Dispatch 009
It has been a few months and you know what that means? A new drip of content for the Vision Pro! I kid, I kid. But also, I don't! Looks like I'll have to go through the laborious process of booting up that bad boy again later tonight. One thing I will say: I'm not even particularly interested in The Weeknd, but because the content is so sparse and at the same time, so good, I'll basically watch anything. Sorry, not basically. Literally. This is a promotional video for his new album. That's what I'll be watching. A commercial. And here's a commercial for the commercial. Let's get back on the actual content path, Apple?
I Think...
🛍️ Amazon Unveils ‘Haul’—its Ultra-Discount Temu Rival – The most interesting element of this may be how Amazon is going to make the economics work (obviously, grouping items together is key as are longer shipping times – presumably directly from China – and no returns for items under $3), or if it's really just a full-on defensive play against Temu and Shein. Amazon's own PR is clearly all about the "A-to-z Guarantee" (weird that the 'z' isn't capitalized?) mentioned over and over again to let customers know they won't be getting scammed here as they might elsewhere... Interesting that there's no Prime tie-in here – presumably because the young customer base isn't one that's paying $140 a year for free shipping. There's definitely a "how do you do, fellow kids?" vibe. And if/when the US closes the "free import of cheap shit" (that's my rough translation of "de minimis") loophole will that help Amazon or hurt them as well here? [Fortune]
🎤 Mark Zuckerberg and T-Pain ‘Get Low’ in Anniversary Post – Look, it's nice to have fun. It's nice to do things for your wife. But can we please read the room – meaning, the world – a bit better when timing the release of your collab with T-Pain, Zuck? There's just a lot going on right now and I'm not sure the internet is really in the mood for a cover of a song, which, by the way, T-Pain wasn't even involved in making originally? Actually, here's an idea: why not just send this privately? Imagine that. The public doesn't need an auto-tuned ode to your "balls" and "bitches". I know you're riding high on this weird but clearly calculated vibe-shift, but not everything needs to be a PR moment. Speaking of, why is The New York Times covering this? Again, feels like there are more important things at the moment. Why am I writing about this? But since I am, one more question: why is this only on Spotify? Presumably yet another subtle political push against Apple? And maybe YouTube? Fortune favors the friends? Shit is T-Painful. [NYT]
⚾️ Amazon Prime Video to Stream Diamond Regional Sports Networks – After a lot of back-and-forth, this deal is finally done and will make Prime Video effectively a carrier for local MLB, NBA, and NHL games in certain markets. It's sort of a backdoor into replacing cable and almost the opposite of what Netflix has done – Sportsnight! – at least until they keep ramping up on live sports as well. Interestingly, you'll be able to buy games one-off, at least for the NBA and NHL, at $6.99-a-game – which undoubtedly will be comically expensive relative to the overall packages (though full pricing isn't yet announced, previous rumors had local teams coming in around $20/month for all the games). Given that the rights after non-exclusive (read: cheaper for Amazon), might ESPN step in to offer these games as well? [CNBC]
⭕️ OpenAI Nears Launch of AI Agent Tool to Automate Tasks for Users – Seemingly tying together several open threads, 'Operator' would be OpenAI's answer to the use-your-computer-for-you AI that Anthropic rolled out last month and that it sounds like Google is also on the verge of launching. But this sounds more akin to Google's version as per the report, it's confined to the web browser, not your entire computer. And it sounds like the first of a few "agents" to come from OpenAI. Might this be 'Orion'? Or what it has morphed into given the LLM slowdown? That might make some sense. It seems like as we shift into a post-GPT world, there's confusion about new models versus new functionality. OpenAI isn't doing the press any favors by making it all about the 'O'. 'Operator'. 'Orion'. '4o'. 'o1'. How badass would it be to rename the whole company 'O' – competing with 'X' in the most epic game of Tick-tac-toe the world has ever known? [Bloomberg 🔒]
🧅 The Onion Says It Has Bought Infowars, Alex Jones’s Site, Out of Bankruptcy – Hard to imagine a more fitting end to this sad story than The Onion not only winning the bid, but aiming to relaunch Infowars next month as a parody of its former self. Oh, and the fact that 'Everytown for Gun Safety' in on board as are the parents of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting, who, of course, famously and literally sued Infowars out of existence in the first place. All sides seem perfectly aligned in using The Onion's brand of humor to not only further make a mockery of Jones and what he did, but also to continue to drive awareness around gun violence – something which The Onion has arguably done better than anyone over the years with one headline. Over and over and over again. Also, they won the old Infowars production studio and diet supplement business. [NYT]
I Wrote...
Begun, the great LLM slowdown has?
M.G. Siegler
I Link...
- Meta is apparently preparing to launch their first ads on Threads in early 2025. Perfectly timed with the rise of Bluesky. [Information 🔒]
- Which team has the ugliest court they'll be playing on in the NBA Cup tournament? Hard to choose, but I think either the Pelicans or the Wizards. They're all just incredible eyesores. And make it hard to actually watch the games on TV. Wonder what it's like to play on them... [Yahoo Sports]
- The FBI raided the home of Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan, which the company and The New York Post would really like to frame as political retribution. But it clearly seems to be all about US usage of the platform after a previous settlement (and fine) which saw them leave the market (though they're working to come back). It seems pretty likely US users were using VPNs to bet, the question will be if the company knew about it and tried to stop it, etc. [NYT]
- Seemingly aiming to clean her slate in her last days in office, Margrethe Vestager sounds almost giddy in announcing a nearly $1B fine for Meta for tying Facebook Marketplace to their broader service. They're appealing, of course. And one has to wonder if they, or Apple, or any US company ever pays such a fine given the coming of you-know-who... [FT 🔒]
- Well, the Elon Musk/Donald Trump relationship at least has lasted longer than the relationship he had with Don Lemon. After their partnership blew up in spectacular fashion on his Xitter show, Lemon is now quitting Xitter entirely. He says it's about Musk trying to shift his dispute over their agreement (without a contract) to a Texas court versus the California one. [Variety]
- HBO head Casey Bloys reiterated the notion that a Game of Thrones Jon Snow spin-off show while now dead could be yes, resurrected at some point. But nothing is in the works now. And interesting that there was no mention about the rumored movie sequel idea... [Deadline]
- It's not just that the high-end of the market is a good place to be right now in chips, it's that it's so much more lucrative to be there, as NVIDIA and its partners are a testament to while Intel and Samsung struggle. It's sort of like Apple's profit position in smartphones. [FT 🔒]
- Spotify will turn its first profit for the year – for the first time in their 18 year existence. And they foresee being profitable going forward as they continue to diversify away from crappy music margins. Where will the free cash flow go? AI, of course. [Axios]
- Another area of focus? Taking on the increasing dominance of YouTube in video podcasts which is driving the medium itself. [TechCrunch]
- Speaking of, in terms of what's next for NVIDIA after AI, they're readying a platform to help companies build humanoid robots. Their 'Jetson Thor' computers are set to be used by the likes of Tesla and Siemens. Yes, they're building the Android for androids. [WSJ 🔒]
I Quote...
“We used to have one set of facts, and then you could have 30 discussions around that set of facts. Now you have 30 sets of facts and 1,000 discussions around those sets of facts. And that has to change, or we’re in big trouble as a society.”
-- Christ Licht, the former head of CNN, talking about the current state of the media and news media in particular.