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Sara Fischer, reporting for Axios:

Apple has started selling its own advertising inventory for Apple
News, two sources familiar with the effort told Axios. It’s
pitching new ad units that it hopes will maximize revenue for
itself and its publishing partners. […]

Publishers will get a 70% cut of the ad revenue sold by Apple
within their articles.
They will get a percentage of the ad revenue sold by Apple
within the Apple News feed, dependent on engagement with their
content.
Apple News publishers will continue to receive 100% of the
revenue from the advertising that they sell against their
content in the app.

Apple News+ is a really good product. Scanning its main Today tab in the morning has become my modern-day equivalent of scanning the front page of a printed newspaper — a way to get a sense of what’s going on in world news. There’s a level of editorial curation and presentation in Apple News that I don’t think has a peer. Apple News itself doesn’t publish or report anything, but there’s clearly a talented, level-headed editorial team that is picking and choosing the most important and most interesting (which are often very different things) stories from a wide variety of sources. So maybe a better analogy to the bygone era of print isn’t scanning the front page of a newspaper, but rather stopping at a good big-city newsstand where you could scan the front pages of a slew of newspapers from around the country (and world).

I don’t look to Apple News for anything related to tech. I definitely want to do that via RSS (which for me means NetNewsWire), the web (Safari), and social media. But for national, world, and general interest news, Apple News is really good. I don’t know what it’s like without a News+ subscription, but with one, it’s truly excellent. And a News+ subscription gets you access to a bunch of great publications with paywalls on the web.

If you cemented your opinion of Apple News years ago and tuned out, you should give it a fresh look — especially if you have a “free” News+ subscription via Apple One.

But, my god, the ads suck — low-rent and highly repetitive. I posted screen recordings over the summer illustrating this. It seems like recently, though, I’ve seen fewer ads, and they’ve gotten less repetitive. I just spent a few minutes now perusing the Today tab while writing this post, and I read a bunch of articles without seeing any ads at all. For me at least, the Apple News ad experience seems to be getting better already. But there’s still so much room for improvement.

Whenever I write about this, some readers will comment that, to their minds, a paid subscription like Apple News+ should bestow a completely ad-free experience. That’s how streaming video and music subscriptions tend to work, but even there — as I just posted regarding Disney+ — many people are choosing lower-priced streaming subscriptions subsidized by ads. The economics for ad-free news just don’t work, and never have. News+ isn’t like TV+, where Apple owns or has paid for the rights to all of the content.

 ★ 

Sara Fischer, reporting for Axios:

Apple has started selling its own advertising inventory for Apple
News, two sources familiar with the effort told Axios. It’s
pitching new ad units that it hopes will maximize revenue for
itself and its publishing partners. […]

Publishers will get a 70% cut of the ad revenue sold by Apple
within their articles.
They will get a percentage of the ad revenue sold by Apple
within the Apple News feed, dependent on engagement with their
content.
Apple News publishers will continue to receive 100% of the
revenue from the advertising that they sell against their
content in the app.

Apple News+ is a really good product. Scanning its main Today tab in the morning has become my modern-day equivalent of scanning the front page of a printed newspaper — a way to get a sense of what’s going on in world news. There’s a level of editorial curation and presentation in Apple News that I don’t think has a peer. Apple News itself doesn’t publish or report anything, but there’s clearly a talented, level-headed editorial team that is picking and choosing the most important and most interesting (which are often very different things) stories from a wide variety of sources. So maybe a better analogy to the bygone era of print isn’t scanning the front page of a newspaper, but rather stopping at a good big-city newsstand where you could scan the front pages of a slew of newspapers from around the country (and world).

I don’t look to Apple News for anything related to tech. I definitely want to do that via RSS (which for me means NetNewsWire), the web (Safari), and social media. But for national, world, and general interest news, Apple News is really good. I don’t know what it’s like without a News+ subscription, but with one, it’s truly excellent. And a News+ subscription gets you access to a bunch of great publications with paywalls on the web.

If you cemented your opinion of Apple News years ago and tuned out, you should give it a fresh look — especially if you have a “free” News+ subscription via Apple One.

