Spyglass - Inner Thoughts

If you'll allow me a brief meta blurb this week (not a Meta blurb, plenty of those below), I just wanted to say thanks to those who immediately jumped to support 'The Inner Ring', the paid tier for Spyglass that I shipped on Monday. It's truly energizing to connect with an audience directly, doing what I love to do: write.

To recap the plan:

• This dispatch that you're reading right now is the free weekly newsletter which I call 'From Afar'. It's sent on Fridays and published to the site at that time.
• The link blog posts are published to the site every day (well every weekday, sometimes on weekends too). And you can follow along on Xitter, Threads, or RSS. Since enough of you asked, I also created a way to send these posts via email, but it's opt-in, which you can do here (if you're signed in) by toggling on 'One More Ring'.
• The columns are going to be emailed and posted two to three times a week for the paid members of 'The Inner Ring' (though I will open up a few of them here or there to the public).

I had an internal (modest) goal for week one and you helped blow that out of the water in a couple of hours. Humbled, blessed and all that. But seriously, thank you. Now you have me really wondering where this can go...

At the same time, it's extremely hard for me to promote something I'm doing – one reason why I'd be absolutely awful at publishing a book – without feeling self-conscious at best, and spammy at worst. I've never liked doing this, dating to my reporter days, but I know it's also sort of the name of the game. And in an age where the degradation of Twitter has all-but destroyed the social reach of old, I'm out here sending the same note six times on six different networks at different times of day. So this is me apologizing in advance for my relentless hawking.

Briefly...

For Detroit, the N.F.L. Draft Is Like a Super Bowl – What started as a fluke – the 2015 Draft couldn't be held at Radio City Music Hall in NYC due to a scheduling conflict – has turned into a full-on traveling circus, with cities lobbying to get the show. It's wild how big an event with no actual gameplay in the middle of the off season has gotten, but that's the power of the NFL. It even got its own Kevin Costner movie – it's not good, but it's a great cringe watch, I watched it last night, as I have for a decade – about my hometown Cleveland Browns, no less. Next year's Draft city host? Green Bay, Wisconsin. Population: 100,000.

What Is TikTok Worth? – Amidst conflicting reports about whether or not ByteDance would be willing to sell some/all of TikTok, one of the biggest question marks is how it would be valued. Certainly the company would love to think it's worth something north of $100B, but more reasonable marks may be closer to $20B depending on what's included in any sale (just the US user base? no algorithms?). It's also seemingly stalled in terms of growth and well, it's hard to see how the business booms with the uncertainty here.

There Is No TikTok in China, but There Is Douyin – Understanding the company's China-only product seems important to understanding the Western version. One thing you probably didn't realize: it's hugely popular in the country with older (50+) users. And it absolutely prints money, fueling ByteDance (mostly through advertising, but increasingly through commerce).

The New York Times’ Next Big Bet: ‘The Interview’ – Because the world needs another podcast... But seriously, I love the core idea here: Every subject will be interviewed twice. Once initially, and then again a few days later in a follow-up. Call it a gimmick if you want, but I think it's a rather brilliant idea to extend a conversation on both sides. And it's something you can uniquely do in this format versus on on-stage interview.

The Onion Is Sold by G/O Media – The end of yet another era... Wait a minute, the buyer is Global Tetrahedron? That sounds... that sounds familiar... Well played, (Michigan Man) Jeff Lawson. This seems like the first positive media news story in a decade. Maybe two. Throw them a buck? 🧅💚

💫 The Inner Ring 💫

The following are the columns sent to paid Spyglass subscribers this week – sign up here for full access and future emails...

The ‘Going Direct’ Bullshit Debate

It’s driven by AI and it’s all PR anyway…

Spyglass •M.G. Siegler

Is AI Spend the New Streaming Spend?

Wall Street loves to reward arms race spending -- until they don’t.

Spyglass •M.G. Siegler

Quoteable...

"I don’t like this new system where you have to have a million different subscriptions to watch what you want to watch. I’m happy to cancel to punish the companies who are making me do this."

