daring-rss
Pixar’s ‘Inside Out 2’ Heads for Historic $140–$150M Box Office Opening
Pamela McClintock, The Hollywood Reporter:
Pixar’s tentpole earned a massive $62 million on Friday, well
ahead of expectations and putting the movie on course to open in
the $140 million to $150 million range domestically over Father’s
Day weekend, one of the top three starts ever for an animated film
and the second-best for Pixar. Rival studios believe it could
climb as high as $155 million to $160 million, but Disney is being
more circumspect. Friday’s haul includes a huge $13 million in
Thursday previews.
Great news for a great studio that needed a hit. Maybe we should stop griping about Pixar making sequels and just encourage them to make great films, original or not.
★
Pamela McClintock, The Hollywood Reporter:
Pixar’s tentpole earned a massive $62 million on Friday, well
ahead of expectations and putting the movie on course to open in
the $140 million to $150 million range domestically over Father’s
Day weekend, one of the top three starts ever for an animated film
and the second-best for Pixar. Rival studios believe it could
climb as high as $155 million to $160 million, but Disney is being
more circumspect. Friday’s haul includes a huge $13 million in
Thursday previews.
Great news for a great studio that needed a hit. Maybe we should stop griping about Pixar making sequels and just encourage them to make great films, original or not.
Japan Enacts Law to Mandate Third-Party App Stores, and You’ll Never Guess Which Class of Devices Aren’t Included
Kyodo News:
Japan’s parliament enacted Wednesday a law to promote competition
in smartphone app stores by restricting tech giants Apple Inc. and
Google LLC from limiting third-party companies from selling and
operating apps on their platforms.
The law will prohibit the providers of Apple’s iOS and Google’s
Android smartphone operating systems, app stores and payment
platforms from preventing the sale of apps and services that
directly compete with the native platforms’ own.
Laws like this are protectionist attacks that specifically target two U.S. companies — Apple and Google. The United States should treat this as a trade war, and reciprocate by passing legislation mandating third-party game stores and payments on game consoles from Sony and Nintendo. See how they like it. It’s patently hypocritical that Japan’s law targets only phones; this law wouldn’t exist if Sony were a player in phones and mobile platforms.
Violations of the new law will bring a penalty of 20 percent of
the domestic revenue of the service found to have breached the
rules. The fine can increase to 30 percent if the companies do not
cease the anticompetitive practices.
Unlike the EU, which believes it can assess fines comprising a hefty percentage of companies’ worldwide revenue (which, in the case of the DMA, I doubt they’ll ever collect), Japan, quite reasonably, only assesses fines on companies’ Japanese revenue.
★
Kyodo News:
Japan’s parliament enacted Wednesday a law to promote competition
in smartphone app stores by restricting tech giants Apple Inc. and
Google LLC from limiting third-party companies from selling and
operating apps on their platforms.
The law will prohibit the providers of Apple’s iOS and Google’s
Android smartphone operating systems, app stores and payment
platforms from preventing the sale of apps and services that
directly compete with the native platforms’ own.
Laws like this are protectionist attacks that specifically target two U.S. companies — Apple and Google. The United States should treat this as a trade war, and reciprocate by passing legislation mandating third-party game stores and payments on game consoles from Sony and Nintendo. See how they like it. It’s patently hypocritical that Japan’s law targets only phones; this law wouldn’t exist if Sony were a player in phones and mobile platforms.
Violations of the new law will bring a penalty of 20 percent of
the domestic revenue of the service found to have breached the
rules. The fine can increase to 30 percent if the companies do not
cease the anticompetitive practices.
Unlike the EU, which believes it can assess fines comprising a hefty percentage of companies’ worldwide revenue (which, in the case of the DMA, I doubt they’ll ever collect), Japan, quite reasonably, only assesses fines on companies’ Japanese revenue.