But, my god, the ads suck — low-rent and highly repetitive. I posted screen recordings over the summer illustrating this. It seems like recently, though, I’ve seen fewer ads, and they’ve gotten less repetitive. I just spent a few minutes now perusing the Today tab while writing this post, and I read a bunch of articles without seeing any ads at all. For me at least, the Apple News ad experience seems to be getting better already. But there’s still so much room for improvement.

Whenever I write about this, some readers will comment that, to their minds, a paid subscription like Apple News+ should bestow a completely ad-free experience. That’s how streaming video and music subscriptions tend to work, but even there — as I just posted regarding Disney+ — many people are choosing lower-priced streaming subscriptions subsidized by ads. The economics for ad-free news just don’t work, and never have. News+ isn’t like TV+, where Apple owns or has paid for the rights to all of the content.

Read More 

Dade Hayes, reporting for Deadline:

Fielding a question from a Wall Street analyst about the growth
outlook and pricing strategy of Disney+, Iger divulged how many
Disney+ subscribers take the ad-supported tier in the U.S. (37%)
and globally (30%). The disclosure was unusual in the streaming
sector. Netflix, for instance, has never broken out a similar
percentage, preferring instead to report monthly active users of
its ad tier (as it did earlier this week).

When the Q&A with analysts moved to the next question and CFO Hugh
Johnston was giving his answer, Iger’s voice suddenly could be
heard on the call. “I don’t know if I was supposed to disclose
those AVOD numbers,” he said, before Johnston continued speaking.

Looking at Disney+’s pricing page (and ignoring the wide assortment of bundle offers), their ad-supported “Basic” tier costs $10/month; their ad-free “Premium” tier costs $16/month or $160/year.

 ★ 

Dade Hayes, reporting for Deadline:

Fielding a question from a Wall Street analyst about the growth
outlook and pricing strategy of Disney+, Iger divulged how many
Disney+ subscribers take the ad-supported tier in the U.S. (37%)
and globally (30%). The disclosure was unusual in the streaming
sector. Netflix, for instance, has never broken out a similar
percentage, preferring instead to report monthly active users of
its ad tier (as it did earlier this week).

When the Q&A with analysts moved to the next question and CFO Hugh
Johnston was giving his answer, Iger’s voice suddenly could be
heard on the call. “I don’t know if I was supposed to disclose
those AVOD numbers,” he said, before Johnston continued speaking.

Looking at Disney+’s pricing page (and ignoring the wide assortment of bundle offers), their ad-supported “Basic” tier costs $10/month; their ad-free “Premium” tier costs $16/month or $160/year.

Read More 

Delightfully clever sketch from Tiny Idea.

 ★ 

Delightfully clever sketch from Tiny Idea.

Read More 

James Baggott, writing for Car Dealer Magazine:

Jaguar unveiled a new look, logo and direction for its cars at
what was quite possibly the most bizarre automotive media launch
I’ve ever attended — here’s what happened.

Embargoed until today, the event felt like a hallucinogenic sci-fi
movie where the presenters were only allowed to speak in marketing
babble. Unveiling a new concept car — the details of which are
still under embargo until December 3 — Jaguar’s passionate team
spoke for most of the day about how they plan to ‘delete ordinary’
and ‘live vivid’. Whatever that means…

In what, at times, felt like a drunken dream, Jaguar personnel
walked journalists through its plans to ‘reimagine’ the much-loved
brand over the next few years. Calling it a ‘complete reset’,
McGovern at one point told journalists that his team had ‘not been
sniffing the white stuff — this is real’.

Translation: they’ve all been sniffing a metric ton of the white stuff. This looks like the identity for a women’s razor brand or something. Certainly not the identity for a longstanding British sports car company.

Lulu Cheng Meservey:

Jaguar already nailed their marketing decades ago, and given the
demand for nostalgia, now would’ve been the perfect time to
revive it.

Instead, the sad irony is that their “Copy nothing” campaign
abandons their own originality in favor of a fad that peaked
during the pandemic.

 ★ 

James Baggott, writing for Car Dealer Magazine:

Jaguar unveiled a new look, logo and direction for its cars at
what was quite possibly the most bizarre automotive media launch
I’ve ever attended — here’s what happened.

