Emerging 📧
Both things can be true: Tesla's Cybercab can be fascinating as an attempt to fully move the company into a robotics future – and we can all be beyond skeptical that the company is going to hit any timetable being thrown out there by Elon Musk.
He's not alone, remember the original timelines which were thrown out there when Google first unveiled their self-driving car project – almost 14 years ago, to the day, of Tesla's unveil? To be fair, Google itself wasn't throwing those projections out – at least not on the record. And to be more fair, well, Waymo is now way mo real than Cybercab at the moment, let alone Robovan. Or Optimus!
In other news, cleaned the cobwebs off the old Vision Pro to watch Submerged, the first scripted content made specifically for the device – directed by Edward Berger, no less. It's... pretty amazing. The film itself is short – 17 minutes – but honestly, that's probably enough given what it is: a tale inside a WWII-era submarine. It's intense. And it points to a very real future for a new type of cinematic art. If Apple can just nail the iteration of the product and keep at it. And entice other filmmakers to keep at it. Very impressive.
Some Thoughts...
📖 Is Matt Mullenweg defending WordPress or sabotaging it? – Good overview from Mathew Ingram (on his new site The Torment Nexus) on the current WordPress vs. WP Engine fiasco. I've always liked Matt Mullenweg and of course respected what he's been able to build WordPress into as both a brand and business. And I'm also sympathetic to the ways it seemed WP Engine was trying to create some confusion in the market – for a long time, I didn't realize it wasn't part of WordPress itself either! And I had been using WordPress, professionally for years! But this is a sort of strange, uncharacteristic heel turn for Mullenweg. If nothing else, it's bad optics and it makes it seem like he's fighting down, versus punching up against an entity that is owned by a private equity giant in Silver Lake. Just weird vibes all around. [Torment Nexus]
🕹️ Xbox Will Sell Games Directly in the Android App Next Month – While Tom Warren doesn't seem entirely clear what changed so that Microsoft is deciding to do this now, to me, it seems straightforward: Microsoft believes they can use their own payment rails and not have to sell the games via Google Play billing. Now, it's not entirely clear that this will fully circumvent any fees from Google (presumably not!) and it's hard to see how Google will even be ready to allow such actions next month. But if I'm right, this is a bigger deal than the third-party app store element of the ruling, as noted. [The Verge]
Some Analysis...
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
Some Links...
- AMD announced a new GPU chip to try to take on NVIDIA, though the "M1325X" could sure use better branding (it's apparently more focused on inference than training)... They also announced a new server CPU to take on Intel, EPYC (better branding). [CNBC]
- Henry Cavill is set to star in Voltron – because he simply must be involved in every 1980's iconic property, which is to say, this better not delay Highlander. If there can be only one... [THR]
- Is it strange that four of Elon Musk's direct reports have announced they were leaving Tesla in the past week? This seems strange, even in a company with as much turnover as Tesla – and especially given everything going on with the Cybercar unveiling... [Business Insider]
- Following the strange/fun alarm clock reveal, what is Nintendo up to now with their mysterious Switch Online playtest? [The Verge]
- Will Terrifier 3 – a bonkers indie sequel about a killer clown which cost $5M to make – beat Joker 2 – a bonkers star-studded comic IP big Hollywood sequel about a killer clown which cost $200M to make – at the box office this weekend? It sure seems like it might! [Deadline]
- The Atlantic is actually expanding the number of print issues it's doing – from 10 a year up to a full 12, something it hasn't done since 2002. [CNN]
- "Once-Hot Bagel Startup Has Dough Troubles" – props to Ann Gehan for the headline here (it's also a pretty in-depth report!). [The Information 🔒]
And I Quote...
"I think this will be the biggest product ever of any kind."
-- Elon Musk, setting expectations about the Optimus humanoid robot, which was at Tesla's Cybercab event serving drinks and playing rock, paper, scissors...