Techmeme Ride Home

All the headlines from what was largely a foldable phone event from Samsung yesterday. Apple has settled with the EU. More numbers on Apple Vision Pro sales. Why the sparkle emoji is the defacto symbol of AI. And, of course, the Weekend Longread Suggestions.Sponsors:Lumen.me/rideLinks:Galaxy Z Fold 6 goes official with 7 years of updates, wider displays, starting at $1,899 (9to5Google)Galaxy Z Flip 6 starts at $1,099 with battery, cover display, and camera upgrades (9to5Google)Apple Avoids EU Antitrust Threat With Tap-and-Pay Probe Settlement (Bloomberg)Apple’s Vision Pro Won’t Cross 500,000 Sales This Year, IDC Says (Bloomberg)Has Artificial Intelligence Co-opted the Sparkle Emoji? (Bloomberg)Weekend Longreads Suggestions:Defeated by A.I., a Legend in the Board Game Go Warns: Get Ready for What’s Next (NYTimes)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Suddenly nobody wants to be on OpenAI’s board, even as observers. I’ll tell you why. More on how AI has thrown everybody’s carbon neutral plans into chaos. A monster raise in the AI and robotics space. And a16z has found a way to get chips into the hands of their AI startups.Links:Microsoft and Apple drop OpenAI seats amid antitrust scrutiny (FT)Microsoft gives up observer seat on OpenAI board (Axios)Google Is No Longer Claiming to Be Carbon Neutral (Bloomberg)Amazon Says It Reached a Climate Goal Seven Years Early (NYTimes)Microsoft is hiking the price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and launching a new ‘Standard’ tier (The Verge)This $1.5 Billion AI Company Is Building A ‘General Purpose Brain’ For Robots (Forbes)Andreessen Horowitz Is Building a Stash of More Than 20,000 GPUs to Win AI Deals (The Information)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The new nothing phone costs almost nothing. I’m not punning. Sam Altman has founded yet another AI startup. Is the hype around AI PCs underdelivering? And two other back the future stories about updating Notepad in Windows, and abandoning floppy disks in Japan.Sponsors:Dragon Ball LegendsLinks:Nothing’s CMF Devices Prove Yet Again Cheap Doesn't Have to Mean Boring (Wired)Amazon announces new $79 Echo Spot alarm clock (CNBC)OpenAI and Arianna Huffington are working together on an ‘AI health coach’ (The Verge)Spotify is going to let you leave comments on podcast episodes (The Verge)Qualcomm, Microsoft Lean on AI Hype to Spur PC Market Revival (Bloomberg)After 41 years Microsoft quietly adds spellchecking and autocorrect to Windows Notepad (Tom Hardware)Japan declares victory in effort to end government use of floppy disks (Reuters)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ok, fine. Give me a thinner watch if it’ll also somehow have a bigger screen. Apple and Epic are just petty, squabbling children at this point. What if AI as it currently exists, is simply too expensive to be profitable? And a new social network is sort of back to the future.Sponsors:Ramp.com/techmemeMiro.comLinks:What’s Next for the Apple Watch: Bigger Screens But a Similar Look (Bloomberg)Apple okays Epic Games marketplace app in Europe (Reuters)In a major update, Proton adds privacy-safe document collaboration to Drive, its freemium E2EE cloud storage service (TechCrunch)AI industry needs to earn $600 billion per year to pay for massive hardware spend — fears of an AI bubble intensify in wake of Sequoia report (Tom's Hardware)noplace, a mashup of Twitter and Myspace for Gen Z, hits No. 1 on the App Store (TechCrunch)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This about the man who invented the modern disc operating system (the OS) and the concept of the software platform. That man was Gary Kildall. And the question we examine in this episode is, why is Bill Gates the richest man in the world, and not Gary Kildall? Could things have turned out differently?In this episode we use audio from the following documentaries:Triumph of the NerdsandComputer ChroniclesSpecial thanks to Justin Schwinghamer for the original score and the voice acting.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This about the man who invented the modern disc operating system (the OS) and the concept of the software platform. That man was Gary Kildall. And the question we examine in this episode is, why is Bill Gates the richest man in the world, and not Gary Kildall? Could things have turned out differently?In this episode we use audio from the following documentaries:Triumph of the NerdsandComputer ChroniclesSpecial thanks to Justin Schwinghamer for the original score and the voice acting.