to the story.

00:17:29.546 --> 00:17:37.212
You've been going to the gym for over 20 years and and you know, it's never been a social thing like for some people.

00:17:37.212 --> 00:17:42.048
The gym is like their social hour and they go, oh and they you know they spend three hours there and they talk to a lot of people.

00:17:42.248 --> 00:17:45.374
And I never really have done that, even in my 20s.

00:17:45.374 --> 00:17:45.920
I didn't do that.

00:17:45.920 --> 00:17:53.207
I just kind of went in, did my thing and left and you know, if there were some people there that maybe I worked with or knew from other places, you know quick hello or whatever.

00:17:53.207 --> 00:17:55.984
But so I've always done that.

00:17:55.984 --> 00:18:07.242
And then of course, during the pandemic a lot of the places had to close down Temporarily and then when they reopened they had some restrictions in place and things like that.

00:18:07.242 --> 00:18:15.872
But when they shut down there was a mad scramble from for people Looking to equip their homes with something to work out with.

00:18:16.500 --> 00:18:16.701
Mm-hmm.

00:18:17.061 --> 00:18:18.405
And so I kind of started this.

00:18:18.405 --> 00:18:28.015
Then, like I picked up An adjustable bench, I got some adjustable dumbbells and then eventually one of those airbikes, and so that was kind of the start of it for me.

00:18:28.015 --> 00:18:58.788
And then, you know, when the the pandemic restrictions kind of eased up and everything and I started to go back to the gym, I found, after having worked out at home and never having to wait for a piece of equipment to open up, I Really didn't have the patience for that anymore, because when you just expect that you don't it's always annoying, especially, like when the person sitting there on their phone or their jaw jacking you can always tell when it's jaw day at the gym and everybody's just talking.

00:19:00.521 --> 00:19:14.586
But so I was like, and the place that I went to here in town is very nice facility, it's owned by the local hospital and it's actually Partially a medical facility, so they've got these Standards they have to meet for cleanliness and everything.

00:19:14.586 --> 00:19:19.259
So it was always top-notch and they always had, you know, housekeeping staff.

00:19:19.259 --> 00:19:22.195
They're cleaning, taking towels around, wiping down things.

00:19:22.195 --> 00:19:25.086
So it was always super clean, which I always liked, because not all gyms are like that.

00:19:25.086 --> 00:19:34.893
Some are kind of dingy, but that Annoyance factor of waiting because the the freeway section there was relatively small.

00:19:34.893 --> 00:19:39.003
They're like four benches, one squat rack and a couple power racks.

00:19:39.003 --> 00:20:01.226
But and of course, with CrossFit and its popularity and like free weights are Quite popular now and so those were always in use and so what should take 40 minutes would take an hour and 15, or you had to sub out the exercises and you know ain't the end of the world, but it's you know it's a nuisance, but for the old man who doesn't want anybody under lawn, I don't like to leave the house.

00:20:06.540 --> 00:20:18.729
So you know, our house was built in the late 90s and when the the original owner had it built, he had a two-car garage and then he had like a 12 by 12 Additional kind of section in the back of it.

00:20:18.729 --> 00:20:31.931
As you pull into the garage, that was his workshop, okay, and so we traditionally have just used that as a storage space, and so we'd have shelving along the walls and I had the riding mower in there and everything.

00:20:31.931 --> 00:20:41.404
And so you know, a lot of people, though, that that go to the gym are always like man it'd be nice to have a suite set up at home and then I don't have to go.

00:20:41.526 --> 00:20:48.647
The kids can jump in if they want to and maybe start using it as well, and so Looked at it.

00:20:48.647 --> 00:20:52.641
We had some conversations here in the house and the wife was all for it.

00:20:52.641 --> 00:20:54.596
She was like you've always wanted to do it, you should just do it.

00:20:54.596 --> 00:21:04.435
So step one I think that really helped kick it off is there was a new storage facility that opened up just to street up the street from us, and so we were able to run a storage unit.

00:21:05.471 --> 00:21:06.814
An American tradition, by the way.

00:21:06.994 --> 00:21:07.415
Exactly.

00:21:07.415 --> 00:21:14.837
Yeah, never throw anything away, just pay for storage to hold junk Because I got cash to burn.

00:21:14.837 --> 00:21:17.242
I really don't, right, right.

00:21:17.242 --> 00:21:25.698
I was hoping, though, that in six to 12 months I'll get tired of paying the storage fee and that'll be like the incentive to get rid of all that junk and then get out of the storage.

00:21:25.718 --> 00:21:29.030
Get a dumpster fee, right, but anyhow.

00:21:29.030 --> 00:21:36.358
So it's literally up the street, which was kind of like the key thing, because I didn't want to have to drive 15 minutes to the storage place.

