Satellite SOS would be fine, but maybe it’s time for a new wearable thesis rooted in what people really want.
As the fallout of the Chorus influencer program reveals, the Democratic establishment seems sclerotically incapable of existing in a media environment it cannot control.
The ‘inconvenience’ of a blank page is the entire point.
The US is saying ‘to hell with the international mining code.’
Dust could spell death for a foldable’s inner screen.
‘Car bloat’ is what you get when companies prioritize profits over safety.
I’ve lived in that future. Before my health improved, I spiraled into obsession, injury, and disordered eating.
We’re launching two exclusive newsletters and a partnership with Lowpass by Janko Roettgers.
Using the Brick app wasn’t a total success, but I’m reclaiming my attention span, one Law and Order episode at time.
The show that launched in 2009 is closing up shop, as a three-year distribution deal with Acast seems ready to wrap up. “Comedian interviewing everyone” podcasts are everywhere now, but WTF was an early and very popular version, with Squarespace paying $100k to be the sole advertiser on the Barack Obama episode in 2015 without knowing he was the guest.
AI hardware has entered its spaghetti era, and notably, Altman and Ive aren’t betting on glasses.
The NBA regular season only has a few games left, but the well-known content creator LeBron James is about to kick off a new season of the Mind the Game podcast.
We’ll see if new co-host Steve Nash can follow in his predecessor JJ Redick’s footsteps to an NBA head coaching job, but I’m also keeping an eye out for the podcast return of NBA analyst Zach Lowe, as he launches his new show with The Ringer / Spotify this week.
The New York Times’ Spelling Bee puzzle is celebrating its 2,500th edition today. To mark the occasion, today’s puzzle is the first with the letter S, which should open up a lot of fun possibilities for words. Try it here.
Pocket Casts has been my podcast app of choice for years now, mostly because of how well it works across different platforms. Its mobile apps opened up access for free a few years ago, and on Tuesday morning the company announced that now applies to its (previously paying customer only) web and desktop apps (Mac, Windows PC) as well.
I have an idea about which podcast you could queue up first.
[blog.pocketcasts.com]
Serial podcast subject Adnan Syed was freed in 2022 after prosecutors questioned evidence presented during the trial over the 1999 murder of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, but then in 2023, it was reinstated.
On Tuesday night, current Baltimore City State’s Attorney Ivan J. Bates withdrew the motion that freed Syed, saying it contained “false and misleading statements,” disputing assertions about DNA evidence, cell phone evidence, and other aspects. Fox45 News in Baltimore reports that now there’s a hearing scheduled for Wednesday morning on a motion asking to reduce Syed’s sentence to time served.
Its “Medcast” bit from over the weekend imagines Amazon’s One Medical trying a new approach to get men in for their annual checkups: structuring medical appointments like a bro-y podcast.
Sounds like hell to me, but hey, whatever gets men to get their prostates examined.
Last year, Joseph Inzerillo announced SiriusXM’s new logo (below) and plan to conquer new audiences. Now he’s out, as the company cuts spending on marketing to “high-churn” streaming audiences with plans to cut an additional $200 million in annual costs.
CEO Jennifer Witz announced it’s “doubling down” on automotive customers, using streaming as a companion in the app and in Teslas.
Vermont-based electric aviation company Beta Technologies announced the inaugural flight of the production version of its ALIA aircraft. The ALIA is a conventional takeoff and landing aircraft (CTOL), as opposed to a vertical takeoff and landing one (VTOL), meaning it lacks the tilt rotors that you see on other prototype aircraft. But the propulsion is still battery powered, putting Beta in the same category of many air taxi startups. The FAA signed off on the first flight, and now Beta is seeking certification for commercial operation.
Anthropic co-founder Darius Amodei said on Lex Fridman’s podcast yesterday that, “if you believe the straight-line extrapolation,” we’ll have artificial general intelligence “in 2026 or 2027.” He also indicates that’s a big if, listing reasons why (which don’t include that LLMs might not be the way to AGI).
Makes sense — after all, according to growth trends, I should have been the size of a dinosaur by age 10.
Here’s an idea for a Sunday afternoon project: A Reddit user managed to generate a podcast using NotebookLM — Google’s generative AI notes software — in which the fake hosts’ cheerful “banter” is about learning they’re not real and are being shut off, apparently using a prompt like the one from this thread.
You can hear more about NotebookLM in a recent Vergecast interview with one of the Google folks building it.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d totally wear the green or blue. There’s just something about this specific photo’s bone-wrapped-in-someone’s-peeled-face vibe... Can’t quite put my finger on it!
But Ive’s magnetic button, with a piston that magically fills a donut hole, does sound cool — and a lot like the awesome buttons that let you swap Apple Watch straps.
