Inklings #027 📧

Aside from out-Googling Google with their AI personal assistant Muse, it's arguably more impressive that Meta appears to have out-Apple'd Apple by turning the just-okay Quest into what sure sounds like a better version of the Vision Pro. Yes, Apple's device undoubtedly still has nicer touches here and there, but that doesn't really matter when you completely flubbed the big stuff – quite literally. With the caveat that I've not yet tried it, the Meta VR Glasses sure sound like what Apple should have waited to ship as the v1 of Vision Pro...

I Note...

🛩️ The Copilot "Super App" Lands – Well, more like it will be arriving soon-ish – some elements will be in limited preview "in the coming weeks", other elements will be in preview later this month. It feels like Microsoft wanted to get this out there now with all the other agentic activity – and perhaps a few more options dropping soon, including from key frenemy OpenAI. Overall, this sounds good on paper – unifying what has been a mess of Copilot options and brands into three tabs: Home, Code, and Autopilot. The latter is the rebranding of their Scout agent, and as I've said before, is great branding when paired with Copilot – a huge achievement for Microsoft! Basically, 'Home' is for chat (and 'Cowork' which is funny since Anthropic just unified these), 'Code' is for coding, and 'Autopilot' is for agentic work. And they're not trying to go after Muse (though there is a name/cute face option for your agent – not the cloud blob guy nor Clippy), this is all about work (but might those worlds collide at some point?). So it's a question of how much the deep Office integration will matter alongside the ability to mix and match models from other vendors. Again, that sounds compelling on paper – certainly for orgs that are Microsoft shops. But that was the case with the other instantiations of Copilot and it hasn't really mattered to date. I would say that perhaps the product is key here, but Teams has long been a crap product and that hasn't really mattered, so it's gotta be something else. Again, maybe it's the model picker. Because the business model still sounds a bit convoluted (usage-based in the app but license-based for the Copilot integrations elsewhere). [Verge]

📺 Premium Streaming Ads – A change to the Disney+ subscriber agreement would seem to suggest that the service may soon try to inject ads into their higher-priced tiers that have typically been ad-free. Hopefully this is just around sports, where such practice is obviously the norm due to how those broadcasts are constructed (which is, around ad breaks). But it also feels inevitable that ads will creep into all tiers eventually. Death. Taxes. Ads. Everywhere. (Even Apple.) There's simply too much money to be made – especially when those paying the highest prices are likely the most lucrative base to advertise to. That was always a mismatch. So will prices come down as a result? LOL. I'm sorry, you must be new here. WWND? What Will Netflix Do? [Polygon]

⚖️ DoJ Rides to Apple's Rescue – At first glance, this may seem like some political funny business – which this current DoJ clearly isn't above! – did Tim Apple get his buddy in the Oval Office to help here? But actually, this may be far more in the technical legal weeds. Apple has been arguing that, again, technically, they shouldn't be able to be held in contempt over their 27% commission funny business because that rate was never a part of the ruling. The Judge would undoubtedly argue that Apple violated the spirit of her ruling with their (again, comical as it actually raises rates on developers when they have to take care of their own payment processing separately) actions. But her move to put that rate at 0% was obviously over-the-top in the other direction, and subsequent appeals made clear some kind of commission was likely permissible. But if Apple can get this all further delayed... well, that may just save the App Store business and thus, the all-important Services business for Apple. For now, at least. [9to5Mac]

I Wrote...

I Quote...

"I've seen Steve say it, and I've seen Tim say it. And so having the opportunity for me to say it was pretty magical. Kind of goosebumps."

– John Ternus on his first "one more thing" moment in an Apple keynote.

Thoughts On...

Asides...

• On a scale of 1 to Begrudgingly, how much do you think Apple wanted to renew any sort of contract with Qualcomm? But this is seemingly about patent licensing not actual chips any longer... [Six Colors]
• AT&T is scorning Apple's new 'iPhone Handoff' feature to easily swap your phone number between devices. Not even charging extra, just not offering it. We're a long way from that special relationship as the iPhone launch partner, it seems... [9to5Mac]
• Meta is racing Roblox to create the AI Gaming Slop market. Maybe there will be an ephemeral Flappy Bird hit here and there (thanks to a boost by Instagram or Facebook), but come on... [Verge]
• Google is launching their first data centers in space test which sounds promising (on paper and in labs), but also like none of this will be viable at any sort of scale for a decade at least. Shocker, I know. [NYT]
• With Microsoft busy cleaning up Copilot, it sure seems like the Copilot+ PCs brand may not be long for this world either... [Windows Central]
• YouTube beat out Netflix and Prime Video to maintain their Coachella streaming rights. Why? Beyond money, the festival cares about the wider reach a free tier brings in – another push for Netflix there... [Bloomberg 🔒]
  • Meanwhile, YouTube has weighed in on Meta's call for them to join their social media settlement: NFW. [CNN]
  • TikTok hasn't formally weighed in, but is blocking Meta from advertising the proposal on their network. So yeah, ditto. [Axios]
• After nearly two years on ice, Apple has oh-so-quietly put The Savant, the Jessica Chastain show they pulled at the last minute clearly worried about political pressure and backlash, back on the schedule. [Deadline]
• Bob Chapek strikes back! Or tries to, with his new memoir taking aim at his fellow Bob, Iger. He ups the backstabbing claims to lays out a COVID-related conspiracy around Iger's abrupt exit to throw Chapek under that oncoming bus... [NYT]

I Wrote (Soylent Green Edition)...

I Spy...

Speaking of Big Tech meddling in Hollywood, I meant to link to it a couple weeks back, but you can pretty clearly see why Amazon dumped Artificial – aka the OpenAI "Blip" movie – to indie distributor Neon: the trailer alone is dark as fuck. This is, um, not going to help with the overall AI narrative challenges. But if you can look past the guns in the bunker, Andrew Garfield sure seems to have Sam Altman's gait down perfect.