00:21:36.358 --> 00:21:38.695
I could drive 15 minutes to the gym and say what's the point?

00:21:38.695 --> 00:21:51.714
So we got all the stuff out, cleaned it up, touched up the walls and everything, and so while I was kind of doing that, I started researching what I might want, and this is where the tech part kind of comes into the story.

00:21:51.714 --> 00:21:53.759
To stay on narrative, here, but yeah.

00:21:56.250 --> 00:22:05.920
And so you know, you kind of, like I said, I picked up the bench, I picked up the dumbbells and it was kind of in our living room at this point and the air bike was in our office.

00:22:05.920 --> 00:22:07.849
I think it's going to stay inside.

00:22:07.849 --> 00:22:16.882
I just don't have enough room because the space is basically 12 by 12, but part of it is still going to be functional garage space, just like a wire shelving unit and everything.

00:22:16.882 --> 00:22:20.959
So I'm probably in a 12 by nine space maybe.

00:22:20.959 --> 00:22:31.740
So what I did is I would did most of this on the iPad and so I would wait when, you see, did most of it on the iPad, what do you mean?

00:22:31.740 --> 00:22:55.821
So the design kind of you know, sketching that out, the research so there are a ton of videos on YouTube that people do for their home gyms, garage gyms, basements, whatever the case may be, and so I started looking at those, and so what I did is generally I would just do it at the end of the day you know it was propped up in bed right before bedtime and would watch some YouTube videos.

00:22:55.821 --> 00:23:04.682
I set up a note in the bear app, which is my notes app, and I like it because you know it has sketch capabilities.

00:23:04.682 --> 00:23:05.914
You can add links to it.

00:23:05.914 --> 00:23:09.836
I mean it's pretty much like Apple Notes, it's just not Apple Notes.

00:23:09.836 --> 00:23:14.253
It's easier to get your notes out if you decide to move on, and I think it looks nicer.

00:23:14.253 --> 00:23:22.239
But so what I do is I would watch the videos, anything that was of interest, I would just hit the share extension, drop it into the bear note.

00:23:23.050 --> 00:23:25.739
I kind of had an idea of which vendor I wanted to use.

00:23:25.739 --> 00:23:27.470
There are a couple of primary vendor.

00:23:27.470 --> 00:23:29.460
I mean there are a ton of vendors, but the three.

00:23:29.460 --> 00:23:33.673
There are some big ones like Rogue Fitness is one of the top ones.

00:23:33.673 --> 00:23:35.037
Rep Fitness is another.

00:23:35.037 --> 00:23:38.203
Prx has come on the scene of late.

00:23:38.203 --> 00:23:43.182
They're big, on the wall mounted racks that actually fold down.

00:23:43.182 --> 00:23:45.135
So when you're done you just stick it back up on the wall.

00:23:45.257 --> 00:23:45.698
Oh cool.

00:23:46.911 --> 00:23:52.001
Which is pretty nice because, remember, this is still somewhat of a functional garage space.

00:23:52.001 --> 00:23:57.181
So I ended up going with the Rogue Fitness setup.

00:23:57.181 --> 00:24:04.762
So I had bought the adjustable bench from a few years ago and it's super heavy duty.

00:24:04.762 --> 00:24:06.472
It's a little pricey but it's.

00:24:06.472 --> 00:24:08.578
I've learned as I was looking at this.

00:24:08.578 --> 00:24:10.814
There's a saying buy once, cry once.

00:24:15.134 --> 00:24:16.237
So instead of buying cheap.

00:24:16.256 --> 00:24:20.671
A couple of times you just suck it up and pay for it, but it's.

00:24:20.671 --> 00:24:22.997
You know, the rack I got was the Rogue.

00:24:22.997 --> 00:24:26.413
You're like this, like a PC name or something.

00:24:26.413 --> 00:24:29.521
Rml 3W fold back wall mount rack.

00:24:29.521 --> 00:24:37.097
I was like, holy crap, it's three by three 11 gauge steel, so it's heavy.

00:24:37.097 --> 00:24:38.059
Yeah, it's pretty solid.

00:24:38.099 --> 00:24:39.001
Look at these pictures.

00:24:39.001 --> 00:24:43.017
Yeah, it's, I can see it's another and bolted to the wall.

00:24:43.458 --> 00:24:44.942
Yep, yeah.

00:24:44.942 --> 00:24:58.035
So we, I got the Stringer kits, which are 59 inches wide, 10 inches tall, and so basically, they want you to hit this thing on four studs in the wall, and so that's what we did.