Embargoed until today, the event felt like a hallucinogenic sci-fi
movie where the presenters were only allowed to speak in marketing
babble. Unveiling a new concept car — the details of which are
still under embargo until December 3 — Jaguar’s passionate team
spoke for most of the day about how they plan to ‘delete ordinary’
and ‘live vivid’. Whatever that means…

In what, at times, felt like a drunken dream, Jaguar personnel
walked journalists through its plans to ‘reimagine’ the much-loved
brand over the next few years. Calling it a ‘complete reset’,
McGovern at one point told journalists that his team had ‘not been
sniffing the white stuff — this is real’.

Translation: they’ve all been sniffing a metric ton of the white stuff. This looks like the identity for a women’s razor brand or something. Certainly not the identity for a longstanding British sports car company.

Lulu Cheng Meservey:

Jaguar already nailed their marketing decades ago, and given the
demand for nostalgia, now would’ve been the perfect time to
revive it.

Instead, the sad irony is that their “Copy nothing” campaign
abandons their own originality in favor of a fad that peaked
during the pandemic.

Read More 

I met Dr. Oz ten years ago.

The Hollywood Reporter, which of course is where one now goes to find news of incoming Executive Branch appointments and nominations, “Trump Nominates Dr. Mehmet Oz to Run Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services”:

“America is facing a Healthcare Crisis, and there may be no
Physician more qualified and capable than Dr. Oz to Make America
Healthy Again,” Trump said in a statement. “He is an eminent
Physician, Heart Surgeon, Inventor, and World-Class Communicator,
who has been at the forefront of healthy living for decades. Dr.
Oz will work closely with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to take on the
illness industrial complex, and all the horrible chronic diseases
left in its wake.”

He added, “He won nine Daytime Emmy Awards hosting The Dr. Oz
Show, where he taught millions of Americans how to make healthier
lifestyle choices, and gave a strong voice to the key pillars of
the MAHA Movement.”

I met Dr. Oz ten years ago. It was after the Apple event on Tuesday, 9 September 2014, at the Flint Center in Cupertino, where Apple unveiled Apple Watch after introducing the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Apple had erected a startlingly large temporary building in front of the Flint Center, which, post-event, was opened to attending media and celebrities to showcase Apple Watch’s various capabilities. But post-event press briefings were held inside the Flint Center, in a byzantine complex of subterranean rooms beneath the massive ground floor auditorium.

I had a one-on-one off-the-record briefing with Jony Ive. (Fascinating and fun — we spent most of the all-too-brief 30 minutes talking about watch bands and the exquisite packaging and charging case of the Edition models.) The waiting area for these press briefings was set up to look a bit like a mostly empty Apple Store. The central focus of this waiting area was a large table with a glass top; under the glass were a variety of Apple Watch models. The table was a prototype of the ones that Apple would put in its retail stores, for which they obtained multiple patents. While I was waiting for my briefing with Ive, the only other person from the media waiting with me was Oz.

It’s a weird thing to be alone, effectively, with someone of Oz’s celebrity. It’s like being in a room with a million dollars in $100 bills stacked in a perfectly-arranged pyramid. No matter how hard you try to direct your attention, your mind keeps popping back to Holy shit, there’s a million dollars in cash right there. His hair was perfect, his shirt crisply pressed. It was a very nice shirt. He smiled at all times, and seemed genuinely happy to be there, and genuinely interested in Apple Watch, but not for what Apple Watch actually was or could be, but simply because it was a major new thing, and he was a VIP invitee at the introduction of this major new thing. And my mind would pop, for the umpteenth time, Holy shit, that’s Dr. Oz right there.

We spent an unceasingly awkward 10 minutes circling around that table together. He never shut up. He chattered, nonstop, with inane observations, like “Hey, look at that one, it’s orange! What’s that one, leather?” He was not talking to me, nor was he, really, talking to himself. It was like he was talking to a TV camera, as though we were being filmed for B-roll footage for his show — but there was no camera. It was just me and him, standing around that table exhibiting dozens of Apple Watch prototypes that we were unable to touch, with a handful of Apple PR reps hanging around the sides of the room in silence, pecking away on their iPhones, waiting for a notice from one of their colleagues that it was time to escort one of us to our briefing. Oz was called first, thankfully. It gave me a few minutes of silence to gather my thoughts, and study the watches (albeit under glass), without distraction. I sometimes wonder who his briefing was with. (Phil Schiller, perhaps?)

