Editing The Pen Addict 719/transcript (section)

== New podcast project on Apple's history ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, so Jason Snell and I have been working on a new project, which is essentially telling stories over Apple's 50 years. So Jason has been writing about Apple for 30 years. We've been working together for over a decade. And we did an episode of Upgrade in the beginning of April, which was essentially like this. Me and Jason absolutely adore the rest of this history. It's our favorite show. It basically looked at world history across all time and do a bunch of research and turn it into an engaging and entertaining story. We wanted to take that and do it for Apple for their 50th anniversary, which was on the 1st of April. So we did an episode of Upgrade in this style, absolutely fell in love with it, and then did everything we possibly could to try and make it into a podcast. And we decided that Kickstarter was the right call for this project because of the amount of work required for every episode, the amount of research, the amount of writing that Jason has to do. Yeah. And then also all of the editing and stuff that we need to do afterwards really to make this show the best that it can be. And so we didn't want to just launch it and see if people would want it and then kind of like, you know, week by week try and grow the show. So we wanted to feel confident that no matter what we would be set to make it, like we could make it a big chunk of the work that we'd produce. And so we decided that Kickstarter was the avenue. We had a $40,000 goal, which we met in less than two hours. And we're, as of recording, getting close to passing $125,000. Yeah, that's good. So people want it. We're really excited about it. We're doing, you know, like basically if you back the campaign, you will get a year of membership to the podcast, which means when the show launches in July or August, we need to just nail that down. But it's going to be kind of soon. It'll be even the next couple of months after the campaign, you'll get a year of membership, which means you will get ad free episodes. But also, you know, we're going to be producing the show weekly now, which was one of the stretch goals that we made. And so let's say we have a topic and we have four episodes on that topic. They will roll out week by week. But if you back the Kickstarter campaign and become a member through that, you get all of those episodes at once. So instead of waiting for a month to get the full story, you'll get it all on day one. And that will be the case of every time we release a new series, which, you know, maybe will be every month, maybe every six weeks, depending on how long the stories we've got to tell are. We also have some physical rewards to posters, pins, all that kind of stuff.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Can I just interrupt you? This artwork is awesome.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So that's not actually going to be the podcast artwork. It looks good, though. So this is an artwork. This is artwork that we have made by our wonderful designer, J.D. Davis. But we're actually commissioning an illustrator to produce something else, which we will be showing very soon. And we'll be revealing who that illustrator is. They're a very accomplished person in the world of illustration. And so we're working with them. And we have some fun stuff to show as the campaign goes through. This is like one of the weird things for us of like usually when we launch a project, all of these things are done. But that's not the case. Like we just got kind of the first version of our theme music yesterday. Nice. Because actually throughout the month of June, we are releasing a second episode of Upgrade Every Week, which is designed in California. So this is part of our marketing. So you can get a feel for what the show will be like. So thank you for letting me talk about this for a moment.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, for sure. I wanted to give you a shout out and say congratulations because I saw how well it was doing.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's been a bit of a wild couple of days.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You're a little bit busy right now. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Which is good. It just, we had a plan and that plan all happened too quickly. Yeah. Which is wonderful. Wonderful problem to have. But it just means that we have to just think about, you know, like Kickstarter campaigns, people can too often overcommit and offer too much. So we're just trying to find the right balance. Yeah. Trust me. That's great.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. That's great. Always fun. All right. Live update. Not that I wasn't listening to you, but I did order the Tiger King of Pen. Sick. Because there was only one available. All the rest of them had sold out. There was just one with a fine nib available. Well, it's gone now. It's gone now. Also, I wanted to give you the opportunity to yell at me live. I did use our discount. Do you have anything to say?

'''Myke Hurley:''' No.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. That's what I thought.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, because Dan from Enigma wrote in and said it was fine. Yeah. I'm going to say that maybe Rome will say it's fine too. Plus, I've used the pension like one.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I just wanted to give you an opportunity. Just, you know, full disclosure here.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. We got a great video from Jacob over at Food A Fan titled, Sailor Finally Fixed the Rialo, but made it weird. Did you get the opportunity to look at this video?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I watched it today.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Have your thoughts changed from when we initially discussed this a couple weeks ago?