00:24:58.035 --> 00:25:10.180
Now the bottom part of our garage is block wall and so, if you can see it in the picture, there we've got some half inch plywood, because the drywall portion of the wall set out about a half inch over the block.

00:25:10.990 --> 00:25:29.459
So we put the plywood down there for the second stringer and the hammer drill to drill into that, and that that was the longest part was just getting those things on the wall, and then the rest of it was just, you know, a lot of cranking on ratchets and stuff to get the bolts in and all that stuff.

00:25:30.070 --> 00:25:31.536
Good thing you were working out before that.

00:25:31.696 --> 00:25:59.278
Yeah yeah, I was tired last night, and so what I did, though, is I would go, and you know so I'd watch these different videos, look at some articles, go to the websites, and so I had a number spreadsheet that I would put, kind of, went through and just listed everything I wanted, so that would be the rack, the bar, the different weights, any attachments that I thought I might need that go on the racks.

00:25:59.278 --> 00:26:00.213
I got, like, a bar holder.

00:26:00.213 --> 00:26:23.138
You can see in the picture there, that bar is hanging kind of perpendicular there, and then that was just for budgeting purposes, and so what was nice that was I was testing stage manager for a good bar, part of that, and that actually worked pretty well because I could have Safari open and then the notes or not the notes, sorry the numbers spreadsheet open.

00:26:23.278 --> 00:26:37.593
Kind of off on the side there and I just and I had it kind of in like an iPhone size window right, so it was the real small third screen or whatever third of a screen, and then I could kind of plug my numbers in there as I was going through, I'd put links in there.

00:26:37.593 --> 00:26:40.119
Maybe some notes say, okay, this is probably phase one.

00:26:40.119 --> 00:26:43.237
Phase two, because I've also learned that a garage gym is never really finished.

00:26:44.869 --> 00:26:51.454
So I've got other things I need to get, but that's not until next year sometime, and so that all worked pretty well too.

00:26:51.454 --> 00:26:57.890
But what I really liked was using the grid note paper and bear and I think notes has.

00:26:58.009 --> 00:27:26.904
That too is it's pretty easy, once you have your measurement, to kind of get things to some sort of a scale using those that grid paper, right, so it's just like you're sketching it out on physical paper, and so what was really nice about having it digitally is you can make your first sketch of the space and then just duplicate it, and then you can have five, six, seven, eight, move things around, and so I did all that, that just kind of, you know, fooling around with the positioning of the pieces that I wanted to get.

00:27:27.509 --> 00:27:34.973
So Black Friday is kind of the opportunity to save a bunch of money on these things for anyone who's considering this?

00:27:36.190 --> 00:27:37.329
And Rogue actually does have a full list.

00:27:37.329 --> 00:27:41.800
Was it the real Black Friday or one of the Black Fridays that they have now in August?

00:27:42.190 --> 00:27:43.695
Well, that's what I wasn't sure about.

00:27:43.695 --> 00:27:49.402
And so people were saying Rogue usually does like a matte, black, november, like the whole month.

00:27:50.150 --> 00:27:51.273
And I was like, okay, the whole month.

00:27:51.273 --> 00:28:04.819
And so they did, and so I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the stuff that I wanted to get All got here before the space was really ready and so I had all these boxes in the garage stacked up.

00:28:04.819 --> 00:28:05.912
I had junk everywhere.

00:28:05.912 --> 00:28:08.740
I had to paint the walls.

00:28:08.740 --> 00:28:14.101
We went to one of the local farm stores and bought Stalmats that's what's on the floor.

00:28:14.101 --> 00:28:15.393
So, like the horse stall mats.

00:28:15.393 --> 00:28:16.717
No, that's great.

00:28:16.717 --> 00:28:21.500
Yeah, a hundred pounds piece, four by six, three quarter inch.

00:28:21.500 --> 00:28:31.140
Again another tip from YouTube, because they're like 50 bucks a piece versus like the regular gym rubber floor, which can be quite a bit more expensive.

00:28:31.862 --> 00:28:34.457
Nice, it's good play by somebody yeah.

00:28:34.698 --> 00:28:35.942
Tried to save some bucks there.

00:28:35.942 --> 00:28:43.294
I did end up getting Everything shipped for five bucks through the Matt Black November sale.

00:28:43.314 --> 00:28:47.607
Considering how many, how many pounds of stuff was this 455?

00:28:48.092 --> 00:29:00.060
Yeah, okay, for five bucks, not bad right because, yeah, I went back and looked at some of my old receipts and, like that bench that I got I think was the bench the shipping on that was like 150 bucks, yeah, so whoa.

00:29:01.551 --> 00:29:08.910
And I did say shipping killer, yeah, and I saved $160 on the components Mm-hmm as well, so that that worked out pretty well.