Ken Kocienda Left Humane
Ken Kocienda, who was Humane’s head of product engineering, has left the company. his Twitter bio and LinkedIn profile both state “working on something new”:
Working on something new. Past: Humane, 15 years at , inventor of
iPhone autocorrect, author of “Creative Selection”
Kocienda’s book Creative Selection is one of the best insider description of working at Apple ever written, and two years ago he was a splendid guest on The Talk Show.
★
Ken Kocienda, who was Humane’s head of product engineering, has left the company. his Twitter bio and LinkedIn profile both state “working on something new”:
Working on something new. Past: Humane, 15 years at , inventor of
iPhone autocorrect, author of “Creative Selection”
Kocienda’s book Creative Selection is one of the best insider description of working at Apple ever written, and two years ago he was a splendid guest on The Talk Show.
★ The Talk Show Live From WWDC 2024
Recorded in front of a live (and lively) audience at The California Theatre in San Jose Tuesday evening, special guests John Giannandrea, Craig Federighi, and Greg Joswiak join me to discuss Apple’s announcements at WWDC 2024. Presented both in standard 4K video and 3D video with spatial audio.
Recorded in front of a live (and lively) audience at The California Theatre in San Jose Tuesday evening, special guests John Giannandrea, Craig Federighi, and Greg Joswiak join me to discuss Apple’s announcements at WWDC 2024.
3D video with spatial audio: Exclusively in Sandwich Vision’s Theater app on Vision Pro, available on the App Store. Just launch Theater and tap the “Watch Live Event” button.
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As ever, I implore you to watch on the biggest screen you can (real, or virtual). We once again shot and mastered the video in 4K, and it looks and sounds terrific. All credit and thanks for that go to my friends at Sandwich, who are nothing short of a joy to work with.
The livestream of 3D video with spatial audio went almost perfectly, and the feedback from viewers who joined the stream has been unanimously positive. My sincere thanks and gratitude to SpatialGen for their remarkable work on that.
Not just shooting this event in 3D, but also streaming it live, was entirely the initiative of my dear friend, Mr. Sandwich himself, Adam Lisagor. I was asked a few times this week whether it was Apple who wanted to stream this live in 3D for viewing on Vision Pro. Nope. It was Adam who pitched me on the idea, only about eight weeks ago. I was like, “Well, sure, that sounds awesome, but how in the world would we do that? What camera could we use to shoot with? How would we stream it? What app would people be able to view it in? It’s a great idea but none of this seems possible.” Adam was like “I think we can do it.”
And, son of a bitch, they did it.
Once I started talking with Apple about arranging for guests, we did let them know our plans to shoot and livestream in 3D for viewing in Theater on Vision Pro — an app that, at the time, was in early beta. Maybe even alpha. Apple’s reaction echoed my own: sounds great but how?
The how is a long story and I get zero credit for any of it, but it involves a custom camera rig with two Lumix BGH1 cameras, each with Olympus 17mm PRO prime ƒ/1.2 lenses (35mm equivalent field of view with the BGH1’s Micro Four Thirds sensor). The lenses were about 3 inches apart — as close as possible — and microphones were placed throughout the theater to capture spatial audio.
The results exceeded my expectations, and I think everyone else’s as well.
To be clear, we shot the show two entirely different ways. The standard multi-camera cut on YouTube, embedded above, was shot exactly as we’ve done in previous years. That video turned out great too. The 3D version in the Theater app was shot from a single point of view, roughly simulating the perspective from a front-row center seat in front of the stage. It looks cool and sounds even better. If you have a Vision Pro or access to one, I highly encourage you to check it out.
We’re describing it as “3D video with spatial audio”, not “spatial video”, because that’s a more precise description of the effect. True spatial video would be more immersive — “Look left to see Joz, look right to see Gruber” — and the effect we achieved wasn’t quite like that. But what we did get is immersive, and very compelling. To the best of my knowledge, this was the first event livestreamed in 3D for viewing in VisionOS, and while my role was simply as the host of the show, that’s pretty damn cool. I’m just amazed at what Lisagor and his team at Sandwich (and SpatialGen) were able to pull off in a matter of weeks.