'''Myke Hurley:''' For me, not really.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. All right. For me, it made it worse. Yeah. Like, before, I was like, eh, maybe I don't like it. It's kind of weird looking. Now, I, like, actively dislike it. I have never seen such a poor looking piston in such an expensive pin before.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I will agree that the piston design is not awesome. But, again, I go back to, I can see why they've done some of it, and it means that this product is, the thing that I find interesting in this product, this is a result of that. I did like the fact that Jacob came to the same conclusion as me, which is, they should just offer the body of this pen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Or sell it with a steel nib from the jump. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And then you have your old kit. It's a good thing, because they've made so many decisions and compromises in this product to build the piston system so it can be interchanged, but then they always sell it to you with an expensive nib. So, I don't understand why they've done that part.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. If they just made that mechanism black instead of white, I'd have less of an issue.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It is, like, when it pulls back into the back end of the barrel, like, it's like, do you know how much I spent on this pen? And I can't stop looking at these little bits here? Like, it's just, I'm aggrieved just looking at it. God, you do all this design work, and then that was a decision? I just, it's crazy. So, Jacob's price that he paid for it was 66,000 yen. The conversion rate right now is so off-kilter that that makes it, like, a low 400s US dollar pen, but we're not going to be able to buy it for that. Like, that makes more sense in that price range for this pen. But it's still, like, when we were looking at, like, Stilo and Stile, it's still, like, 640 euro, which is, like, a little over $700. And I think that's actually going to be the price of it. I think the yen is just, like, it's doing yen things right now. So, it's a lot different pen at 425 versus 725 for sure. So, interesting. Y'all go check that out. It's, like, a five-minute video. Jacob's videos are wonderful. He goes through the whole thing. And I did also, I think he kind of mentioned this.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I don't like what they're doing with the nib stamping now. It's a little bit less sailory. It's a little bit more looks like their steel nibs on their gold nibs where it's a very kind of flat-looking nib as opposed to, like, the more, like, engraved look that they've had in the past. I just, not, it's just not clicking for me. So, we'll see.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It looks, yeah, it looks very shallow. The engraving is very shallow, which looks cheap. And it looks this way because steel nibs tend to be engraved this way, right? Right. And gold nibs tend to have a more deeper engraving. And so, it's purely an association based on how things have been produced in the past. But I agree. It makes this gold nib look like a steel nib. Yeah. Yeah. Strange. Strange.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' A lot of weird decisions in this one. So, we'll see how it goes. All right. Next up, new release, Pilot Kaplish Vanishing Point Digital Tech. Digital Tech. I did not think we would get a five-pack release of the Vanishing Point again. They've done this in the past. They did the Metallic series many, many years ago. They did red, blue, orange, green. I can't remember the fifth one. And they were good. Like, you know, very popular. They did, like, the brighter metallic colors with the black trim. And that's what these are with the black trim. You know, the clip, the nose cone, the knock, the barrel bands, et cetera. I mean, they look great. They look great. But you did a little bit of the more translation work than I did.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I was. And I actually have questions. I didn't understand what digital tech meant, honestly. Like, I was like, oh, they put a stylus on this? You know, like, what have they done? And no. So I did a translation on the Pilot Corporation caption. And again, these are machine translations. But it says, the concept is digital tech. Keep it simple. Keep it smart. Computers, smartphones, et cetera. Fashionable matte metallic color that blends with digital tools. The special alloy pen tip matches the metallic color body. It's nothing. It means nothing.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So that translation actually doesn't work because it doesn't match. Yeah. Right? Like, the way it's listed as special alloy tip and the price, I'm wondering if this is a steel nib vanishing point. I'm not sure. So, like, it's 17,600 yen, which is, like, low hundreds, I think. I'd have to redo that one. Which, again, to my point just with Jacob just a second ago, that's the current stock vanishing points are, like, two something?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. That's, like, 81 pounds. Yeah. 110 USD. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' This is steel. It's either, yeah. So, like, this is...

