From Afar
The Spyglass Column
Thoughts and analysis on various topics. Columns which are exclusive to paid members are denoted below, outlined in SEA GREEN.
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July 2026
Netflix Needs a New Shakeup
Outflanked by YouTube, they need a true focus on engagementā¦
M.G. Siegler
Metaās Inevitable Cloud
Their need to diversify the business meets the AI build out concernsā¦
M.G. Siegler
June 2026
Meta, Be Better
Getting banned on WhatsApp is both bullshit and a real problem.
M.G. Siegler
Comcast is Unbundling... Comcast
The company canāt stop cutting itself in two, but who is buying? Netflix? SpaceX?!
M.G. Siegler
Natural Born Bloggers
Rest in peace, Om Malik.
M.G. Siegler
The Market Shifts Apple
Apple used to bend suppliers to their will. The world has changed.
M.G. Siegler
Amazon Meddles
Thoughts on Amazon MGM bailing on their OpenAI movieā¦
M.G. Siegler
About Those āHackquisitionsā...
The first crop certainly havenāt panned outā¦
M.G. Siegler
Can āSpecsā Snap Snapās Losing Streak?
Sadly, no. Not at these prices. But they had little choiceā¦
M.G. Siegler
Regulation for Thee, Not for Me
Why did the Trump administration go nuclear on Anthropic ā again?
M.G. Siegler
Anthropicās Heel Turn
Itās perhaps more of an Anakin Skywalker situationā¦
M.G. Siegler
The AI Overkill Era
As AI shifts agentic and expensive, might we see more hybrid local/cloud arrangements?
M.G. Siegler
The Resuscitation of Xbox
After a few months of good will, here comes the hard callsā¦
M.G. Siegler
Apple Wins Consumer AI By Default
As the iPhone becomes the first true AI deviceā¦
M.G. Siegler
Dreams of a Siri That Doesnāt Suck
Some hope (and fears) about the Apple Intelligence do-overā¦
M.G. Siegler
āChat is dead.ā
As OpenAI morphs ChatGPT, there are opportunities and risksā¦
M.G. Siegler
Theyāre Building AI PCs, Will Users Come?
Developers will, but at what cost? And can NVIDIA, Microsoft, and Google push Apple aside there?
M.G. Siegler
INNER RING
The Summer of āSuper Appsā
Microsoft races to get the one Copilot to rule them all out the doorā¦
M.G. Siegler
YouTube Beats AI to Disrupting Hollywood
āBackroomsā and āObsessionā have pried the filmmaking gates open, AI may blow the bloody doors offā¦
M.G. Siegler
May 2026
Microsoft Seeks a Surface RT & Copilot+ PC Do-Over with NVIDIA
Can the main AI chip maker ensure Windows owns the āAI PCā?
M.G. Siegler
Metaās Premium Branding Mess
Meta Plus Meta One Plus Premium & Essential & Advancedā¦
M.G. Siegler
Let There Be Luce
LoveFromās Ferrari design is predictably divisiveā¦
M.G. Siegler
The Great AI IPO Race
SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic are all anglingā¦
M.G. Siegler
THE INNER RING š
NVIDIAās Profit Crown
Jensen Huang just took the throne from Apple, at least in the USā¦
M.G. Siegler
Google āIā Hold the āOā
Some thoughts on the Google I/O 2026 keynoteā¦
M.G. Siegler
Lessons from the Luddites
Parallels with the Age of AIā¦
M.G. Siegler
THE INNER RING š
OpenAI Picks An Apple Fight
With Apple expanding beyond ChatGPT, hereās the finger-pointing over what could have been if Siri didnāt suckā¦
M.G. Siegler
An Actual AI PC
Some initial thoughts on āGooglebookāā¦
M.G. Siegler
Amazon Phones Home
Do Panos Panayās verbal gymnastics stick the landing?