I came away with the impression that Mehmet Oz was, despite his well-deserved medical renown, preternaturally vapid and preening, and, thus, to me, an incongruous figure. Simultaneously a brilliant mind in the field of thoracic surgery, and yet dumb as a rock in everyday human interaction. I spent the first few minutes with him wondering if I should introduce myself. I spent the last few glad I hadn’t, because he was so obviously a staggeringly uninteresting and uninterested man.

I would have much preferred spending those 10 minutes chatting with Dr. Nick.

Read More 

Troy Closson, reporting for The New York Times (gift link):

The optional curriculum, one of most sweeping efforts in recent
years to bring a Christian perspective to more students, would
test the limits of religious instruction in public education.

It could also become a model for other states and for the
administration of President-elect Donald J. Trump, who has
promised to champion the conservative Christian movement in his
second presidential term. […]

Religion makes up a relatively small portion of the overall
content. But the lessons delve into Christianity far more often
and in depth than they do into other faiths, religious scholars
say and a review of the materials by The New York Times found. In
kindergarten, for example, children would be taught that many
religions value the Golden Rule, but the lessons would be focused
on the Christian version, and introduce students to Jesus and his
Sermon on the Mount.

The Times runs an excerpt from the curriculum, which reads:

The Sermon on the Mount included many different lessons. Some of
these included do not judge others; do not seek revenge, or try to
get even with someone; and give to the needy. Beyond the Sermon on
the Mount, there are many rules included throughout the Bible.
Jesus said that the Golden Rule sums up all of the important
teachings from scripture. “So in everything, do unto others as you
would have done unto you.”

“Do not judge others; do not seek revenge, or try to get even with someone; and give to the needy” — the very words that Donald Trump himself lives by.

See Also: Related coverage from The Onion: “Christian Right Lobbies to Overturn Second Law of Thermodynamics”.

 ★ 

Troy Closson, reporting for The New York Times (gift link):

The optional curriculum, one of most sweeping efforts in recent
years to bring a Christian perspective to more students, would
test the limits of religious instruction in public education.

It could also become a model for other states and for the
administration of President-elect Donald J. Trump, who has
promised to champion the conservative Christian movement in his
second presidential term. […]

Religion makes up a relatively small portion of the overall
content. But the lessons delve into Christianity far more often
and in depth than they do into other faiths, religious scholars
say and a review of the materials by The New York Times found. In
kindergarten, for example, children would be taught that many
religions value the Golden Rule, but the lessons would be focused
on the Christian version, and introduce students to Jesus and his
Sermon on the Mount.

The Times runs an excerpt from the curriculum, which reads:

The Sermon on the Mount included many different lessons. Some of
these included do not judge others; do not seek revenge, or try to
get even with someone; and give to the needy. Beyond the Sermon on
the Mount, there are many rules included throughout the Bible.
Jesus said that the Golden Rule sums up all of the important
teachings from scripture. “So in everything, do unto others as you
would have done unto you.”

“Do not judge others; do not seek revenge, or try to get even with someone; and give to the needy” — the very words that Donald Trump himself lives by.

See Also: Related coverage from The Onion: “Christian Right Lobbies to Overturn Second Law of Thermodynamics”.

Read More 

Mishaal Rahman, reporting for Android Authority:

While both Android and ChromeOS have seen huge success in
different markets, they’ve struggled to compete in one product
category where they overlap: tablets. The high-end tablet market
is dominated by the Apple iPad, and no matter what Google has
tried, it has failed to change that. However, a source tells
Android Authority that Google is working on a multi-year project
to fully turn ChromeOS into Android, and the end result could be a
platform that finally bests the iPad.

Probably not. Frankly it’s kind of weird that Android is a peer to iOS when it comes to phones, but not at all when it comes to tablets, even though iPadOS remains just a big-screen version of iOS. There are zillions of tablets out there that run Android, but they’re all crap and everyone knows it. “Flagship Android phones” are a thing; “Flagship Android tablets” are not. And iPads are a huge business for Apple, and the iPad is now solidly established as a piece of our cultural firmament. Everyone knows what an iPad is.

