We’re back in video form (audio feeds for your podcast app are here), and this time yes, I admit it — I was occasionally using Nvidia AI to enhance my eye contact with Nilay, Allison, and Monica.
Other than the Galaxy Unpacked news, we also discussed earnings results from Apple and Google as they were announced on Thursday and tried to get a handle on what’s happening to big tech companies.
I’m a little late to this, but this line at the end of John Gruber’s latest post on the possible use cases for Apple’s VR headset jumped out to me:
I believe Apple must have answers to the question of why we will want to buy it, carry it, and use it in addition to and alongside all the devices we already buy, carry, and use. Why else bring it to market? But damned if I can imagine those answers, given the state of chip, display, and battery technology today.
Just a reminder that the first-gen Apple Watch launched without these answers dialed in, and it took three generations (and a total UI rethink) before it came into focus as a great product. I think these headsets are going to take longer than that!
[Daring Fireball]
Professor Chris Miller’s new book Chip War explains the complicated global politics inside your iPhone.
This live-reflecting update to Apple’s 2000s-era Aqua design language is so cool. Bring it back!
Alex Heath reports in this week’s Command Line that Mark Zuckerberg is hinting at more layoffs to come in Meta’s middle management ranks, saying “I don’t think you want a management structure that’s just managers managing managers, managing managers, managing managers, managing the people who are doing the work.”
That made me think of this legendary Steve Jobs riff on the “bozo explosion” — the idea that prioritizing management skill over actually doing great work is a self-defeating cycle. (True fact: Dieter Bohn and I have probably sent this video to each other every couple months for over a decade now.)
Barbara wrote a useful how-to today for all the people out there searching for help zipping and unzipping files, and that got me thinking about this great piece Monica did in 2021 on college STEM professors having to teach the basics of file systems to the next generation of students, who all came up on Chromebooks and search-based interfaces. It’s worth a Friday re-read — especially in the context of the next next generation potentially asking various AIs to just answer questions directly.
Apple’s new pro laptops right the wrongs of the past half decade
Nadella noting that he’s planning for a “platform shift” and cutting the “hardware portfolio” is pretty interesting — but I’m curious for your thoughts in the comments!
CNBC has lots more, but you know things are getting weird when the slide deck Disney filed to SEC flat-out says “Nelson Peltz does not understand Disney’s businesses and lacks the skills and experience to assist the board in delivering shareholder value in a rapidly shifting media ecosystem.”