Reactions From Social Media
Matt Birchler: “I was only able to watch the first 40 minutes or so live, but it was really good, and really compelling to watch in immersive video. Can’t wait for the rest.”
Kevin Pfefferle: “Wow, The Talk Show Live exceeded all expectations. So many candid and insightful answers straight from Apple execs (plus a fair share of generic no-comment answers with a wink and a smile). Bravo! 👏🏻”
Kalani Helekunihi: “I watched the Talk Show Live on Vision Pro tonight. It was a really great experience, and felt close to sitting in the front row. Only real issue was bitrate / bandwidth related. If that can be solved, I imagine I’d prefer this to the real thing.”
Dave Marquand: “Really enjoyed the spatial livestream of The Talk Show Live. Taking the front row center seat in the Theater app definitely did feel a lot like sitting in row 1 at a stage performance. Oddly, the “most 3D” thing about the show was the glint off of your watch reflecting off of the floor of the stage in the foreground.”
Kalani Helekunihi, again: “Yep, there was even a moment where the glint caught the right eye camera. Was one of the most “accidentally real” experiences I’ve had with a headset, ever. Those sort of things just can’t be experienced with a TV screen. It all felt like sitting there, and looking into the stage.”
Michael Edlund: “I’ve never been lucky enough to attend @gruber’s The Talk Show live in person, and I was blown away by the 3D #live stream for #VisionPro that was literally like sitting in the first row at the edge of the stage.”
Nick Bodmer: “Watched The Talk Show Live on my Vision Pro last night — what an incredible experience! 🌟 Streaming it in spatial vision made me feel like I was right there in the front row. Sure, there were a few frame rate hiccups, but the immersive experience more than made up for it. Kudos to SpatialGen, Sandwich, and @gruber for pulling off a fantastic live event! 👏”
Wayne Ma Confirms That Mark Gurman Scooped Him on the No-Cash Apple-OpenAI Deal
Wayne Ma, reporting for The Information:
Neither Apple nor OpenAI are paying each other to integrate
ChatGPT into the iPhone, according to a person with knowledge of
the deal. Instead, OpenAI hopes greater exposure on iPhones will
help it sell a paid version of ChatGPT, which costs around $20 a
month for individuals. Apple would take its 30% cut of these
subscriptions as is customary for in-app purchases.
Sometime in the future, Apple hopes to strike revenue-sharing
agreements with AI partners in which it gets a cut of the revenue
generated from integrating their chatbots with the iPhone,
according to Bloomberg, which first reported details of the deal.
OpenAI leaders have privately said the Apple arrangement could be
worth billions of dollars to the startup if things go well, The
Information previously reported.
I enjoy how Ma threw in a link to his own report from two weeks ago, but didn’t link to Gurman’s scoop — posted a full day before this — at Bloomberg. Classy.
★
Wayne Ma, reporting for The Information:
Neither Apple nor OpenAI are paying each other to integrate
ChatGPT into the iPhone, according to a person with knowledge of
the deal. Instead, OpenAI hopes greater exposure on iPhones will
help it sell a paid version of ChatGPT, which costs around $20 a
month for individuals. Apple would take its 30% cut of these
subscriptions as is customary for in-app purchases.
Sometime in the future, Apple hopes to strike revenue-sharing
agreements with AI partners in which it gets a cut of the revenue
generated from integrating their chatbots with the iPhone,
according to Bloomberg, which first reported details of the deal.
OpenAI leaders have privately said the Apple arrangement could be
worth billions of dollars to the startup if things go well, The
Information previously reported.
I enjoy how Ma threw in a link to his own report from two weeks ago, but didn’t link to Gurman’s scoop — posted a full day before this — at Bloomberg. Classy.
