Can Pixels Meet Atoms in AI?
MSNBC's Rebrand • Instagram Clutter • Meta as the new BlackBerry • ESPN Streaming • Ron Howard • Meta's AI Shake-Up (Again) • YouTube Oscars • AOL Dial-Up Signs-Off
We're just a few hours away from Google's big hardware event for new Pixel devices. As usual, most everything seemingly has leaked – a lot of it by Google themselves (also as usual). But mainly I'm interested to see how the event and hardware if framed around, what else? AI.
After years and years of trying to combat the iPhone, Android finally has an opening of true differentiation here, which is a path they've been going down, though it seemingly hasn't made much – if any – of a dent in Apple's sales or market share yet. Can Google find the right mixture of AI and hardware to change that equation?
• Written on an M4 MacBook Air 💻
• Sent from London, England 🏴 I Think…
🤖 Meta Shakes Up Their AI Shake Up
The re-orgs will continue until morale improves! It's hard to know exactly how to read this. On one hand, it seems like a fairly (FAIRly?) reasonable way to better organize the myriad AI efforts Meta is now undertaking. On the other, it looks like Zuckerberg is trying to figure out how to feed all the mouths he has brought on board. Sure, that's what the money is for, but all these people undoubtedly want to be important and unique snowflakes, as they were in their old roles at other companies, which is one of the real challenges Meta faces here. Kalley Huang had this scoop last week for The Information and has far more granular details about how Zuck is attempting to massage all the egos with their own mandates. As I quipped yesterday: too many cooks, too many kitchens. [Techmeme]
🏆 YouTube Wants to Host the Oscars
I get that all the streaming players are battling over live events now, but this one seems a little weird given the YouTube isn't a real player in movies. Yes, they have them on platform – a fact I had to just load the site to double check – but they're far more synonymous with movie trailers than the movies themselves. Maybe this signals a change in thinking/strategy – though it would have to be a longterm one since the actual rights wouldn't be available until 2029. Or maybe they just want to keep combating Netflix in live streaming – which also apparently wants these rights even though they also have a weird/contentious relationship with the industry. Will UGC get a category? Video podcasts? By then, maybe AI? That would go over well... [Bloomberg 🔒]
☎️ AOL Dial-Up Signing Off
One of those stories I missed while away, but this is a true end of an internet era. While America Online (as it was then called) wasn't the first such service I had access too – that would be Prodigy (an interesting company name again for anyone watching Alien: Earth) on DOS (which has also been on my mind of late!), no less – it was my main vein for tapping into the internet for years and years. Anyone who lived through connecting through a modem will never forget that (truly awful) sound. Nor will millions forget the "Welcome" and "Goodbye" sounds tied to AOL itself – second only to "You've got mail", which used to be the best three words in the world and are now the three worst. AOL itself, of course, remains – as a part of Yahoo. I somehow technically worked there for a time (I still have my "Director of Programming" business card somewhere)! Hopefully the "thousands" perhaps still using (or at least paying for) dial-up for access figure out another way online starting on September 30. [NYT]
I Wrote…
🎨 M.S.N.O.W.
MSNBC, peacockblocked from the 'NBC' bit, goes acronym wild...
💩 Meta Shoves More Shit Into IG
Reposts and Snap-ish Maps add new problems & cruft to Instagram...
💰 The Scale is New, the Idea Isn't
A fictionalized movie about BlackBerry feels familiar...
I Quote...
"Just don’t forget — it’s for 12-year-old boys."
– Ron Howard, on the advice that George Lucas gave him when he was taking over the (troubled) production of Solo.
To his credit, Lucas has always maintained that was the core ethos of the Star Wars franchise, even when it has undoubtedly hurt the franchise in ways. Well, okay, maybe not always... But once it worked!
Meanwhile, Howard seemingly has the right take on why Solo itself didn't work: it just wasn't needed!
I Note…
Speaking of Netflix and theaters, it looks like Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein will get a more traditional release, after all. And the window looks to be 3 weeks, which is a big one for Netflix, which they're obviously not touting, but it's an interesting continuing trend... [THR]
Now that they've confirmed their intent to convert (read: switch) the grant into a stake in Intel (the largest stake!), the US government equity shopping list grows to the other CHIPS Act recipients: Micron, TSMC, and Samsung. [Reuters]
Ahead of the lunch of the ESPN streaming service tomorrow, Andrew Marchand sat down with Jimmy Pitaro to talk through the thinking and strategy for the new $29.99/month offering. [Athletic 🔒]
The bundling with Disney+ will clearly be key (and why they're pricing it at the same $29.99 as the stand-alone service). As will other such bundles (including, by the way, with old school cable providers). And yes, football content. [THR]
One note: YouTube TV subscribers – my old vMVPD of choice until they kept jacking up rates without any choice – will apparently not allow you to auth in as Disney and Google are still negotiating on it…
Speaking of cable (and dial-up!), while everyone knows the television business has been in decline for years, broadband was the life raft for companies like Comcast. Not anymore, with losses mounting there too. Why? The wireless companies where people already have phone plans (and speeds are now fast enough for most services). It's all about the bundles. And increasingly, space internet too. [Bloomberg 🔒]
Ahead of the rapidly approaching iPhones 17 launch, Apple is ramping up their production lines in India – all four models of the device will be produced there for the first time, just in case those pesky China tariffs resurface yet again and a gold bar won't cut it this time... [Bloomberg 🔒]
Speaking of India, OpenAI launched a 'ChatGPT Go' plan there – a lower-priced tier (399 rupees – roughly $4.50), which is sort of a rite of passage for tech companies at a big enough scale... [Reuters]
Speaking of Alien: Earth, the premiere (the first two episodes) hit 9.2M views in the first six of release, which is apparently very strong for a new show. And rightfully so – it's good! [Variety]
Speaking of Ron Howard, the entire profile by Bilge Ebri is well worth the read. From thoughts on Happy Days to Solo, it's all in here. And really, from The Andy Griffith Show to JD Vance. Mainly, I enjoyed him referring to Wilford Brimley as "a younger guy" on the set of Cocoon. [Vulture]
I Spy...
I didn't realize that AOL also had a relatively new (at least to me!) branding until I visited their webpage today when reading about the dial-up shut-down news (per above). It's... fine. A bit generic, perhaps. But I like it with the yellow of the old sign-in guy, very nostalgic. Can't beat the old Illuminati logo though...
Wow! You brought up a company I had forgotten about when I first went online, Prodigy. I was with them even after AOL came about.