To better compete with the iPad as well as manage engineering
resources more effectively, Google wants to unify its operating
system efforts. Instead of merging Android and Chrome OS into a
new operating system like rumors suggested in the past, however, a
source told me that Google is instead working on fully migrating
ChromeOS over to Android. While we don’t know what this means for
the ChromeOS or Chromebook brands, we did hear that Google wants
future “Chromebooks” to ship with the Android OS in the future.
That’s why I believe that Google’s rumored new Pixel Laptop
will run a new version of desktop Android as opposed to the
ChromeOS that you’re likely familiar with.

So they’re not “merging” the two OSes as rumored, many times, in the past, but they’re “fully migrating ChromeOS over to Android”. The only way that really makes a lick of sense is that they’re shitcanning ChromeOS and working to make Android not suck on devices other than phones, like laptops and tablets. Good luck with that, given that even Apple has struggled to make iOS/iPadOS a good laptop OS. OS platforms are just hard — hard to design, hard to engineer, hard to evolve. And Apple, for one, seems more committed than ever to the idea that MacOS and iPadOS remain very different platforms.

And, somehow, there’s no mention of Fuchsia in Rahman’s piece. Fuchsia is supposedly Google’s OS of the future, but which more and more is smelling like Google’s Copland or Pink — a sprawling “next-gen” OS project that collapses under the weight of its own ambition and lack of practical focus, spinning its wheels for years “in development” whilst the world moves on.

 ★ 

Mishaal Rahman, reporting for Android Authority:

While both Android and ChromeOS have seen huge success in
different markets, they’ve struggled to compete in one product
category where they overlap: tablets. The high-end tablet market
is dominated by the Apple iPad, and no matter what Google has
tried, it has failed to change that. However, a source tells
Android Authority that Google is working on a multi-year project
to fully turn ChromeOS into Android, and the end result could be a
platform that finally bests the iPad.

Probably not. Frankly it’s kind of weird that Android is a peer to iOS when it comes to phones, but not at all when it comes to tablets, even though iPadOS remains just a big-screen version of iOS. There are zillions of tablets out there that run Android, but they’re all crap and everyone knows it. “Flagship Android phones” are a thing; “Flagship Android tablets” are not. And iPads are a huge business for Apple, and the iPad is now solidly established as a piece of our cultural firmament. Everyone knows what an iPad is.

To better compete with the iPad as well as manage engineering
resources more effectively, Google wants to unify its operating
system efforts. Instead of merging Android and Chrome OS into a
new operating system like rumors suggested in the past, however, a
source told me that Google is instead working on fully migrating
ChromeOS over to Android. While we don’t know what this means for
the ChromeOS or Chromebook brands, we did hear that Google wants
future “Chromebooks” to ship with the Android OS in the future.
That’s why I believe that Google’s rumored new Pixel Laptop
will run a new version of desktop Android as opposed to the
ChromeOS that you’re likely familiar with.

So they’re not “merging” the two OSes as rumored, many times, in the past, but they’re “fully migrating ChromeOS over to Android”. The only way that really makes a lick of sense is that they’re shitcanning ChromeOS and working to make Android not suck on devices other than phones, like laptops and tablets. Good luck with that, given that even Apple has struggled to make iOS/iPadOS a good laptop OS. OS platforms are just hard — hard to design, hard to engineer, hard to evolve. And Apple, for one, seems more committed than ever to the idea that MacOS and iPadOS remain very different platforms.

And, somehow, there’s no mention of Fuchsia in Rahman’s piece. Fuchsia is supposedly Google’s OS of the future, but which more and more is smelling like Google’s Copland or Pink — a sprawling “next-gen” OS project that collapses under the weight of its own ambition and lack of practical focus, spinning its wheels for years “in development” whilst the world moves on.

Read More 

Jason Koebler, writing for 404 Media:

According to the filing, which was first reported by our
friends at Court Watch, Said was an aspiring ISIS
graphic designer who was working with ISIS’s second-in-command
graphic designer. That person told Said that ISIS’s chief
designer gave him the nickname The Nightmare because of the
extensive notes and revisions that were required before any
piece of propaganda he worked on was pushed out. The DOJ
document suggested that The Nightmare himself had many revisions
for Said’s graphic design work.

