Spyglass - The Race for Server Space

We tend to overreact to things – this is the internet, sir – but the ruling against Google with regard to the Play Store seems like a big deal. While the broader search antitrust case will get more headlines, this one already has remedies which are pretty specifically going after the core of apps on Android. The payment elements seem like a bigger deal to me than the third-party app store stuff. We'll see how much longer this one gets dragged out, but it just continues the now constant and growing louder regulatory drumbeat against "Big Tech".

Also growing in volume: the awkwardness between OpenAI and their main benefactor, Microsoft. One day a great case study will be written about this relationship. For now, they remain quasi-aligned in a space race. As in, a race for space. In which to put servers. To battle Elon Musk, naturally. 🚀

Some Thoughts...

🍎 Apple Potentially Facing Worst Leak Since iPhone 4 Was Left in a Bar – What's perhaps most telling about this fiasco is that no one is actually sure if these are legit because the MacBook Pros are nearly identical to previous models (sensing a theme here?), as has been expected. So... who really cares? (It's the shirt meme come to life.) Well, Apple certainly does as it's a security breach – certainly if they're for sale?! But the most we're learning here is that these M4 Macs may come with 16GB of RAM as the baseline and that the entry-level models may gain a port and the 'Space Black' color (both of which were already true of the higher-end MacBook Pro, and rumored). Performance specs always leak early and are unrelated to this, if it's legit. [MacRumors]

🍿 Is Disney Bad at Star Wars? – This post is a good overview of the situation, but it pulls far too many punches. Let me correct it simply: is Disney bad at Star Wars? At times, no. But mostly, yes. It has become just a mess of started and stopped projects, half-baked ideas, and mostly mediocre content. When some projects do work, like Andor, it's almost like they succeed despite being set up to fail. That's a problem at the top and I just don't know why that's divisive to say so. It's a reality everyone can clearly see. They need a Kevin Feige-like figure to bring cohesion to the Force. Perhaps even Feige himself. You brought Robert Downey Jr. back into the MCU fold, congrats. Now for a real challenge... [THR]

Some Analysis...

Google’s Epic Fail

This will drag on for years, but a clear message has been sent -- and Apple shouldn’t be relieved…

Spyglass •M.G. Siegler

OpenAI’s Space Race

Server space, that is... still against, Elon Musk, naturally

Spyglass •M.G. Siegler

Some Links...

• How cutthroat is the business around AI and chips? Samsung felt the need to issue an apology for profits only being up 274%, which was well below analyst expectations for earnings. [Bloomberg 🔒]
• "A real American would never want to know what's in a hot dog..." [YouTube]
• The first scripted bit of content is coming to the Vision Pro – 9 months after launch. Submerged is directly by Edward Berger, who beyond All Quiet on the Western Front has most recently been linked to both Ocean's 14 and the latest James Bond. The downside? It's likely only a few minutes long. [MacRumors]
• Shams Charania – aka "Shams" – going to ESPN to replace Adrian Wojnarowski – aka "Woj" – makes all the sense in the world, of course. Too bad The Athletic has to report on their own loss, but presumably they were never going to pay the kind of money the "NBA Insider" gig commands... [The Athletic 🔒]
• John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton won the Nobel Prize for their work building the foundations of machine learning. Hinton, of course, is known as the "Godfather of AI", worked at Google for a decade, and has taught many of the names you may know that are associated with AI today, while Hopfield has a more understated background, fully in academia. [Bloomberg 🔒]
• Uber is giving an option to ride fully electric in a bunch of cities via Uber Green and is partnering with OpenAI because everyone simply must figure out a way to partner with OpenAI. [The Verge]
• Crypto.com is suing the SEC because fortune favors the brave. (But really because they received a Wells notice, indicating they're about to bring an enforcement against the company.) [The Block]

A Golden Oldie...

Epic’s Poke-the-Bear Strategy

Epic and Spotify sure seem to like to taunt Apple in front of the EU…

Spyglass •M.G. Siegler

And I Quote...

"I think a bunch of people — our competitors — kind of raced to put chatbots on top of everything and show that they were in the lead of generative AI."

-- Matt Garman, the new-ish CEO of AWS, in response to a question about the perception that Amazon may be behind in the AI race. On one hand, I think that's a fair assessment – everyone clearly went overboard on the chatbots. On the other, to some degree perception is reality and the fact that Amazon wasn't really being talked about in the "race" was an issue. And it wasn't exactly for a lack of trying.

It also feels a bit flippant of a statement given all the reports around Amazon's internal AI efforts. To be fair, many of those are around Alexa – the OG voice chatbot, in a way – and the attempts to reboot the technology on the fly. But well, Garman is seemingly now in his role for a reason!