Gurman: Neither Apple Nor OpenAI Are Paying for Partnership
Mark Gurman, writing at Bloomberg*:
Left unanswered on Monday: which company is paying the other as
part of a tight collaboration that has potentially lasting
monetary benefits for both. But, according to people briefed on
the matter, the partnership isn’t expected to generate meaningful
revenue for either party — at least at the outset.
The arrangement includes weaving ChatGPT, a digital assistant that
responds in plain terms to information requests, into Apple’s Siri
and new writing tools. Apple isn’t paying OpenAI as part of the
partnership, said the people, who asked not to be identified
because the deal terms are private. Instead, Apple believes
pushing OpenAI’s brand and technology to hundreds of millions of
its devices is of equal or greater value than monetary payments,
these people said.
Meanwhile, Apple, thanks to OpenAI, gets the benefit of offering
an advanced chatbot to consumers — potentially enticing users to
spend more time on devices or even splash out on upgrades.
Apple getting this free of charge, in exchange only for the prestige of showing the ChatGPT logo and credit to users of Apple devices who engage the integration, is Apple-iest negotiation in recent memory. My money says Eddy Cue, Steve Jobs’s favorite co-negotiator, made the deal. (I’d love to take Eddy Cue with me to the dealer when next I buy a car.)
During my show Tuesday night, I asked Federighi, Giannandrea, and Joswiak point blank, “So, who’s paying who in this deal?” (or something to that effect — transcript isn’t done yet), and got nothing more than smiles and shrugs in response. My read on the smiles is that they were smug happy smiles.
Ben Thompson and I recording today’s episode of Dithering — the world’s favorite 15-minute podcast — yesterday before Gurman’s report dropped, but speculating, we came to the same conclusion, that it seemed likely neither company was paying the other. It makes obvious sense from Apple’s perspective. Not so obvious from OpenAI’s. But if OpenAI’s overriding goal is to cement itself as the leader in world-knowledge LLMs — to become to chatbots what Kleenex is to facial tissues — it makes sense to agree to this just to gain users — some of whom will upgrade to paid accounts. Google, on the other hand, probably wants to be paid by Apple to integrate Gemini. But now Apple can turn to Google — and Anthropic and Mistral and whoever else wants in on this iOS and MacOS integration, like the other default search engines in Safari — and Eddy Cue can tell them “My offer is this: nothing. Not even the $20,000 for the gaming license, which I would appreciate if you would put up personally.”
Back to Gurman:
ChatGPT will be offered for free on Apple’s products, but OpenAI
and Apple could still make money by converting free users to paid
accounts. OpenAI’s subscription plans start at $20 a month — a
fee that covers extra features like the ability to analyze data
and generate more types of images.
Today, if a user subscribes to OpenAI on an Apple device via the
ChatGPT app, the process uses Apple’s payment platform, which
traditionally gives the iPhone maker a cut.
Not traditionally. Always. Apple always makes a cut. My single biggest regret from my interview Tuesday night is not thinking to ask, on stage, whether iOS and Mac users will be able to upgrade from free to paid ChatGPT accounts right in Settings, where, I presume, the ChatGPT account sign in will be. If so, Apple will surely be getting their 30/15 percent slice of that. And what’s the alternative? Sending users to OpenAI’s website where Apple would get zilch? That doesn’t sound like Apple.
* Bloomberg, of course, is the publication that published “The Big Hack” in October 2018 — a sensational story alleging that data centers of Apple, Amazon, and dozens of other companies were compromised by China’s intelligence services. The story presented no confirmable evidence at all, was vehemently denied by all companies involved, has not been confirmed by a single other publication (despite much effort to do so), and has been largely discredited by one of Bloomberg’s own sources. By all appearances “The Big Hack” was complete bullshit. Yet Bloomberg has issued no correction or retraction, and their only ostensibly substantial follow-up contained not one shred of evidence to back up their allegations. Bloomberg seemingly hopes we’ll all just forget about it. I say we do not just forget about it. Everything they publish should be treated with skepticism until they retract “The Big Hack” or provide evidence that any of it was true.