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because also, one of the things I found curious, and I didn't put this in here because it didn't make any sense to me. How does that? It doesn't... They are referencing specifically university lectures. And, like, I read it and I was like, that doesn't make any sense. University students aren't buying, like, a vanishing point. Well, they might if it's less than 100 bucks or whatever. Right? Yeah. So, that's weird.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So, this is interesting. I want to continue to track this one to see if they're going to do a full series with steel nibs, which is fine. Like, I have no issue with that. Because it'll bring the price point down and you could... Again, like the Sailor Reality, if you're a vanishing point user, you could just swap in your gold nib and you get the barrel. So... But I think this is going to be kind of a... Not a regular release, but a small, limited release. They're calling the purple... This is a little bit strange. I think the purple is limited and then silver, copper, ash blue, and deep green are standard. Yeah. Which is... It's a little bit confusing. So, I don't want to say definitively anything about, like, the price or the style or the nib material just because it's unclear. But they're coming this month. Yeah. So, we should be able to see.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I cannot understand why they're called digital tech. Like, it doesn't... I don't either. It doesn't make any sense. And I know that these things don't have to make sense and this one doesn't.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And that's not a translation. That's on their image. Which digital tech is not translated. It just says capless digital tech. So, interesting. Interesting pen. I want to learn more about that one. Because, you know, Myke, I do love a retractable pen. But I can no longer love the Platinum Curious, Myke. RIP Platinum Curious 2020 to 2026. Let's take a moment of silence on the podcast. It's perfect. Yeah. Let's do it. Come on in. Let's do it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, everybody. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. This was not unsurprising in the least. And this still, I still, like, I've really leaned into this. Because I've always had a lot to say about the Curious. And I'm a little sad it didn't become what I hoped it become. But I also understand why. Because this is difficult. I haven't seen, like, a pure Platinum release from this. But I also haven't gotten yelled at Pilot. Excuse me. Yelled at Buy Platinum. To stop saying that it's dead. Because, like, a retailer in Japan got the notification. Like, you know how companies will send out the price increases, the additions, the discontinuations. And the Curious was on there. They posted it publicly that it was on the discontinuation list. So I ran with it. So what was funny about the timing is about a month ago, maybe six weeks now, for Pen Addict members, once a month, I grade a pen. And I have a grading system that I use. And I'm a well-known Platinum Curious lover. But that doesn't mean it's a good pen. And out of my rating system, it got, like, the second lowest score to the bottom. Like, I rated it very poorly. Because that's accurate, right? It's an accurate rating of what I think about the pen. It's not a recommendation rating. It's, like, a personal rating. And one of the keys when you look at these ratings that I do, or I should say specifically the keys that I look at, is if I have the two pens on a table, and one of them is the Platinum Curious, and one of them is a different pen, whatever you want it to be. It doesn't even have to be the same retractable category. It could be a Vanishing Point. It could be a Safari. At what point am I going to choose the Curious over any of these other pens? And that's pretty much never going to happen. Yeah. Despite, when I ink it up with its fine nib, it's really fun for a minute or two, right? But what happened with the Curious is they got off to a rocky start, and they fixed, like, the technical issues.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, I just said, the start was rocky because it was imperfect, right? Like, the product, not even before it broke. The product was just imperfect. Like, it was actually kind of uncomfortable to hold for a lot of people. I really struggled with that. But it was like, okay, you know, like, this is version one. Maybe they can tweak it. Then they just started failing. And at that point, it's like, it's done. Like, they tried, but it's done now.