Basic AF: a (mostly) tech podcast

What do you actually do with a stack of pocket notebooks once you own more than you'll ever fill? Tom's been figuring that out for six months, and it turned into an actual system: a custom monthly and weekly planner, daily notes, and a pocket journal that's his new daily carry wallet. Jeff's carried notebooks for decades and joins in with his own habits, plus a magnetic pocket e-reader that's small enough to attach to the back of your iPhone.
In this episode:
Tom's Field Notes habit, $120 a year and three quarterly drops in: the 1943 set, Explore America, and the penny-themed one that didn't quite land
Trading phone pickups for a slower kind of capture, and why that's the actual point
The weekly planner Tom sketched himself, plus the accidental discovery that a scanned Field Notes fits a 13" iPad to scale
Lochby Pocket Journal: the wax-canvas cover doing double duty as Tom's new wallet
Jeff's leather notebook cover, reserved for exactly one thing: his bitters recipes
The eventual plan for filled notebooks: scan everything into Craft so it's searchable
The Xteink X3, Jeff's tiny magnetic e-reader that snaps onto the back of an iPhone
Links from the show:
Field Notes
Field Notes "1943" Edition
Field Notes Explore America
Lochby Pocket Journal
GoodNotes
Carsonial's weekly planner layout video
Cal Newport, "Forget Your Phone. You Need a Single-Purpose Notebook"
Xteink X3
Question or Comment? Send us a Text Message!
Support the show
Contact Us
Drop us a line at feedback@basicafshow.com
You’ll find Jeff at @reyespoint on Threads and reyespoint.bsky.social on Bluesky
Find Tom at @tomanderson on Threads
Join Tom’s newsletter, Apple Talk, for more Apple coverage and tips & tricks.
Tom has a new YouTube channel
Show artwork by the great Randall Martin Design

Enjoy Basic AF? Leave a review or rating!
Review on Apple Podcasts
Rate on Spotify
Recommend in Overcast

Intro Music: Psychokinetics - The Chosen
Apple Music
Spotify

Transcripts and some images are AI generated and may contain errors and general silliness.

Tom got five minutes with Samsung's new Galaxy Z Fold8 this week, and it's got him thinking about what Apple's own foldable might feel like this fall. Then Jeff works through Apple's new Klarna-backed leasing program, replacing the old iPhone Upgrade Program, and why the fine print has him uneasy.
In this episode:
Tom's hands-on take on the Galaxy Z Fold8: build quality, weight, crease, multitasking, pricing ($1,899–$2,499)
What the Fold8 previews for Apple's rumored iPhone Fold (expected ~September 2026, Touch ID instead of Face ID, no visible crease, likely $2,000+)
Apple's new Upgrade program with Klarna replaces the iPhone Upgrade Program — lease terms, AppleCare+ no longer bundled, what happens if you don't act at lease-end
Why the Klarna partnership has Jeff feeling icky about where Apple's headed
A wild AI story: Anthropic's Claude models broke out of a sandboxed test and hacked three real organizations
A quick tribute to John C. Dvorak, longtime tech columnist and No Agenda co-host, who passed away this month
Links from the show:
Galaxy Z Fold8 specs & pricing
MKBHD's Galaxy Z Fold8 review
MrMobile: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 Review: Worth The Camera Compromise
Apple Upgrade program announcement
Apple Upgrade breakdown (MacRumors)
Anthropic's AI hacking disclosure (WaPo)
Hugging Face
Cory Doctorow on The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
Benedict Evans' newsletter
Halide camera app
Question or Comment? Send us a Text Message!
Support the show
Contact Us
Drop us a line at feedback@basicafshow.com
You’ll find Jeff at @reyespoint on Threads and reyespoint.bsky.social on Bluesky
Find Tom at @tomanderson on Threads
Join Tom’s newsletter, Apple Talk, for more Apple coverage and tips & tricks.
Tom has a new YouTube channel
Show artwork by the great Randall Martin Design

Enjoy Basic AF? Leave a review or rating!
Review on Apple Podcasts
Rate on Spotify
Recommend in Overcast

Intro Music: Psychokinetics - The Chosen
Apple Music
Spotify

Transcripts and some images are AI generated and may contain errors and general silliness.

The public betas for iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, and watchOS 27 landed this week, and Tom and Jeff have been putting them through their paces on phones, watches, iPads, and a Mac. This episode covers what's actually different, under-the-hood polish, and the one feature everyone's been waiting years for: a Siri that finally seems to understand your life.
Topics covered:
First impressions across devices, plus early battery life quirks on watch and phone
Liquid Glass refinements and a smarter notch-aware menu bar on macOS
Spotlight opening iPhone-only apps remotely from your Mac
CarPlay upgrades: three rows of icons are back, plus navigation volume oddities
The big one: the new Siri actually pulling real context from email, calendar, and third-party accounts
Real examples — catching a bank fraud alert, scheduling car service, recapping a live product announcement, even sketching out a Shortcut
Beta-testing do's and don'ts: what to install where, filing feedback, backing up first
A timeline for when these releases arrive (hint: mid-September)
Question or Comment? Send us a Text Message!
Support the show
Contact Us
Drop us a line at feedback@basicafshow.com
You’ll find Jeff at @reyespoint on Threads and reyespoint.bsky.social on Bluesky
Find Tom at @tomanderson on Threads
Join Tom’s newsletter, Apple Talk, for more Apple coverage and tips & tricks.
Tom has a new YouTube channel
Show artwork by the great Randall Martin Design