★
Mark Gurman, writing at Bloomberg*:
Left unanswered on Monday: which company is paying the other as
part of a tight collaboration that has potentially lasting
monetary benefits for both. But, according to people briefed on
the matter, the partnership isn’t expected to generate meaningful
revenue for either party — at least at the outset.
The arrangement includes weaving ChatGPT, a digital assistant that
responds in plain terms to information requests, into Apple’s Siri
and new writing tools. Apple isn’t paying OpenAI as part of the
partnership, said the people, who asked not to be identified
because the deal terms are private. Instead, Apple believes
pushing OpenAI’s brand and technology to hundreds of millions of
its devices is of equal or greater value than monetary payments,
these people said.
Meanwhile, Apple, thanks to OpenAI, gets the benefit of offering
an advanced chatbot to consumers — potentially enticing users to
spend more time on devices or even splash out on upgrades.
Apple getting this free of charge, in exchange only for the prestige of showing the ChatGPT logo and credit to users of Apple devices who engage the integration, is Apple-iest negotiation in recent memory. My money says Eddy Cue, Steve Jobs’s favorite co-negotiator, made the deal. (I’d love to take Eddy Cue with me to the dealer when next I buy a car.)
During my show Tuesday night, I asked Federighi, Giannandrea, and Joswiak point blank, “So, who’s paying who in this deal?” (or something to that effect — transcript isn’t done yet), and got nothing more than smiles and shrugs in response. My read on the smiles is that they were smug happy smiles.
Ben Thompson and I recording today’s episode of Dithering — the world’s favorite 15-minute podcast — yesterday before Gurman’s report dropped, but speculating, we came to the same conclusion, that it seemed likely neither company was paying the other. It makes obvious sense from Apple’s perspective. Not so obvious from OpenAI’s. But if OpenAI’s overriding goal is to cement itself as the leader in world-knowledge LLMs — to become to chatbots what Kleenex is to facial tissues — it makes sense to agree to this just to gain users — some of whom will upgrade to paid accounts. Google, on the other hand, probably wants to be paid by Apple to integrate Gemini. But now Apple can turn to Google — and Anthropic and Mistral and whoever else wants in on this iOS and MacOS integration, like the other default search engines in Safari — and Eddy Cue can tell them “My offer is this: nothing. Not even the $20,000 for the gaming license, which I would appreciate if you would put up personally.”
Back to Gurman:
ChatGPT will be offered for free on Apple’s products, but OpenAI
and Apple could still make money by converting free users to paid
accounts. OpenAI’s subscription plans start at $20 a month — a
fee that covers extra features like the ability to analyze data
and generate more types of images.
Today, if a user subscribes to OpenAI on an Apple device via the
ChatGPT app, the process uses Apple’s payment platform, which
traditionally gives the iPhone maker a cut.
Not traditionally. Always. Apple always makes a cut. My single biggest regret from my interview Tuesday night is not thinking to ask, on stage, whether iOS and Mac users will be able to upgrade from free to paid ChatGPT accounts right in Settings, where, I presume, the ChatGPT account sign in will be. If so, Apple will surely be getting their 30/15 percent slice of that. And what’s the alternative? Sending users to OpenAI’s website where Apple would get zilch? That doesn’t sound like Apple.
* Bloomberg, of course, is the publication that published “The Big Hack” in October 2018 — a sensational story alleging that data centers of Apple, Amazon, and dozens of other companies were compromised by China’s intelligence services. The story presented no confirmable evidence at all, was vehemently denied by all companies involved, has not been confirmed by a single other publication (despite much effort to do so), and has been largely discredited by one of Bloomberg’s own sources. By all appearances “The Big Hack” was complete bullshit. Yet Bloomberg has issued no correction or retraction, and their only ostensibly substantial follow-up contained not one shred of evidence to back up their allegations. Bloomberg seemingly hopes we’ll all just forget about it. I say we do not just forget about it. Everything they publish should be treated with skepticism until they retract “The Big Hack” or provide evidence that any of it was true.