“You can call me the Dawlawi [ISIS] designer or you can call me
as the brother used to before. He used to send his designs for me
to modify and because of the many changes, he used to be scared of
me so he would call me ‘the nightmare,’” a message from The
Nightmare to Said published by the DOJ said. […]

The FBI obtained what it says are notes on one propaganda image
allegedly created by Said and which The Nightmare tore apart
because it had so many design elements that it was not very
legible or effective as a piece of propaganda, and suggested that
Said should both simplify it and add blood effects to parts of it
to better get the point across.

If the Trump 2.0 administration goes full fascist, I think I’ve found my role in the resistance.

 ★ 

Jason Koebler, writing for 404 Media:

According to the filing, which was first reported by our
friends at Court Watch, Said was an aspiring ISIS
graphic designer who was working with ISIS’s second-in-command
graphic designer. That person told Said that ISIS’s chief
designer gave him the nickname The Nightmare because of the
extensive notes and revisions that were required before any
piece of propaganda he worked on was pushed out. The DOJ
document suggested that The Nightmare himself had many revisions
for Said’s graphic design work.

“You can call me the Dawlawi [ISIS] designer or you can call me
as the brother used to before. He used to send his designs for me
to modify and because of the many changes, he used to be scared of
me so he would call me ‘the nightmare,’” a message from The
Nightmare to Said published by the DOJ said. […]

The FBI obtained what it says are notes on one propaganda image
allegedly created by Said and which The Nightmare tore apart
because it had so many design elements that it was not very
legible or effective as a piece of propaganda, and suggested that
Said should both simplify it and add blood effects to parts of it
to better get the point across.

If the Trump 2.0 administration goes full fascist, I think I’ve found my role in the resistance.

Read More 

Filipe Espósito, writing at 9to5Mac:

Apple introduced the “Hey Siri” command with iOS 8 to let users
easily interact with the virtual assistant without having to press
any buttons. However, over the years, this has resulted in Siri
being mistakenly triggered when the command is spoken on a TV ad.
But Apple is finally working on a fix for this. […]

The new AdBlocker framework is linked to ShazamKit, which is the
API for apps to use Shazam — the song identification platform
acquired by Apple in 2018. At the same time, the framework also
links to the process responsible for managing the “Siri” and “Hey
Siri” voice commands on Apple devices.

Code suggests that “AdBlocker” will download audio fingerprints
from Apple’s servers and then use the Shazam API to match them
against audio captured by the device’s microphones using the Hey
Siri API. When certain audios match, the new framework will
temporarily disable Siri’s trigger commands.

Clever clever.

 ★ 

Filipe Espósito, writing at 9to5Mac:

Apple introduced the “Hey Siri” command with iOS 8 to let users
easily interact with the virtual assistant without having to press
any buttons. However, over the years, this has resulted in Siri
being mistakenly triggered when the command is spoken on a TV ad.
But Apple is finally working on a fix for this. […]

The new AdBlocker framework is linked to ShazamKit, which is the
API for apps to use Shazam — the song identification platform
acquired by Apple in 2018. At the same time, the framework also
links to the process responsible for managing the “Siri” and “Hey
Siri” voice commands on Apple devices.

Code suggests that “AdBlocker” will download audio fingerprints
from Apple’s servers and then use the Shazam API to match them
against audio captured by the device’s microphones using the Hey
Siri API. When certain audios match, the new framework will
temporarily disable Siri’s trigger commands.

Clever clever.

Read More 

Joanna Stern returns to the show to talk about our new best friends, AI chatbots, and I chime in with how the Voight-Kampff test got it all wrong.

Sponsored by:

WorkOS: The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS — free up to 1 million monthly active users.
Squarespace: Make your next move. Use code talkshow for 10% off your first order.
Memberful: Monetize your passion with membership. Start your free trial today.

 ★ 

Joanna Stern returns to the show to talk about our new best friends, AI chatbots, and I chime in with how the Voight-Kampff test got it all wrong.

Sponsored by:

WorkOS: The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS — free up to 1 million monthly active users.
Squarespace: Make your next move. Use code talkshow for 10% off your first order.
Memberful: Monetize your passion with membership. Start your free trial today.

Read More