#169 – Apple's Price Hikes, Smart Glasses, and AI Policy Whiplash

What We Cover This Week

<h4>Earshot Development Progress and the Claude Workflow</h4> Michael walks through where the Earshot podcast app stands after another round of Claude-assisted development. The improvements keep landing, the test loop is tightening, and Michael shares what's working in the build process. If you want to kick the tires yourself, the public TestFlight link is below.

<h4>Damashe on the New Siri Beta</h4> The capabilities are genuinely impressive — but the limitations around third-party app integration are exactly where the friction shows up. Damashe gets into what's working, what isn't, and why the third-party gap matters more than Apple seems to think.

<h4>FloType for Blind and Low-Vision Users</h4> We promised we'd point listeners to FloType, the new VoiceOver-first keyboard from developer Rocco. It picks up the eyes-free typing approach that Fleksy pioneered and FlickType refined — tap roughly where the keys would be on a QWERTY layout, swipe right to commit the word, swipe down to cycle suggestions. The public beta opened in June 2026 and is actively under development. Links below.

Apple's Price Increases — and the Refurb Math

Damashe and Michael unpack Apple's recent price increases across the lineup. Damashe wasn't surprised that they happened — supply chain pressure plus expired component pricing made it inevitable — but he was surprised by how fast they hit after Tim Cook's announcement. We get into why the iPhone is conspicuously absent from the increases (Damashe's read: Apple is holding that lever for the September refresh).

<h4>The MacBook Neo Touch ID Refurb</h4> Michael flags that the MacBook Neo with Touch ID is now in Apple's refurb store at $679 — but the savings versus the previous refurb price are only about $20. That sparks a broader conversation about when Apple's refurb store actually wins. Our take: the included AppleCare tips the value calculation in Apple's favor versus Amazon, B&H, or other retailers — even when the headline price doesn't.

Pirate Ship for Cheap, Sane Shipping

Quick recommendation for anyone shipping on eBay or otherwise: Pirate Ship integrates cleanly, the rates are hard to beat, and the workflow is straightforward. Both of us use it.

Smart Glasses: Echo Vision from AGIGA, Meta Ray-Bans, and Why Damashe Is Holding Off

Michael received a free pair of Echo Vision smart glasses from AGIGA and is starting a head-to-head against his Meta Ray-Bans. He'll be reporting back as testing continues.

Damashe explains why, despite putting money down on the Echo Vision earlier, he hasn't pulled the trigger on a purchase. The delayed shipping timeline, ongoing concerns about real-world functionality versus price, and a frustrating experience with his current Oakley Vanguards (uncomfortable fit, lens color issues) have all stacked up. The plan: let Michael run the gauntlet first, then decide.

This leads into a broader technical point about smart glasses generally — the importance of a separate compute device versus trying to cram everything into the frames themselves, and what that means for where the category is actually heading.

AI Policy Whiplash and Why It Matters

Damashe gets candid about his frustration with the rapid policy shifts and government restrictions in the AI space — specifically around Anthropic's Fable model and the Mythos security tool. The deeper concern isn't any single rule; it's the inconsistency. Building a business on a platform whose ground rules change month to month is hard. The tech industry needs stability to plan, and right now it isn't getting it.

Behind the Scenes

We also work through some audio gremlins at the top of the episode (microphone swap, settings adjustments, phone static) — par for the course, and resolved before things really get going.

Links and Apps Mentioned

Earshot TestFlight

FloType keyboard TestFlight

FloType beta tester WhatsApp group

Pirate Ship

Apple Refurbished Store

AGIGA Echo Vision smart glasses

Meta