-- Josh Meisel, a scientist who lives outside Boston, saying the pain we all feel. Someone has to unify this madness. To... bundle it, perhaps.

Some Thoughts On...

⚫️ Taylor Swift's love of vinyl, like Pearl Jam before her...

🥽 Meta's move to open up their XR OS...

👻 Ghost's move to open up to the Fediverse...

🥁 Apple and Spotify are fighting about app fine print, again...

🤖 A podcast about Apple's possible AI plans...

🐰 The Rabbit R1 AI device sounds cute yet clumsy...

Quickly...

• The FTC bans non-competes, which feels like a rare win for Lina Khan
  • But not it's not as black and white as it may seem, says Tyler Cowen...
• Meanwhile, the FCC put net neutrality back in place...
• Beyond Vision Pro shipment projections, the other divisive Apple topic this week was if they're discontinuing the "FineWoven" leather-replacement products. It's divisive because it's not clear if it's happening now or later, but everyone agrees that they're a bad product.
• Meta's Threads hits 150 million MAU, and continues its march towards Xitter in that regard...
  • And it's getting archiving and better filtering capabilities – it's certainly moving faster with actually useful tools, versus Xitter's flailing about...
• Taylor Swift's new album may be surprisingly divisive (standard media builds-you-up-to-knock-you-down mixed with overexposure stuff, IMO), but it's obliterating basically every streaming record
• Amazon Prime Video secures NHL rights, which is like getting the NFL in the U.S. – who will get the NBA rights in the streaming world?
• Qualcomm's new Snapdragon X chips seem to pass the speed test, but can they pass the power test to take on Apple Silicon?
• Is AI going to lead to a new PC boom? It sure seems like both hardware and software players are pushing this hard...
• While the Delta emulator is awesome when it comes to running old school Nintendo games on your iOS devices, sadly, Dolphin won't be diving in as well for Gamecube and Wii games (due to technical reasons)
  • Also, FYI: AirPlay works to put said games on your TV...
• New rules for theatrical runs when it comes to movies being eligible for Oscars
• Amidst a roaring stock market, Cathie Wood's ARK funds keep taking on water with some comically bad timing and bets.
• Apple will ship a calculator app for iPad? Finally? (Meh, Calcbot is great.)
• RIP Post, one of the would-be Twitter replacements of 2023
• It sure sounds like the Xbox is slowly morphing into an actual PC on one end, and a handheld on the other – which might make some sense as they clearly need a game change, but the business aspect continues to seem muddled at best
  • While partnering with Meta on Xbox VR...
• Meanwhile, Meta updated their Ray-Ban smart glasses as they continue to generate positive buzz (despite the early wonkiness of their AI)
  • And they even added Apple Music, even as Zuck keeps taking shots at the Vision Pro while forming an alliance to combat the device

More Missives...

The Chilling of TikTok

Ban or not, this is the end of TikTok as we know it

Spyglass •M.G. Siegler

The tok is officially tiking...

An ‘iPhone E’ for ‘Emerging’

The case to re-release the three-year-old iPhone models elsewhere

Spyglass •M.G. Siegler

It's probably time for a lower-priced iPhone in emerging markets...

A Glimpse Into Modern News Consumption

At least via the Trump trial in NYC, which may not mean much -- still…

Spyglass •M.G. Siegler

Some surprises -- especially what's not here...

Losing Sight of the Vision Pro

With sales looking weak, what is Apple’s strategy here?

Spyglass •M.G. Siegler

Whether or not projections were cut, Vision Pro needs some love from Apple...

The Rings of Power

A paid tier for Spyglass: ‘The Inner Ring’

Spyglass •M.G. Siegler

An update on Spyglass upon launching a paid tier...

One Ledbetter Thing...

Howard Stern grills Pearl Jam for not including "Yellow Ledbetter", arguably their best song (certainly my favorite), on Ten. So why is it only a B-side? As he notes, Eddie Vedder hadn't finished the lyrics. Which is perhaps the best part of the song. This entire appearance is so fantastic. You simply cannot believe these guys are almost in their 60s (Matt Cameron and Jeff Ament are already!). 🤘🎸