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So I held out hope to hopefully see a version two. And then they did it, and they didn't change anything. Yeah. And that was the kicker. That was, like, the kick that I didn't need, right? They just did a barrel, you know, a rubberized barrel. Yeah. Didn't change, didn't address any, like, the issues that people were having with, like, the shark fin on it or just the width. The whole thing is just big and chunky. And then they did a third edition that was iridescent. I was like, yeah, these are cool. And they didn't change anything on that either. So I was like, you know, at that point, it's my problem because I keep buying them. But it wasn't a good pin. And now Platinum is finally just, they've just pulled the plug on it. Because this has to be very costly at this price to make this pin. And to, I can't imagine what the prototypes look like for this. Trying to do something different to improve it. And then it's just got to be, like, a drawer full of failures, right? Because this, they had an idea of a concept of a plan. And they went with it. And I was like, cool. Let's go. Let's go, Platinum. And then they couldn't figure out what to do next because it wasn't great. And then they couldn't iterate on that platform. And it probably just cost too much money. And they just had to pull the plug. Because this is not an ex. I mean, they're only selling these for, like, around $100. And this is a pretty complicated pin.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Pretty complicated pin to manufacture. Especially with the amount of failures they had in the beginning. Just absorbing some stuff. So, it's a loss. But we will move forward. Hopefully, Platinum learns something along the way. And we can maybe see another attempt another day. But, yeah. Platinum Curitus. RIP.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Man, I don't know if I can continue the podcast. Are you still upset? I'm so upset, Myke. Because now I don't have anything to talk about. That was a long-running. Myke, I don't know. Newer listeners. Myke went to, like, a grand launch party. I went to the launch event in London, yeah. In London, yeah. Got all kinds of swag from choosing keeping. It was hilarious. It was a big deal. It was a big deal. It was a big deal. All right. Hey, thank you for trying, Platinum. Yes. I wasn't hating you. Thanks for trying. I appreciate that. It was an attempt. So, thank you, Platinum.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It was a great idea. It clearly just could not be executed in the way that everybody wanted.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. You know what was executed nicely, Myke? Tell me. The Midori carton opener. Okay. So, we talked about that. So, April raved about this product on her podcast when she joined me a few weeks ago. And I mentioned I'd never heard about it. And we talked about it because I'd never heard about it. And we also talked about, God, I keep forgetting the name of, what's the Studio Neat one? The Keen. The Keen. Yeah. The Keen. Not similar products, but we were talking about just like these little box cutters. I got mine. I get it now. Like, I didn't know these ceramic blades could be so sharp. It's kind of crazy. So, yeah. I didn't really have much to say other than I said I was going to buy one and I bought one. And I'm impressed. I see why it's April's favorite product. I can see why you could travel with this. Like, especially someone who does like trade shows to open boxes and things like that. This is, I mean, I'm, you know, don't take your TSA agent advice from me. But I don't see how this would ever get dinged if you're carrying it. But, you know, wear like a pocket knife or blade wood. Anyway, that's all. I didn't have much to say other than I get it. I get why April loves this so much. And I'm already fascinated by it. And it's magnetized. You can just magnet it up on something. I think the Keen is as well. I'll eventually get a Keen just because I am constantly opening boxes. Yeah, the Keen has a magnet door.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's all magnets. There's lots of magnets going on in there.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. But does the Keen have a business frog sticker on it yet? So I already put a business frog sticker. I mean, it could if you put it there.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I mean, this didn't ship with one.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No, but, you know, it's on my desk. And it now has a business frog stacking cash on the Midori Carton opener. So I'm just saying. So anyway, shout out Midori Carton opener. I'm going to get a fancy aluminum one next. Because, you know, that's what I need. More box cutters.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But I ended up using it for other things on my desk, like opening smaller packages and things like that. It's just pretty convenient. So anyway, shout out Midori Carton opener. Thank you, April, for opening my eyes to this wonderful product.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Love it. All right. Should we take a second break?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Let's do it. I'm hungry.