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The deploying and then walking back of AI products and features is becoming something of a routine at this point. Apple is joining OpenAI’s board, kinda-sorta. Meta outlines 3D Gen. Proof that VC funding is coming back, baby. And, of course, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions.Sponsors:A Better Paradise PodcastLinks:Figma Disables AI App Design Tool After It Copied Apple’s Weather App (404 Media)Figma pulls AI tool after criticism that it ripped off Apple’s design (The Verge)Apple Poised to Get OpenAI Board Observer Role as Part of AI Pact (Bloomberg)Meta drops ‘3D Gen’ bomb: AI-powered 3D asset creation at lightning speed (VentureBeat)Investors Pour $27.1 Billion Into A.I. Start-Ups, Defying a Downturn (NYTimes)Weekend Longreads SuggestionsInternet Browsers Are Getting a Makeover for the Workplace (WSJ)A.I. Begins Ushering In an Age of Killer Robots (NYTimes)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A recent Evolve Bank and Trust cyberattack might impact a lot of tech customers. Why single points of failure impact cyberattacks. YouTube will soon let you take down videos like you’re a Hollywood studio. And big tech’s playbook for AI acquisitions that the regulators can’t frown at.Sponsors:CleanMyMac X Promocode: techmemeLinks:Fintech company Wise says some customers affected by Evolve Bank data breach (TechCrunch)CDK Global Hack Shows Risk of One Software Vendor Dominating an Industry (WSJ)Supreme Court orders new look at social media laws in Texas and Florida (CBSNews)Exclusive: Nvidia set to face French antitrust charges, sources say (Reuters)YouTube now lets you request removal of AI-generated content that simulates your face or voice (TechCrunch)This is Big Tech’s playbook for swallowing the AI industry (The Verge)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Meta’s turn to be accused of breaching the DMA. Smarter AirPods as part of an AR/VR strategy. Better AI leaderboards. And is the Surface Laptop finally a true MacBook Air killer?Sponsors:Dragon Ball LegendsLinks:Meta's pay or consent model in crosshairs for breaching EU tech rules (Reuters)Kuo: Apple to begin mass production of AirPods with cameras by 2026 (9to5Mac)‘Boring’ Bitcoin Sends Weekend Trading Volume to All-Time Lows (Bloomberg)Amazon’s Bargain Store Would Use Same Trade ‘Loophole’ as Temu, Shein (The Information)Chinese AI models storm Hugging Face's LLM chatbot benchmark leaderboard — Alibaba runs the board as major US competitors have worsened (Tom's Hardware)Surface Laptop review: Microsoft’s best MacBook Air competitor yet (The Verge)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Find out more about Casemark at Casemark.ai.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The growing backlash over Perplexity is getting interesting. OpenAI possibly exiting China will be interesting in terms of a massive land grab. AI Al Michaels will deliver personalized Olympics updates for you. And in the Longreads: is the real King of All Media… YouTube?Sponsors:ConstantContact.comLinks:Amazon Is Investigating Perplexity Over Claims of Scraping Abuse (Wired)OpenAI’s China Block to Reshape AI Scene as Big Players Pounce (Bloomberg)OpenAI Wants AI to Help Humans Train AI (Wired)An AI version of Al Michaels will deliver Olympic recaps on Peacock (The Verge)Weekend Longreads Suggestions:YouTube dominates streaming, forcing media companies to decide whether it’s friend or foe (CNBC)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Is Uncle Sam about to unload a ton of Bitcoin? AI has helped Google Translate almost double the number of languages it supports. No surprise, but Amazon is gonna take a page out of Temu’s book. Figma’s big redesign. And another way the AI era is rhyming with the DotCom era: the consultants are back.Sponsors:Miro.comLinks:Bitcoin Falls After U.S. Sends $240M Worth of Silk Road-Related BTC to Coinbase (Coindesk)Google Translate is getting support for more than 110 new languages (The Verge)Amazon To Launch Temu-Like Discount Section With Direct Shipping From China (The Information)Amazon Hits $2 Trillion in Value as AI Frenzy Fuels Rally (Bloomberg)Figma announces big redesign with AI (The Verge)Webtoon Entertainment to debut on Nasdaq as latest Korean cultural export success (Financial Times)The A.I. Boom Has an Unlikely Early Winner: Wonky Consultants (NYTimes)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.