Explosions in the Sky
Kids & AI • HBO Max • Indian iPhone • Microsoft AI • Fortnite App • Car Play Ultra • Slow Llama Behemoth • OpenAI Codex • Clooney Play Streaming • Netflix Live • Air Traffic & Asteroids • Odyssey IMAX
While we’re all aware of the race that’s currently underway to get a foothold in AI, it’s probably worth thinking about and through what the entry point will be for kids. Right now, it’s undoubtedly ChatGPT as they hear about it non-stop just like everyone else does. But might distribution deals — such as within schools — end up mattering? To get them "hooked" early on certain tools early, as it were?
Goo Goo Google
Apple ceding the education market to Chromebooks gives Google a unique counterposition in the age of AI...
(And it may help square the Apple falling searches circle...)
• Listening to "Teenager" by Deftones 🎶
• Written on an M4 MacBook Air 💻
• Sent from London, England 🏴 I Wrote...
📺 It's Not Max. It's HBO Max. Again.
Because it couldn't be Netflix...
🇮🇳 "I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday..."
President Trump does not like Apple's Indian iPhone backup plan – does it matter?
🦾 Microsoft Zoom, Zoom, Zooms to the Defensive About AI
This is not such a great look and posture for the company...
I Note...
Apple
🚫 Apple Blocks Fortnite’s App Store Return
Well, after a week of (expected) stonewalling, Apple seemingly pulled the trigger and rejected Fornite from the US App Store. I say "seemingly" only because Apple hasn’t yet weighed in and there have been so many twists and turns and attempted spin (in both directions) in this on-going saga, that I wouldn’t be shocked if there’s some other random explanation here. Perhaps a technical one. Perhaps not. But I know one thing: Tim Sweeney’s constant trolling of Apple leading up to the rejection probably didn’t help Epic’s case. But that’s what Sweeney does. And depending on your POV, you might argue to good effect. (Though it’s awful for Epic’s business, of course.) We’re weeks away from WWDC… WWAD (what will Apple do) there to address the larger issues that stem from all of this? Certainly having Fortnite banned (and now pulled in Europe too — was that Epic or Apple?) is not going to alleviate the pressure between now and then… [Verge]
🚗 'CarPlay Ultra', Starts Rolling Out… to Aston Martins
Look, some may say it’s elitist to only roll out a new — loooong awaited — feature to a type of car that starts at $150,000. I say it’s a rather brilliant way to get around the problem Amazon is facing with the Alexa+ roll-out — which is, a completely arbitrary launch leaving people with the "right" devices without the features because Amazon clearly wasn’t ready for prime-time yet. Apple is just naturally gating the launch to an extremely limited set of buyers. I’m also intrigued by going with 'CarPlay Ultra' over 'CarPlay Pro' or 'CarPlay Plus' or 'CarPlay Max'. I sort of get it for the Aston Martins, but when it comes to say, Hyundais, is it going to feel as premium? No offense to Hyundai! I mean, I hope it will! Regardless, James Bond is happy. [9to5Mac]
AI
🦙 Meta Is Delaying the Rollout of Its Flagship AI Model
Apparently having learned nothing from Apple, Amazon, Anthropic, or OpenAI, Meta was talking up their Llama 4 "Behemoth" model as recently as a few weeks ago — now it sounds like it may not be released until the fall, after having already been pushed (internally) from LlamaCon in April until June. WSJ notes they could still release a pared down version sooner, but the issue seems to be that they’re simply not seeing enough gains versus what they have in the past with other model updates (obviously a common refrain amongst all the model makers, and seemingly why both GPT-5 and Claude 3.5 "Opus" have taken so long as well). Meta also has another OpenAI-like problem, it seems: since the original Llama paper in 2023, "11 of the 14 researchers on that original paper have left the company". Anyway, there’s a clear problem across AI at the moment: overpromising and underdelivering. [WSJ 🔒]
🤖 ChatGPT Gets an AI Coding Agent
I’m shocked, shocked that OpenAI had something teed up to launch ahead of Google I/O next Tuesday. Perhaps even more intriguing: they’re launching it ahead of Microsoft’s Build conference on Monday. 'Codex' is clearly being teed up as the next big thing from OpenAI in the way that they’re tongue-in-cheekily downplaying it as a "low-key research project". This "virtual co-worker" runs a specific version of o3 called "codex-1" (please, please don’t add this to the drop-down, OpenAI). I had been wondering how this might play out with both the impending Windsurf acquisition and the new round for Cursor, being led by big OpenAI backer, Thrive Capital. They’re at least saying they view these different "vibe coding" tools as complementary. We’ll see. Two groups that undoubtedly will not view them as complementary: Google and Microsoft. Though the latter will of course say they do and then will do everything humanly possible behind the scenes to stab them in the back, per usual. [Verge]
Streaming
🎙️ Clooney Brought Murrow to Broadway. Next Stop: CNN.