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'''Brad Dowdy:''' All of it. And including my kids into that. They also love all of it. So that's always the topic I talk about when I talk about Factor. Because I'll get six meals or so. And I'll pick out all my favorites. Like last time, out of the six, I ordered two salmon, one shrimp, two chicken and one beef. And I was like, if I want this salmon, I got to eat it the day it gets home. Because the kids are home for summer and they're hungry, Myke. So it looks like I'm going to need to double up on the Factor orders here in the next month or so. But yeah, it's easy and it's good. Like it's so easy to talk about Factor because you don't have to say much. It's simple and it's quality. And like it respects my time and my stomach, Myke. It's really good.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What more could you want in life? Head to factomeals.com slash penaddict50off and use the code penaddict50off to get 50% off on free daily greens per box. With new subscription only while supplies last until September 27th, 2026. See the website for more details, which is factomeals.com slash penaddict50off and use that code penaddict50off. Our thanks to Factor for their continued support of this show and all of Relay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right, you want to hit some Ask TPA?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yes, I was about to try. I was gearing up for a song there. Oh, man. That's not how that works. So it's like there was something about the end of the ad and you saying all right. And then it just sounded like I was about to do Shout Out of the Week again. Gotcha, gotcha. First question. I actually got two questions for you, Brad, that are relatively similar but different. First one comes from Gary who says, I've been listening for many years and I recall you mentioning graduation pen related gifts, but I couldn't find anything like relatable links or whatever, which I understand. There's a lot of episodes. Our son Cameron will graduate with a first in artificial intelligence from Liverpool Hope University in July. Now, Brad, I don't know if you know what a first is. Basically, it's the top grade you can get for a degree. Nice. As a pen geek, I'm looking to find him something suitable as a gift. Cameron is a lefty and is not so interested in fountain pens even though I've tried. Any ideas?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Man, that's pressure. That's pressure for a non-fountain pen gift for a first, which I have to think a little bit about this. So, my first initial thought, I didn't look at this before, so I actually was writing down some ideas while you were talking. The Rotring 600 ballpoint might actually be a pretty good option. That's a really nice pen. So, I want to caveat all this for Gary and say, you're not going to spend a lot of money on this. You're only going to spend a lot of money if you're buying a fountain pen. There's not a lot of elite rollerball ballpoint fountain pens that are going to cost hundreds of dollars, which is a good thing.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Or products that are worth it. I mean, you can do it. That are worth it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can do it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You're paying for name. Yeah, that's not worth it. Like, a fountain pen that's $300 or $400 is probably going to be worth it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' When you start on Rotring 600, I did think you were going to go where I was thinking about, which was a mechanical pencil.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Mm-mm.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But, no, you don't like that idea?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I would actually, no. I would do the ballpoint or the multi-pen. With the Rotrings, I do prefer the single cartridge over the multi-pen. But there is something to be said. Second one I wrote down is something from Tactile Turn, where you can get a cool machine pen in a lot of different styles and materials.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's really cool. Actually, if you do want to break the bank for, like, a ballpoint pen, I would look at Makar Tools. We need to put a link in the show note to that, Myke, on Instagram. They're based in Poland, I believe. Holy cow. That actually might be your tier one.

'''Myke Hurley:''' How are we spelling that, Brad?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' M-A-K-A-R. Okay. Tools. You've seen them before. I've shared them with you before. Yeah, I've seen them before. That might... And they do some non-fountain pen versions. If you want, like, something, you know, befitting the first level, you might want to look at Makar Tools. So that's kind of my list.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I mean, of course, there's always the Zento Signature, if you can find one.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I mean, you know. But no, I would go with... I like the Rotring. I like the Tectal Turn. I like the Makar Tools. What else?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think that's kind of, like, the cool pen list, I think. You know, if I'm thinking about these products. That's kind of where I would start. And, Gary, feel free to email me, you know, if you have any, like, more detailed questions. Like, when you're trying to pick something out for someone who doesn't know, like, or you don't know exactly what they want, it's a little bit more difficult. So I think these are some good options at some different price points. I think, you know, Makar Tools, very expensive. Tactile Turn, Moderate. And Rotring 600, it's not very... It's like 50 or 60 bucks. It's not very expensive.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think Tactile Turn's a really good suggestion. Because they have a lot of different designs. So you might find something that is, like, befitting of their personality.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And they do some cool materials, right? Either if it's not in the barrel, it could be in the clip or in the mechanism.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And, yeah, and you've got ball, switch, clip. You know, they've got a bunch of different mechanisms. So maybe you can see one and think, oh, they would find that to be, like, interesting or fun. Yeah. So there's a bunch of options there.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Like, the switch is a really neat mechanism. Yes. Right? Just kind of... It's like a light switch, flips on and off. So very cool. So, yeah. I think that's a good starter list. All right. What's the next one?