Enjoy Basic AF? Leave a review or rating!
Review on Apple Podcasts
Rate on Spotify
Recommend in Overcast

Intro Music: Psychokinetics - The Chosen
Apple Music
Spotify

Transcripts and some images are AI generated and may contain errors and general silliness.

You love podcasts. You're always hearing something worth remembering. And then... you forget it. Sound familiar? Tom and Jeff sit down with Kevin Smith, co-founder of Snipd — the AI-powered podcast app designed to solve exactly that problem. Kevin shares the story behind Snipd, from riding his bike to work in Zurich and frantically stopping to write notes, to building an app that captures great moments automatically.
Want to try the app? Kevin provided listeners of the show a free one-month Snipd Premium trial: https://link.snipd.com/Cx7S/basicaf
Topics covered:
How Kevin went from quantitative finance to AI engineering — and why machine learning grabbed him the way it did
The origin story of Snipd: a personal frustration turned into a full-featured podcast app
How the core "snipping" feature works — tap your headphones, and the AI saves the audio clip, transcript, and a generated note automatically
The new Snipd DJ feature (currently in beta), which distills long episodes down to the 20–25% most relevant moments — with an AI "moderator" to guide you through them
How Snipd connects with apps like Readwise for a personal knowledge management workflow
The "chat with episode" feature, auto-generated chapters, book mentions, and speaker identification
Why Snipd is unapologetically built for knowledge-rich podcasts — and why that focus is a strength
Listener offer: Kevin is providing a free one-month trial of Snipd Premium — link in the show notes!
Links from the show:
Snipd: snipd.com — also available in the App Store and Google Play (search "Snipd")
Kevin on X/Twitter: @KevinBenSmith
Free one-month Snipd Premium trial: https://link.snipd.com/Cx7S/basicaf
Question or Comment? Send us a Text Message!
Support the show
Contact Us
Drop us a line at feedback@basicafshow.com
You’ll find Jeff at @reyespoint on Threads and reyespoint.bsky.social on Bluesky
Find Tom at @tomanderson on Threads
Join Tom’s newsletter, Apple Talk, for more Apple coverage and tips & tricks.
Tom has a new YouTube channel
Show artwork by the great Randall Martin Design

Enjoy Basic AF? Leave a review or rating!
Review on Apple Podcasts
Rate on Spotify
Recommend in Overcast

Intro Music: Psychokinetics - The Chosen
Apple Music
Spotify

Transcripts and some images are AI generated and may contain errors and general silliness.

Robin Kai, based in Munich, Germany, is a husband, dad, and writer on Medium and at ForMacUsers.com. He's built a simple, flexible system around Apple's built-in apps that actually fits real life: family, day job, and side projects.
In this episode, Robin walks us through how he captures tasks without thinking about it, organizes them into a structure that doesn't require daily upkeep, and builds a custom "today" view that shows exactly what matters — without the noise.
Topics covered:
Why Robin left third-party apps like Remember the Milk and Wunderlist behind
His inbox-first capture method and weekly Friday review
How he uses folders (groups) in Reminders to separate work, side hustle, and family
The "Your Day" and "Growth" smart list setup for a cleaner today view
Month → Week → Priorities planning cadence
Connecting Reminders to Notes for project context
What Robin is most excited about from WWDC 2026: AI-powered Shortcuts and Safari improvements
Tom's own journey from Evernote + OmniFocus to Craft tasks
Links from the show:
Robin on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@robinsanahkai
ForMacUsers.com: https://www.formacusers.com/
Robin's Apple Reminders guide on Medium: https://medium.com/macoclock/apple-reminders-full-setup-deb28e755eb6?sk=21ab358dbf39f28ed90133d706fb7cf5
Stories from Ukraine: The True Price of War: https://a.co/d/0gu6KDAl
Question or Comment? Send us a Text Message!
Support the show
Contact Us
Drop us a line at feedback@basicafshow.com
You’ll find Jeff at @reyespoint on Threads and reyespoint.bsky.social on Bluesky
Find Tom at @tomanderson on Threads
Join Tom’s newsletter, Apple Talk, for more Apple coverage and tips & tricks.
Tom has a new YouTube channel
Show artwork by the great Randall Martin Design

Enjoy Basic AF? Leave a review or rating!
Review on Apple Podcasts
Rate on Spotify
Recommend in Overcast

Intro Music: Psychokinetics - The Chosen
Apple Music
Spotify

Transcripts and some images are AI generated and may contain errors and general silliness.