This isn’t the same thing as when Disney+ released Hamilton during the pandemic — Good Night and Good Luck will actually be recorded and streamed live, the penultimate performance of the play on Broadway. What a huge score for CNN — a decision made in part because it’s a news organization and also because it’s owned by Warner Bros Discovery, which has the rights to the film version George Clooney made several years ago. It sounds like the (recorded) streaming rights are still being negotiated, but perhaps it will also help launch CNN’s new streaming service — yes, there’s another new streaming service coming, yes there another new CNN streaming service coming (after the initial flamed out so quickly and so spectacularly). If you can’t make it to New York and/or pay $300+ for a ticket to see a play that’s pulling in an incredible $4M/week, you’re in good luck. [NYT]
🎭 Netflix is Bringing Back ‘Star Search’ as a Live Show
Remember when Netflix kept insisting they weren’t interested in live programming because it’s not bingeable and has shelf-life issues? Yeah, we’re not in Kansas anymore as seemingly everything Netflix is doing that is garnering buzz is a live show. Including, of course, sports. Why? Ads. Ads. Ads. Ads. Which seems to be working quite well for Netflix. After years of insisting they wouldn’t do it. Next thing you know they’ll be announcing they’re going all-in on movie theaters… [Verge]
Yikes
✈️ This Air-Traffic Controller Just Averted a Midair Collision.
Come for the harrowing story about how one air-traffic controller almost casually averted a mid-air collision of two planes. (Which led him to have to take time off.) Stay for his fantastic outfit in an amazingly bizarre non sequiturial (did I just make that up?) photoshoot. Seriously, please get these people all the help they need. [WSJ 🔒]
☄️ Asteroid Strike Risk Level Rises to Highest Ever Recorded
Is it just me, or are such fears seemingly on the rise? Perhaps that’s directly related to a better ability to find and track such objects? Regardless, a 3.1% chance of a collision on December 22, 2032 feels… a little too specific for my liking. Yes, many such odds often fall as new data come in, but I suppose the opposite could be true too? The main thing they don’t yet know here is the exact size of the asteroid named ‘2024 YR4’. It could be anywhere from 130 feet up to 300 feet long, and just as importantly, they don’t know how dense it is, which will matter when it comes to whether it’s more likely to break up in the atmosphere. This also led me down a rabbit hole of reading about 'The Tunguska Event' — an asteroid of similar size to this one that exploded over Siberia in 1908. Because it was in a remote part of the world, it mainly took down trees — about 80,000,000 of them. Had it exploded over London, it would have destroyed the entire city. So yeah, this is something to track. [NYT]
Film
🎞️ Nolan’s ‘Odyssey’ Will Be the First Shot Entirely on IMAX
While a sizable amount of Oppenheimer was shot in the format (which required creating new black and white film stock), all of The Odyssey filmed in the format will be nuts. To make it happen, Christopher Nolan had two requests of the company: making the cameras lighter and quieter, and also creating a way for him to more easily view dailies of what he has shot. The resulting new IMAX camera is said to be 30% quieter (which, as many will know, has led to some, um, sound issues with Nolan’s films in the past) and apparently a lot lighter. I have a feeling this is one you won’t want to wait until it comes to streaming… [THR]
I Quote...
"The actual retail price is… three-thousand four hundred and ninety-nine dollars. For real, yeah."
— Drew Carey, the host of The Price is Right, revealing the price of Apple’s Vision Pro headset. The four contestants guessed $1,000, $750, $1,001, $1,270. No, no one got within $2,000 of the actual price.
That seems like a problem for Apple in two ways. First, despite the price being the focal point of nearly every story about the Vision Pro since launch, no one can recall that — and perhaps the Vision Pro itself. Second, everyone, including Carey, is shocked by how expensive the device actually is.
That cheaper version cannot come soon enough…
I Spy...
A photograph taken in 1908 in London, showing the blast flash from the Tunguska Event — over 4,000 miles away. It was said to be so bright in the sky there that you could read a newspaper, after midnight.