M.G. Siegler
Take Me Down to the āAmateur Cityā
Satya Nadella sums up so much with one quoteā¦
M.G. Siegler
EyePods
AirPods with cameras arenāt to take pictures, but to let Siri āseeāā¦
M.G. Siegler
The Case for Apple + Disney
Also the case against what is still a fun, but unlikely dealā¦
M.G. Siegler
THE INNER RING š
Anthropic Boosts SpaceX into the Neocloud Orbit
A very clear, surprisingly clean win/win deal, it seemsā¦
M.G. Siegler
The iPhoneās BlackBerry Moment
Am I crazy to think the āiPhone Ultraā will be great for typing?
M.G. Siegler
The Age of the āSuper Appā ā Again and Again and Again
Meta. X. Coinbase. Airbnb. Uber. Snap. Spotify. ChatGPT. Even Disney. Theyāre all trying ā and constantly failing ā with this strategyā¦
M.G. Siegler
Appleās Binary Bet
As Big Tech keeps ramping CapEx, Apple stays the sameā¦
M.G. Siegler
April 2026
Stargate Powers Some Gaslights
OpenAI would sure like us to believe thereās nothing to see hereā¦
M.G. Siegler
THE INNER RING š
John Ternusā Magic Show
Appleās new CEO must find a new trick and pull off āthe prestigeāā¦
M.G. Siegler
Microsoft Claws Away āThe Clauseā as OpenAI Claws Back Some Independence
OpenAI and Microsoft update the agreement they just updatedā¦
M.G. Siegler
AI in the Sky
SpaceX + xAI + Xitter + Cursor + Mistral + Tesla
M.G. Siegler
THE INNER RING š
A Cookās Tour
Tim Cook steps down as CEO of Apple as John Ternus steps upā¦
M.G. Siegler
Metaās Recurring Apple Nightmare
With smartglasses, Apple is once again entering Metaās turf. Wielding a familiar weapon: the iPhoneā¦
M.G. Siegler
THE INNER RING š
āProject Hail Maryā as a Sign of the Times
What if technology isnāt going to destroy the future, but might save it?
M.G. Siegler
BYOAI
Might the AI you use at home be the one you use at work?
M.G. Siegler
The Casual Catastrophe of AI
Can the sheer scale of compute fix the world before it breaks it?
M.G. Siegler
A Conversion to Apple
How a PC kid became an Apple fanatic over the course of the companyās 50 yearsā¦
M.G. Siegler
OpenAIās Soft Power Play
Will TBPN help them change the conversation around AI?
M.G. Siegler
March 2026
The NFL Will Bleed Cable Dry Before Tech Takes Over TV
Amazon, Apple, ESPN, Netflix, and YouTube will clearly eventually control the NFL rightsā¦
M.G. Siegler
THE INNER RING š
Big Techbacco
The growing risk that these companies are viewed as a cancerā¦
M.G. Siegler
So Long, Sora
An OpenAI Code Red? More like a Code Deadā¦
M.G. Siegler
Apple Realizes There Should Be An App For That
Siri Edition
M.G. Siegler
Before MacBook Neo, There Was iBook
27 years ago, Steve Jobs celebrated Apple completing āthe quadrantāā¦
M.G. Siegler
Meta Keeps Missing
Encryption? No. Crypto? No. VR? No. Open models? No. AI? Not so far. Agents? Nothing yet. AR? Weāll seeā¦
M.G. Siegler
THE INNER RING š
Microsoft Got Sloppy with Windows
At perhaps the exact wrong moment with AI and the MacBook Neoā¦
M.G. Siegler
Amazonās Novel Approach to a Newfangled AI Device: a Phone?
Itās perhaps not as crazy as it sounds. Just donāt say āFire Phoneāā¦
M.G. Siegler
OpenAIās Odyssey
Can they get down to business while maintaining ChatGPTās lead?
