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Mon. 08/12 – Some Apple Rumors Before Pixel Day Aug 12, 2024

Show notes

Hey, want to know the iPhone product road map for the next year or so? I wonder why that’s coming out today? Instagram is copying something it forgot to copy from Snapchat. Celsius wants a ton of bitcoin back from Tether. Flux continues to wow, and is Iran the biggest cyber threat of this election year.

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Apple’s iPhone 16 Will Keep Sales Stable Until Bigger Changes Arrive (Bloomberg)
Instagram is testing its own take on Snap Map (The Verge)
Amid Layoffs and CPU Controversy, Intel Postpones Innovation Event (PCMag)
Celsius targets Tether, Badger DAO, Compound, and Netanyahu's niece and nephew in lawsuits (The Block)
Forget Midjourney — Flux is the new king of AI image generation and here’s how to get access (Tom's Guide)
Iran Emerges as the Most Aggressive Foreign Threat to U.S. Election (WSJ)

Fri. 08/09 – Mac Mini To Get Mini-er? Aug 09, 2024

Show notes

Apple’s new EU rules still aren’t acceptable to Spotify and Epic. Could we be getting a new, smaller Mac Mini this year? Perplexity AI is showing some real numbers in its effort to unseat Google Search. And, of course, the weekend longreads suggestions.

Links:

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

Why are so many car YouTubers quitting? (The Verge)
Moscow’s Spies Were Stealing US Tech — Until the FBI Started a Sabotage Campaign (Politico Magazine)

Thu. 08/08 – Would You Buy A Subscription Mouse? Aug 08, 2024

Show notes

TikTok launches Spotlight. Meta’s budget kills a VR studio. Why did everyone think Logitech was going to create a mouse you had to pay a subscription to use? And did you know how big Anime is? I did not.

Links:

TikTok adds in-app hubs for videos about movies and TV shows (The Verge)
Exclusive: Meta is closing a beloved first-party Quest studio (AndroidConnect)
UK regulator launches formal probe into Amazon’s $4bn Anthropic deal (Financial Times)
Humane’s daily returns are outpacing sales (The Verge)
Logitech Insists It’s Not Making a Mouse With a Subscription Fee (Gizmodo)
Anduril now valued at $14 billion, set to build autonomous weapons factories (Axios)
Crunchyroll Passes 15 Million Monthly Paid Subscribers (The Wrap)
Crunchyroll Is Thriving Thanks to Gen Z and Appointment Anime Viewing, COO Says (The Wrap)

Wed. 08/07 – Is The New Google TV Streamer An Apple TV 4K Killer? Aug 07, 2024

Show notes

Google’s new TV streaming appliance, plus lots of lot of Gemini stuff is coming to Google Home and Nest and such. Elon tries to get advertisers to come back to X by… suing them. That time Intel had a chance to invest in OpenAI. And what new products can Airbnb dream up to make more money?

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Tue. 08/06 – Google Loses In Court Aug 06, 2024

Show notes

Three big stories to catch you up on. A federal judge has ruled Google is an illegal monopoly. The Game Of Thrones style drama at OpenAI is just getting weirder. And what if all those weird acquihires in all but name are actually mercy killings?

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Mon. 08/05 – OpenAI Can Detect AI Text But Isn’t Sure It Wants To Aug 05, 2024

Show notes

Why is OpenAI sitting on technology that could detect AI cheating? Why is Bitcoin so correlated to the stock market? Why is Elon restarting his lawsuit against OpenAI? Why are the Chinese launching a Starlink competitor? And are the go-go days for music streaming over?

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HelloMood.com code RIDE

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Fri. 08/02 – Intel Is Bailing Water Aug 02, 2024

Show notes

So, tech earnings continued to be boring. Apple was fine. Amazon was not quite so fine. And then someone we don’t cover closely really messed the bed. I’ll tell you who. Are we starting to see the first next-generation AI startups? I’ll tell you about an interesting new model. And, of course, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions.

Links:

Amazon Beats On Earnings, Revenue Comes In Light Despite Strong Cloud Performance (Investor's Business Daily)
Intel is laying off over 15,000 employees and will stop ‘non-essential work’ (The Verge)
23andMe Board Committee ‘Disappointed’ in CEO Anne Wojcicki’s Take-Private Proposal (Bloomberg)
Stable Diffusion creators launch Black Forest Labs, secure $31M for FLUX.1 AI image generator (VentureBeat)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

A $500 Open Source Tool Lets Anyone Hack Computer Chips With Lasers (Wired)
The AI Keeps Score (The Verge)

Thu. 08/01 – Now Meta’s AI Spending Is Fine? Aug 01, 2024

Show notes

So I guess Zuck has convinced Wall Street that all the capex spending on AI is fine. How good a business is Tether? A gooooood business. The first arrival of Apple Intelligence is sort of a ho-hum for now. And how sports is completely transforming the streaming wars battlefield.

Links:

Meta’s Lesson in Allaying Wall Street’s A.I. Fears (Dealbook/NYT)
Meta’s AI Costs Surge as Digital Advertising Revenue Grows (WSJ)
Reddit CEO says Microsoft needs to pay to search the site (The Verge)
Tether Nets $5B Profits This Year, Says Its US Debt Holdings Surpassed Germany's (CoinDesk)
A first look at Apple Intelligence and its (slightly) smarter Siri (The Verge)
Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery’s Sports Streamer Venu to Launch at $42.99 per Month (Variety)
How the NBA’s Slam-Dunk Deals Will Reshape TV (The Hollywood Reporter)

Wed. 07/31 – CapCut Ascendant Jul 31, 2024

Show notes

Another big pullback of a major AI tool. Microsoft earnings. How CapCut is taking over the creator tools space. Amazon speedy delivery is rolling out to the nooks and crannies of North America. And the startup taking a new run at AI wearable hardware.

Links:

Meta Scraps Celebrity AI Chatbots That Fell Flat With Users (The Information)
The Rise of ByteDance’s CapCut Threatens Adobe and Canva (Bloomberg)
Amazon Pushes Fast Delivery Into Rural Areas in Challenge to Post Office (WSJ)
Wear This AI Friend Around Your Neck (Wired)
Video Announcing the Friend AI device

Tue. 07/30 – A (Mostly) AI Day Jul 30, 2024

Show notes

Perplexity wants to share ad revenue with publishers. But lots of AI companies are continuing to gamble with scraping. Meta’s new Segment Anything 2 model. AI influencers on Instagram. Canva makes an AI acquisition. And in non-AI news, Meta makes a huge settlement with Texas.

Links:

Perplexity is cutting checks to publishers following plagiarism accusations (The Verge)
Websites are Blocking the Wrong AI Scrapers (Because AI Companies Keep Making New Ones) (404Media)
Zuckerberg touts Meta’s latest video vision AI with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (TechCrunch)
Instagram creators can now make AI doppelgangers to chat with their followers (Engadget)
Canva acquires Leonardo.ai to boost its generative AI efforts (TechCrunch)
Meta to pay $1.4 billion to settle Texas facial recognition data lawsuit (Reuters)

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