Spyglass Dispatch: Selling Chrome • Tech Tariffs • Masa Son's Bets • Alexa's Frustrations • Ex-Meta Lobbying • Apple's Missing Battery Pack

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The end of Chrome as we know it? I highly doubt it. Forcing Google to sell the browser makes almost no sense. I mean, just consider the buyers. Spinning it off isn't much better. It's a remedy that sounds good – in that it sounds big – on paper, but falls over in the slightest of breeze. I suspect other remedies will come...

Chrome Alone

If Google were to sell off Chrome, who would benefit? Anyone?

Spyglass •M.G. Siegler

I Think...

🏗️ A Chance to Build – Good overview by Ben Thompson about why tariffs matter in the tech industry and why there will undoubtedly be unintended consequences that the incoming Trump administration either isn't thinking about or doesn't care about or thinks the trade-offs are worth it. To that end, it strikes me that a number of parties advising Trump on this want perhaps not just to make America great again (for manufacturing, which will happen somewhat, but not at the scale they hope/imagine), but also know there will be massive new opportunities when you shake up the snow globe this much and those who are quick and savvy in reacting to this new world order will reap the rewards. Too cynical? Absolutely not. Just watch. [Stratechery]

💸 The Mystery of Masayoshi Son, SoftBank’s Great Disrupter – A good profile of a man who, from the outside, just seems impulsive, to put it nicely, or crazy, to put it less nicely. The reality, it seems is more nuanced. As it's put in the story, he's "a brilliant operator (when he focuses), an average investor and a terrible trader." The whiplash from incredible timing with Alibaba is countered by awful timing with NVIDIA. From an incredible decision with ARM to an awful one with WeWork. From richest man in the world to massively in debt. The ultimate man of extremes. You do have to wonder what might have been if the VisionFund was shifted just a few years later, into the age of AI. Naturally, he's going all-in on the field now anyway. When he dumped his 5% stake in NVIDIA five years ago, it was worth $4B. Today, it would be worth $180B. [FT 🔒]

🗣️ Internal Docs Show Critical Flaws in Delayed Reboot of Alexa – The latest problem, detailed as recently as this month, is latency. The new Alexa is simply too slow to be "remarkable" to users and will instead likely be "frustrating". Presumably this isn't as easy as throwing more bandwidth at the problem, as it would seem to be about AI compute and working with third party services, including Uber, OpenTable, Instacart, etc. As I've written about, this is a problem exacerbated by Amazon's "strength" here in having sold some 500M Alexa devices over the years; expectations on quick replies are in place. And if Amazon really wants users to pay for this new version – it's going to be a tough sell, literally. Plus the (unsurprising) notion that this new version will not run on that entire installed user base and Amazon will have to offer deals to get people to upgrade. Most damning, beyond the delays, may be the fact that the leaks keep happening, to multiple outlets now. Seems like not a great internal situation... [Fortune]

🇪🇺 Meta Lobbyist Turned Regulator Says Europe’s Big Tech Rules Have Gone Too Far – It seems like a good thing to have someone like Aura Salla in place to try to talk some sense into the EU with regard to regulation and tech. If nothing else, the notion that a bunch of these rules are just going to backfire and create blowback against startups (and citizens) in the EU. But then you get to the part about how she's in favor of the DMA coming down against Apple and you do have to wonder if she is just parroting Meta's talking points, as her critics are saying. The DMA for thee, but not for me... ta? [Wired 🔒]

🔋 Apple’s MagSafe Battery Pack for iPhone Shouldn’t Have Been a One-and-Done – It is pretty weird that Apple stopped selling this product and has never replaced it. And, in fact, doesn't make any battery packs any more. Yes, there are a lot of third-party options, but some people want the Apple brand to go with their Apple iPhone. Some assumed that it would return when the shift to USB-C was complete. Nope. Perhaps it's part of the move to outsource these types of peripherals to third parties, but of all the questions I answer for friends about tech, this one is near the top: why did Apple stop making this battery pack? I still have one. I still use it. [9to5Mac]

I Wrote...

While we're on the topic of Google's antitrust case, some other thoughts to read and consider...

Let’s Not Pass ‘Go’ Just Yet...

A few thoughts on the Google monopoly ruling…

Spyglass •M.G. Siegler

Reminder: What Actually Disrupted Microsoft

It was not the Justice Department, despite the rhetoric this week…

Spyglass •M.G. Siegler

The Google Breakup Trial Balloon

Negotiating 101 would indicate the DoJ may pull back a bit…

Spyglass •M.G. Siegler

I Link...

• Just how much would Apple like the iPhone to not be banned from being sold in Indonesia? What started as a $10M "investment" offer is now up to $100M. That still feels awfully cheap for access to nearly 300M inhabitants, many of whom are young and tech savvy... [Bloomberg 🔒]
• Unlike the strange Trump/Musk situation, I think new SF mayor Daniel Lurie tapping Sam Altman to be a part of his transition team is a savvy move to send a signal that the literal shitshow is over and that the city aims to embrace its (much-envied) role as the tech capital of the world. [TechCrunch]
• Multiple reports now peg next year's rumored iPhone 17 "Air" or "Slim" as the thinnest iPhone ever. How thin? 6mm would be almost a full mm slimmer than the iPhone 6 (the current title holder). It would be 2.25mm thinner than my current iPhone 16 Pro Max – but not quite as thin as my M4 iPad Pro, which is just 5.1mm thick. [MacRumors]
• Which "big tech company" has HarperCollins struck an AI deal with for their books (if authors opt-in)? Given that their parent company, News Corp, has a deal in place with OpenAI, that seems like a decent bet. But remember that Meta was looking into this space too... [404 Media]
• While the story is mainly framed around Disney starting to look at outside candidates for the CEO role – namely, EA's Andrew Wilson – buried in here is a clear signal that Bob Iger thinks going with co-CEOs may be a good option – going so far as to talk to Netflix's own co-CEO, Ted Sarandos, about it – and that Dana Walden and Josh D'Amaro could fit nicely together in such an arrangement... [WSJ 🔒]
• Apple is now selling their own ads directly within Apple News. Beats Taboola, I guess. But mainly it continues Apple's push into ads. [Axios]
• Quantum Leaps:
  • NVIDIA is teaming up with Google on quantum computers. [Bloomberg]
  • Microsoft is teaming up with Atom Computing on the same. [TechCrunch]
• The first desktop PC made by Microsoft looks like a Mac mini, but it actually streams Windows 11 via their Windows 365 service. "Link" actually isn't an awful name and is only $349 for a Copilot+ PC (read: AI PC). [Verge]
• Just as Vision Pro users will gain the extremely useful "Wide" and "Ultrawide" modes for Mac Virtual Display mode, Microsoft will be bringing full Windows 11 support to Meta Quest headsets. [TechCrunch]
• Is "Glicked" – Wicked and Gladiator II opening the same day – this year's "Barbeneheimer"? I mean for one thing, a better name would be needed. "Glicked" reads like it rhymes with "clicked" not "Glick-ed". [NYT]

I Quote...

"The financial industry’s embrace of crypto is less a validation of its alleged revolutionary potential and more an attempt to extract fees from what is, essentially, gambling. It has effectively neutered crypto’s radical promise of disintermediation."

-- Stephen Diehl, taking a baseball bat to the knees of the latest Bitcoin surge, pointing out that this is not the libertarian ideals that Satoshi Nakamoto and the original group behind the currency had it mind – in fact, it's basically the opposite. With the new rally and the incoming Trump administration's embrace of the currency, we're now in "the era of institutional crypto capture".