Drinking the Liquid Glass

Howard Stern • MLB Streaming Deals • Google's Gemini Speaker • OpenAI Alumni Valuations • OpenAI's Business • South Park Comes for Tim Cook

Aug 22, 2025

Given how close we are to the launch of the new iPhones (perhaps a month away?), and how stable the recent beta builds have seemed, I took the plunge yesterday and updated my main device to iOS 26. And... it's very nice. For all the handwringing over the 'Liquid Glass' look and feel, I think it's actually a pretty great new experience. The whole thing just feels more – forgive me – fluid. There's a lot of bounce in here and clearly the animations are all faster which gives the illusion that your phone is faster. It's sort of wild.

While I've had the iPadOS 26 beta running on a backup iPad for several weeks, the effects aren't nearly as noticeable there. The biggest change there, of course, is the new windowing system. Which is nice to have but also makes the whole thing feel a bit... childish.

Meanwhile, I'm running the macOS 26 beta as well and it's fine too. Visually a bit different, of course, but not too much to write home about. The biggest change there may be the elimination of the Launchpad. Which is slightly annoying after it has been in place for years and years.

But iOS 26... that's where it's at.

• Enjoying a Brewdog Post Punk 🍻
• Listening to "No Rain, No Flowers" by The Black Keys 🎶
• Written on an M4 MacBook Air 💻
• Sent from London, England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

I Think…

🤖 The Howard Stern Situation

With the tabloids putting out the narrative that Stern either won't renew his contract with SiriusXM (which ends this year) or that it won't be renewed, the PR swirl has started... And naturally, Stern is embracing it, building up to a September 2 episode where "all will be revealed". I'll play along: is there something to read into the fact that the NYT just ran a pretty puffy piece about Sirius "winning" the podcast talent wars? This would seemingly set them up for a post-Stern (and perhaps post-satellite radio entirely) future. And with the decline of the format Stern helped launch, can they really afford to pay him $100M a year again? Would Stern take a home team discount to just keep doing his own thing his way? Or might another player finally lure him into that new/old format in podcasting? I made the case for Apple doing it – but they still just don't really seem to care about trying to make podcasting a key part of their entertainment (and services) narrative, even though they helped usher in the format. Then again, Marc Maron just retired from his podcast and he's ten years younger than Stern. [THR]

⚾️ NBC & Netflix Near MLB Deals

These deals are the result of ESPN balking at paying the MLB over $500M a year for the next 3 years for their rights – and it looks like they were right. It's not exactly apples-to-apples with playoffs and some other elements TBD, but NBCUniversal's deal would be for about $200M a year, with Netflix paying something just north of $35M a year to get the Homerun Derby rights. ESPN, meanwhile, is working on a smaller package around local games from MLB.tv, perhaps to bundle with their new ESPN streaming service – which would combat Amazon doing the same thing with RSNs and Prime Video. Apple was apparently debating this bigger deal, but now may just stick to their smaller Friday package – or may be out of the game entirely, as Kendall Baker first reported on all of this. That would be sort of a wild turn, but Apple also clearly likes their broader control for such rights, as they have with MLS, and now to a lesser extent, F1. BTW, I would just note that I correctly predicted that Netflix might make a move on the Homerun Derby back in February. It seemingly fits their "event-driven" game plan around sports nicely. [WSJ 🔒]

🔊 Google's 'Fatter HomePod Mini' Gemini Speaker

They clearly teased this device intentionally during their (painful to watch) Pixel event this week, though it's surprising they didn't actually talk about it. It's a bit strange that given how good the voice capabilities are now within Gemini that they haven't made more out of the fact that they already have smart speakers in tens of millions of homes. That seems like a big advantage versus, say, launching an entirely new and likely voice-driven device. Though maybe that's the talking point that will come in the fall when Google is able to actually launch the functionality on those devices (ideally in a better and more robust manner than Amazon has with Alexa+). And maybe this new "showcase" device will come alongside that. [Android Headlines]

I Wrote…

🔭 Peering Back at the OpenAI "Constellations"

The aggregate valuation looks to surge past $400B...

I Quote...

"It's nice not to be public."

– Sam Altman, on the notion that while OpenAI could turn some knobs to be profitable sooner, he has no intention of doing that right now and is "willing to run the loss".

A nice complement to yesterday's quote about their business by CFO Sarah Friar, who noted that the company hit their first billion dollar revenue month in July.

Loose Leaf

"The Made by Google event felt like being sucked into an episode of Wandavision" writes Victoria Song, who was actually at the event to give a boots-on-the-ground report of what it was like to watch from the inside of a theater – one you couldn't leave once it started! [Verge]
- It looked weird from the outside, but apparently weirder on the inside!
"The Second Weekend Is the New Opening Weekend" writes Pamela McClintock about the current state of Hollywood box office results. That is: pay no attention to the first weekend opening, the true indicator of success is how big of a drop is seen in the second weekend. [THR]
- I tried to make this same basic point a few weeks ago after Fantastic Four's fall. It just feels like good or bad, super fans will just rush to see a movie now while the rest will likely wait (until it's on streaming in a few weeks).
Seems a bit strange that OpenAI's Chief People Officer would depart just 18 months into the job, and with the AI talent poaching wars ongoing. But perhaps Fidji Simo just starting her new CEO-esque role has something to do with it. [Reuters]
- Speaking of poaching, Meta keeps right on picking off Apple's AI talent, despite their apparent hiring freeze in that division. [Bloomberg 🔒]
I'm not really sure what to make of Elon asking Zuck to join his bid to buy OpenAI earlier this year. It all feels very "the enemy of my enemy"... Might it lead to a tag team portion of the eventual cage match? [FT 🔒]
On the topic of the box office (per above), F1 has just hit the PVOD window, thus effectively ending its theatrical run. [9to5Mac]
- The final tally in the US looks like it will be just north of $180M. A good showing for Apple – finally – but let's not get too carried away. It's the 11th biggest movie of the year domestically. [Box Office Mojo]
- International is a much better picture though, with over $400M in sales. That should be enough to push worldwide to $600M. Still probably just shy of break-even when marketing is taken into account, but certainly numbers that Apple can tout. And it should get a nice boost from the PVOD window ahead of an Apple TV+ roll-out!
- One more thing: are extras included with movie purchases still really called 'iTunes Extras'?! iTunes?! In 2025?!
And that roll-out will help Apple justify raising the price point of TV+ to $12.99 up from $9.99. Apple must be feeling pretty confident in their library (and churn rates) these days to make such a move (though the bundle prices remain the same). [9to5Mac]
While I'm still dreaming about the return of Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson to True Detective, Nicolas Cage headlining season 5 will certainly hold me over. In particular if they pair him with John Travolta for a Face/Off reunion. [Variety]
- This season will apparently focus on the Jamaica area of NYC, with Issa López returning to write and showrun after the success of Night Country last season (which I found to be up and down).
Forget just a still image, now we have the first footage of Daniel Day-Lewis acting after his eight-year hiatus. The trailer for Anemone – directed by his son – looks good! Intense. Very visual. [THR]

I Spy...

South Park roasts Apple, Meta and tech in general for their fealty payments. But while they had to make up a golden headset for Zuck to give Trump, they didn't have to make up what Tim Cook gave him, because he actually gave him the gold bar glass thing! Which remains just wild.