M.G. Siegler
THE INNER RING š
Actually, MacBook Neo Is For Me
I didnāt expect to, but Iām keeping itā¦
M.G. Siegler
Microsoft Adds More Copilots to Help Copilot Copilot
Their consumer and commercial AI efforts clearly havenāt workedā¦
M.G. Siegler
THE INNER RING š
Jensen in the Arena
The āToken Kingā enters the Age of Inferenceā¦
M.G. Siegler
Maybe You Canāt Just Throw Money at AI
How and why Meta AI and xAI have failed in AI thus farā¦
M.G. Siegler
THE INNER RING š
āiPhone Foldā as āiPad Miniā Folded
But, importantly, running a new iOS, not iPadOSā¦
M.G. Siegler
Fixing the Windows in a Broken Home
Theatrical windows are back in place. Hopefully more open this timeā¦
M.G. Siegler
Meta (or Microsoft) Steals a Stargate
What choosing Texas (or not) says about the state of data centersā¦
M.G. Siegler
OpenAI is Busy Both Bundling and Unbundling
With Sora coming to ChatGPTā¦
M.G. Siegler
Appleās Hail Mary, Anthropicās Savior
It sounds crazy, but hear me outā¦
M.G. Siegler
THE INNER RING š
The Lobster
It feels like weāve seen the OpenClaw movie before, many timesā¦
M.G. Siegler
When Knees Buckle, then Bend, then Break
On Anthropicās war with the Department of Warā¦
M.G. Siegler
THE INNER RING š
The Death of the 30% Cut
Google ends the Play Store insanity, putting the pressure on Appleā¦
M.G. Siegler
THE INNER RING š
MacBook Neo: Whoa
Appleās newest Mac is priced to moveā¦
M.G. Siegler
There Are Signs...
Private Credit, CapEx, Interest Rates, War, and AI Disruption ā oh my!
M.G. Siegler
THE INNER RING š
AI Am Become Death
As Anthropic blows up their potential AI usage, the Pentagon goes nuclearā¦
M.G. Siegler
Increasingly, Big Tech Owns Big AI
The latest OpenAI and Anthropic rounds drill it homeā¦
M.G. Siegler
THE INNER RING š
February 2026
TUDUMB
Paramount breaks the wrist, Netflix walks away from Warner Brosā¦
M.G. Siegler
Apple is About to Have *Two* Toaster/Fridge Hybrids
Will the quotes (and complexity) come back to bite the touchscreen MacBook?
M.G. Siegler
THE INNER RING š
Tasty AI
Is AI ātasteā a quixotic task?
M.G. Siegler
Exbox
Microsoft will do one last Xbox push, but thereās probably not a longer path forward ā unless AI saves the day; not in the way you think!
M.G. Siegler
THE INNER RING š
Can OpenAI Build Alexa Before Amazon Can Build ChatGPT?
Actually, their impending partnership may start to make more senseā¦
M.G. Siegler
Appleās Next Big Thing: the iPhone
A rush of AI devices ā including from Apple ā may end up as a reminder of which company is in control hereā¦
M.G. Siegler
THE INNER RING š
Little? Yellow? Different?
A non-cutting-edge, but fun MacBookā¦
M.G. Siegler
DeepSeek 2: The Movie
The Seedance āEnd of Hollywoodā likely points to the paths forwardā¦
M.G. Siegler
I Am the Great Glassholio!
Things are going well for Ray-Ban Metas... time to meddle!
M.G. Siegler
Apple Cannot Be Sirious
Whatās worse: that Apple canāt fix Siri, or that they canāt stop the leaks about how they canāt fix Siri?
M.G. Siegler
Love It If We Made It
AI will disrupt work. We will adapt.
M.G. Siegler
YouTube TV Finally Kills Cable
Their smaller bundles wound the beast, the sports bundle ends itā¦
M.G. Siegler
THE INNER RING š
Itās The Thought That Counts
The diminished state of thinking could be decimated by AIā¦
M.G. Siegler
Sometimes Itās Too Slow
With data centers in space. āFor shureāā¦
M.G. Siegler
THE INNER RING š
Wall Street Starts to Turn on AI
Concerns about CapEx and Claude Coworkā¦
M.G. Siegler
THE INNER RING š
Space Twitter!
