The New iPhone Zone 📧
It's that time of year again... We're in the "New iPhone Zone" where many folks phones seem to act up in weird ways seemingly oddly timed for when the new versions are going to be unveiled. I'm not a nut, I don't think Apple is really doing something here to entice us to upgrade – I have better conspiracy theories on bigger topics below – but it really does happen to me every year. And I get a new iPhone every year. It feels like a year-old iPhone should not get long-in-the-tooth so soon. And yet here we are. Apps taking longer to load. Crashing. My phone heating up in weird moments (no this isn't the new iOS beta)...
I imagine it's also natural though. We all use these devices so much and a year remains a long time even if the devices themselves will last far longer than that (well, at least until our aiPhone age truly begins – more on that here). I imagine a fresh reinstall would fix things, but who wants to do that, we're about to get new iPhones?
Thoughts
📈 NVIDIA Rally Mints Millionaires Too Busy to Bask in New Wealth – As the entire tech ecosystem – and really, all of Wall Street – awaits, NVIDIA's earnings later today, here's a look into the key group that benefits the most from the share price: the employees. While the stock surge has enriched many beyond wild dreams, there's no "rest and vest" culture at the company, thanks to Jensen Huang, who seems like a hard-charging, but also beloved, leader. That's in part because he's been to hell and back a couple of times with the stock. How long can it last this time? [Bloomberg 🔒]
🥽 Meta Abandon Custom Chips for AR Glasses – These chips weren't intended for Quest VR headsets, but instead the AR "Glasses" that Meta is expected to show off the first prototype of next month. But they ultimately decided to go with a Qualcomm chip, per the report. This may ultimately matter in any battle with Apple since they, of course, do their own chips. But that's years away, obviously. Also of note, at least one version of the Glasses apparently had a "puck" that sounds like it tethers to the device but outside of it. Perhaps similar to Apple's battery pack for the Vision Pro but with processing power – more seemingly similar to Magic Leap's "Lightpack"... [Fortune]
💬 Telegram Founder Was Wooed and Targeted by Governments – Not to go all conspiracy theory here, but it sure feels like there is more to this whole story than we're actually getting thus far? Macron meeting with Durov the year after France and the UAE hacked his phone is... something else. As is the fact that he now has citizenship in those two very same countries – something which again, occurred after the hacking (though he was living/working in the UAE at the time – wouldn't such an incident convince him to leave, maybe?). Russia being quite upset about all this despite the VKontakte history. Macron being an avid Telegram user. The app's role in the Ukraine war. Immediately before France, the trip to Azerbaijan where Putin happened to also be at the time (the chatter around that – on Telegram, naturally). The whole non-E2EE element of all this. Etc. Etc. Etc. Yes, Occam's razor still points to the new French law on content moderation (similar to the EU's DMA – which Telegram says it is "too small" to fall under – but different) signed this year. But it would also be a great cover if something else is going on. I'M JUST ASKING QUESTIONS. [WSJ 🔒]
⚖️ Telegram Warrants Issued in March – Back to Occam, all the oddities here aside, this suggests a long-standing attempt to bring in Durov (and his co-founder brother, Nikolai, who remains "at large") after failing to comply with an order to turn over user data around specific illegal behavior on the platform. Regardless, we're going to know more soon as French authorities can only hold him through today without charging him. [Politico]
Analysis
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
Asides
🐦 Xitter is testing a video conferencing feature because of course that makes total sense in so far as they're literally just trying anything at everything now, clearly. It's now TikTok and Clubhouse and YouTube and LinkedIn and ChatGPT and Midjourney and soon (maybe never) Cash App and now Zoom and so on... [TechCrunch]
🍎 Apple recently did some layoffs on its Services team, but the numbers are relatively tiny – around 100 people – so tiny, that one has to wonder: why? Apple TV+ seems to be entering a period of more austerity, but this sounds like it mainly hit the Apple Books and News teams. [Bloomberg 🔒]
🎸 First The Onion and now SPIN magazine is back in print. And it's being run by founder and original editor-in-chief Bob Guccione Jr. The first issue since 2012 hit newsstands yesterday. Aside of this aside: the senior Guccione founded another magazine with a different focus: Penthouse. [Billboard]
🕳️ Speaking of NVIDIA, it sounds like their chips are still "blowing everyone else out of the water" when it comes to inference. Is this sort of like a groundhog seeing its shadow ahead of earnings or not seeing its shadow? [The Information 🔒]
📉 The most recent attempt to meme GameStop's stock seems to have left retail investors mostly yawning this time. Too bad, odd lots don't lie. [Bloomberg 🔒]
Quote
“It’s like a zombie version of the old Twitter, and I think what a lot of people are feeling is: Just put this bird out of its misery.”
– Yao Yue, an engineer who worked at Twitter (for 12 years and was fired when Elon Musk took over) on the news that the old San Francisco office was shutting down.