00:29:08.910 --> 00:29:14.871
I had bought the weights back in I want to say it was in late September because they had a free shipping thing on the Wait.

00:29:14.871 --> 00:29:19.771
So I got the bumper plates just because I wanted the color, just to spruce it up a little bit, because the right, which is nice by the way it looks.

00:29:19.991 --> 00:29:20.954
It looks really slick.

00:29:20.954 --> 00:29:22.317
I like and like all of those.

00:29:22.377 --> 00:29:24.722
Yeah, thanks, yeah, I'm really happy with how it turned out.

00:29:24.722 --> 00:29:31.990
I did find on Etsy a Guy who was actually up in Pennsylvania.

00:29:31.990 --> 00:29:44.284
He uses his 3d printer and makes receptacle covers that go on your duplex receptacle, but on the top he's built a little stand for a home pod mini.

00:29:44.284 --> 00:29:52.970
Yeah, yeah, you showed me those, yep, and there's a space it's thick enough up on the top where you can tuck the cable in the charges, the home pod mini.

00:29:52.970 --> 00:29:53.692
So I'm gonna.

00:29:53.692 --> 00:30:03.269
I've got a couple of Apple gift cards that I got for my birthday and father's day that I've held on to Just for this, and so I'm waiting to see if those go on sale with Apple, maybe save a few bucks here in a couple weeks.

00:30:03.410 --> 00:30:05.698
But can they get some colored home pods?

00:30:05.798 --> 00:30:07.182
Yeah, I think I might do the orange ones.

00:30:07.865 --> 00:30:09.269
Okay, cool, that's good fit for there.

00:30:09.570 --> 00:30:14.102
Yeah, and so I'll have my tunes there with with Airplay, of course.

00:30:16.332 --> 00:30:16.874
If that works.

00:30:16.874 --> 00:30:17.857
But well, yeah.

00:30:19.131 --> 00:30:22.150
Workout motivation when you get raged out on the airplay not working.

00:30:22.150 --> 00:30:28.280
And so that should be pretty good.

00:30:28.280 --> 00:30:36.843
They also have the temperature thing, so I can say, okay, it's only 42 degrees in the garage, but the door to the house is right there, so it gets too cold.

00:30:36.843 --> 00:30:38.289
I can do my set and come back in running.

00:30:38.711 --> 00:30:39.492
Yeah, you know.

00:30:39.492 --> 00:30:41.820
You know it's a get a little space heater for in there too, right?

00:30:42.691 --> 00:30:47.289
Yeah, and in the summer we'll see, because it gets Fairly warm there.

00:30:47.289 --> 00:30:52.423
But I think if I open the window in the garage door and just have a fan to pull some of that heat out, it probably be okay.

00:30:52.423 --> 00:30:54.554
So I'm not in there that long.

00:30:54.554 --> 00:30:56.338
It's maybe, you know, 45 minutes or so.

00:30:57.080 --> 00:31:00.859
Yeah, rather than the hour and a half to two hours in the gym.

00:31:01.551 --> 00:31:10.960
Yeah, but that's between the travel time and you walk in, you get started, you wash your hands, you go to the restroom, you know, you wait a couple minutes for the thing to open up that you need to get to.

00:31:10.960 --> 00:31:12.442
So just that convenience.

00:31:12.442 --> 00:31:15.236
Yeah, I'm really excited about that.

00:31:16.372 --> 00:31:28.180
Yeah, and I'm gonna say again, and we're coming up near our little 30-minute moment, but this looks as professional as as anything I've seen.

00:31:28.180 --> 00:31:29.603
It's a really slick setup.

00:31:29.603 --> 00:31:48.220
The, the rogue kit that you got, the, the actual, you know, I don't know what you call a thing, but because I'm not a wait dude and I'm gonna go hike in the backyard dude, but the it really it's as good as you would expect to find in any gym anywhere.

00:31:48.380 --> 00:31:57.814
You know, I don't think yeah, so they're big crossfit Company so a lot of the CrossFit boxes have have the rogue stuff in it.

00:31:58.234 --> 00:31:59.478
Yeah, I'm telling you, it's a.

00:31:59.478 --> 00:32:01.982
It's a really slick setup, great color scheme.

00:32:01.982 --> 00:32:13.159
You know, in terms of the, the actual weights that you got, you know they're green, black, yellow, blue I don't know what's on the other side, but you've, you've got a really nice.

00:32:13.159 --> 00:32:14.462
I think there's a white one there too.

00:32:14.462 --> 00:32:18.013
It really is.

00:32:18.013 --> 00:32:21.400

New M3 Macs and Using an iPad to Plan a Garage Gym

Listen On

Featured Episodes

Recent Episodes

New to the show?