Rodney Avilla on The Information: The risks of putting Hair Force One in charge of Apple Intelligence - 'He is known at Apple as a penny-pincher I cringe whenever I hear someone justifying an expenditure saying “they can afford that” or “that’s only 0.5% of their revenue”. The justification of an expenditure is based on the price of the item/service vs its value to the company. It has nothing to do with whether they can afford it or not. I have a business, and I don’t pay $5 for an ink pen just because I can afford it, or it’s only 0.001% of my revenues. And these are 2 common reasons I hear when people complain about Apple not buying something. Now whether Craig is overly frugal or just wise, I don’t know. But my guess is that those who are complaining don’t know either; they just wanted something that he didn’t think it’s value matched the price.'
on Mark Gurman: Apple's Gemini-powered chatbot coming in June - 'So two Siris, one private but dumb, one smart but ubiquitous in its knowledge of you – and under the thumb of Alphabet. Thus does Apple kick the can down the road. Well, at least they give us a choice.'
on Apple aims to upstage Sam & Jony with 2 cameras, 3 mics and a Siri that works - report - '“…according to people with direct knowledge of the project.” Just what does that mean? How direct? Paid spys? Suppliers? Apple employees who want to lose their jobs?'
on Premarket: Apple is green - 'Apple is up $1.58 at $249.23 pre-market.’ AAPL is up ~$80 since bottoming a couple weeks ago. And yet January Options contracts are marginally down. So much for options wagging the dog.'
on Apple cuts iPhone prices in China. Again. - 'Isn’t there 2 different kinds of memory? One is the on-chip/integrated memory (“core”) and the other is the persistent storage (“disk”).'
on Apple cuts iPhone prices in China. Again. - 'No mention of the fact THE SAME research from Cointerpoint showed that yes, while the overall Chinese smartphone market shrank, Apple gained significant market share.'
on Mark Gurman: Apple's Gemini-powered chatbot coming in June - 'This rumor doesn’t sound overly unlikely to me.'
on The Information: The risks of putting Hair Force One in charge of Apple Intelligence - 'Craig Federighi seems to understand both the power and limitations of LLMs. I think/hope/expect that he will be one of the rare software leaders in this era of LLM exuberance that will not get deluded by the hype. LLMs alone will not deliver what Apple and its users want in Siri 2.0 because LLMs are fundamentally not able to do so. Apple has been at the forefront of acknowledging the reasoning and world model issues with LLMs, and Craig seems to have a knack for leading teams that combine key software elements together to produce something that users want. I am looking forward to seeing what Apple delivers with the next gen of Siri.'
on The Information: The risks of putting Hair Force One in charge of Apple Intelligence - 'I’ve read several accounts of this, and one thing seems clear: Key individuals on Apple’s AI team seem to be – or to have been – quite thin-skinned and defensive. When your company’s back is against the wall, few things are less helpful than the “it’s not my fault” song. All that matters – and all the grownups care about at that point – is: “where exactly are we now? And how do we get our collective ox out of this ditch as quickly as possible, while minimizing longterm damage.” Everything else is secondary, personal indulgence, and a distraction. Going further, I wonder if key inside sources for the myriad “Apple is hopelessly behind on AI” stories are these same people, embittered by the feeling that they were unfairly shackled and then scapegoated, mad that they weren’t allowed to keep driving the bus. Would explain a lot. And if these same people fled to Meta for bigger bucks, good riddance. Finally, to the idea that Federighi has irreversibly mortgaged Apple’s AI future by outsourcing certain things to outside companies, I doubt this very much. Apple can walk and chew gum at the same time. It can research a better way while temporarily relying on a partner. And the suggestion that Apple is unwilling to spend big bucks to get this done ignores so much recent history. Ask Intel. Ask Qualcomm. Ask Palm.'
on Premarket: Apple is green - 'The S&P 500 is up 0.50% and Apple is trading higher by $1.66 or 0.69% at $249.37. Again today the Russell 2000 index is outpacing the big cap indexes. The small cap index is higher by 1.26% at 2,732.24.'
on Apple cuts iPhone prices in China. Again. - 'Puts doubt on the rumors about memory cost – at least for now.'
on Apple aims to upstage Sam & Jony with 2 cameras, 3 mics and a Siri that works - report - 'I *so SO* don’t get this “wearable AI pin” idea. It strikes me as the greatest human surveillance and privacy threat in the history of technology. If I imagine a world of people wearing these things in public spaces, I see myself always on edge—having to stop and stay silent any time I speak with a stranger or someone who may have questionable motives. I always have to ask myself: Am I being covertly recorded? Can anything I say be used against me? Am I being used to advance someone else’s agenda that I don’t endorse? Might this even be a setup for entrapment? This is not now—and never was—Apple’s vision of technology empowering people. This is an insane dystopian future. And to what end? Is my phone going to have amazingly better intelligence (or serve me better) if every moment of my life is being sucked into the cloud? Does someone in the 3.0 community have a more optimistic view of why these pins aren’t the worst idea ever? I’ve never seen any prototypes or read any use cases, so I am totally ignorant. I would love to feel more positively about Sam, Jony, and now Apple. Can anyone help? Thanks '
on Apple aims to upstage Sam & Jony with 2 cameras, 3 mics and a Siri that works - report - 'From Ben Bajarin X account… PSA: Apple experiments making all sorts of stuff. Most never to come to market. This will not.'
on Apple aims to upstage Sam & Jony with 2 cameras, 3 mics and a Siri that works - report - 'What? Feeling the need to compete with the Sam and Jony “Alexa Pen”?! Pull the other one… Cameras and microphones everywhere.. just what AI needs to fill its coffers with data.'
on Apple aims to upstage Sam & Jony with 2 cameras, 3 mics and a Siri that works - report - 'Engineering, one to beam up!'
on Apple aims to upstage Sam & Jony with 2 cameras, 3 mics and a Siri that works - report - 'Apple isn’t trying to upstage anybody; it’s the other way around'
on Apple aims to upstage Sam & Jony with 2 cameras, 3 mics and a Siri that works - report - 'It shouldn’t use a speaker. It should connect wirelessly to AirPods or hearing aids. Then the AI can inform the paranoid that “Those people are looking at you.” “Talking about you.” “Conspiring against you! Maybe you should kill them.” Honest, Your Honor, it was a voice inside my head! 🙂'
on Premarket: Apple is red - '“Seppuku” – I had to look that one up. Thx Digant – I like learning new words. 🙂 And great use of the word to convey what sooo many of us are feeling. Remember a crisis a day keeps the Jeffrey Epstein files away!'