Elon Musk tries to merge the AI Race into the Space Raceā¦
M.G. Siegler
THE INNER RING š
My 2026 iPhone Homescreen
As we gear up for the true āaiPhoneā and āiPhone Foldāā¦
M.G. Siegler
NVIDIA and the Case of the Missing $100B OpenAI Investment
The massive deal touted by both OpenAI and NVIDIA as a landmark one now looks a lot different ā unless you ask Jensen Huangā¦
M.G. Siegler
January 2026
Where the Wild Bots Are
Should we be concerned or amused by Moltbook, a social network where AI can talk amongst itself? Maybe both?
M.G. Siegler
Meta Bets the Farm, Apple Milks the Cows
Meta and Apple have opposite strategies around AI right nowā¦
M.G. Siegler
The Anyone-But-Google AI Alliance
Big Techās billions into OpenAI signal somethingā¦
M.G. Siegler
THE INNER RING š
Appleās Dark Knight
Decoding Tim Cookās seemingly stunningly stupid strategyā¦
M.G. Siegler
THE INNER RING š
DeepSought
A year after DeepSeekās āSputnik Momentāā¦
M.G. Siegler
Aside From That, Mr. Cook, What Did You Think of the Movie?
Let them eat popcornā¦
M.G. Siegler
Appleās Twin Suns
John Ternus takes on design while Craig Federighi takes on AI as Apple prepares for a new CEOā¦
M.G. Siegler
Pinning Hopes on New AI Hardware ā Again ā Even Apple
With competent AI incoming, Apple considers an AI Pinā¦
M.G. Siegler
THE INNER RING š
An Actual AiPhone
Gemini? Check. Chatbot? Check. But might we need an app?
M.G. Siegler
Make TVs Great Again
With Sony exiting the market, we need Apple making television setsā¦
M.G. Siegler
Hollywood Cuts Off Its Future to Spite Its Present
Netflix is obviously the best path forward for Warner Bros, you foolsā¦
M.G. Siegler
My Boyās Wicked Smart on AI
Ben Affleck makes some good, coherent points about... AI?
M.G. Siegler
Will OpenAI Ads Click with Users?
And will users click on them?ā¦
M.G. Siegler
Netflixās Hard 45
With Ted Sarandosā 45-day theatrical commit for movies, heās aiming to win the box office, Hollywood, and the Warner Bros dealā¦
M.G. Siegler
The Vision Pro Slam Dunk
Their immersive NBA stream highlights how close Apple is to making Vision Pro content workā¦
M.G. Siegler
āHello, Computer.ā
With AI and an appetite for new hardware, vocal computing seems primed to take off, for real this timeā¦
M.G. Siegler
And the Winner of Appleās Great AI Bakeoff is... Google
Gemini catches them up quickly in AI while giving them flexibilityā¦
M.G. Siegler
AI Needs Its Steve Jobs
Everyone seemingly wants to shoot the current AI messengersā¦
M.G. Siegler
THE INNER RING š
The Incredible Valuation Heights of the OpenAI āConstellationsā
Now past $700B in aggregate. Add in OpenAI itself and weāre at $1.5T.
M.G. Siegler
Gmailās First Lunge Towards Stabbing Email to Death with AI
Give me āAI Inboxā yesterday Googleā¦
M.G. Siegler
Microsoftās Would-Have-Been $30B āHackquisitionā of OpenAI
Looking back on a mega deal that never happened, but kicked off the āhackquistionā boomā¦
M.G. Siegler
Stranger Things Have Happened Than Netflixās Theatrical Success
āStranger Thingsā makes a killing in movie theaters, duhā¦
M.G. Siegler