‘The Shamans and the Chieftain’
Timothy Snyder:
The political theory of Trump’s coup attempt is that all that
matters is the chieftain. He does not have to win an election,
because the chieftain has the right to rule simply because he is
the chieftain. Requiring Trump to win an election is thus a
provocation. The claim that he should leave office when he loses
an election justifies revenge. And of course retribution is
Trump’s platform.
The legal theory of Trump’s coup attempt, made explicit in
argument before the Supreme Court, is that the chieftain is immune
to law. There is magic around the chieftain’s person, such that he
need respond only to himself. The words “presidential immunity”
are an incantation directed to directed to people in black robes,
summoning them to act as the chieftain’s shamans and confirm his
magical status.
No issue has ever been more important in the history of the United States, and thus, in the history of democracy itself: Donald Trump lost the election in 2020 and tried, ham-fistedly, to spearhead a coup to remain in power by overthrowing the duly elected government of the nation. If he gets another chance by winning in November, the next coup won’t be as ham-fisted.
★
Timothy Snyder:
The political theory of Trump’s coup attempt is that all that
matters is the chieftain. He does not have to win an election,
because the chieftain has the right to rule simply because he is
the chieftain. Requiring Trump to win an election is thus a
provocation. The claim that he should leave office when he loses
an election justifies revenge. And of course retribution is
Trump’s platform.
The legal theory of Trump’s coup attempt, made explicit in
argument before the Supreme Court, is that the chieftain is immune
to law. There is magic around the chieftain’s person, such that he
need respond only to himself. The words “presidential immunity”
are an incantation directed to directed to people in black robes,
summoning them to act as the chieftain’s shamans and confirm his
magical status.
No issue has ever been more important in the history of the United States, and thus, in the history of democracy itself: Donald Trump lost the election in 2020 and tried, ham-fistedly, to spearhead a coup to remain in power by overthrowing the duly elected government of the nation. If he gets another chance by winning in November, the next coup won’t be as ham-fisted.
This Is Love
What a photo. Reminds me of my own father, and the father I try to be myself. Impossible to imagine the former guy expressing such genuine love like this.
★
What a photo. Reminds me of my own father, and the father I try to be myself. Impossible to imagine the former guy expressing such genuine love like this.
‘Apple Aggregates AI’
Ben Thompson:
So what is Apple Intelligence, then? To me the explanation flows directly from Strategy 101: Apple Intelligence is the application of generative AI to use cases and content that Apple is uniquely positioned to provide and access. It is designed, to build on yesterday’s Article, to maximize the advantages that Apple has in terms of being the operating system provider on your phone; and, on the other hand, what it is not is any sort of general purpose chatbot: that is where OpenAI comes in — and only there.
To put it another way, and in Stratechery terms, Apple is positioning itself as an AI Aggregator: the company owns users and, by extension, generative AI demand by virtue of owning its platforms, and it is deepening its moat through Apple Intelligence, which only Apple can do; that demand is then being brought to bear on suppliers who probably have to eat the costs of getting privileged access to Apple’s userbase.
It pains me to admit how great a take this is. Nailed it.
★
Ben Thompson:
So what is Apple Intelligence, then? To me the explanation flows directly from Strategy 101: Apple Intelligence is the application of generative AI to use cases and content that Apple is uniquely positioned to provide and access. It is designed, to build on yesterday’s Article, to maximize the advantages that Apple has in terms of being the operating system provider on your phone; and, on the other hand, what it is not is any sort of general purpose chatbot: that is where OpenAI comes in — and only there. […]
To put it another way, and in Stratechery terms, Apple is positioning itself as an AI Aggregator: the company owns users and, by extension, generative AI demand by virtue of owning its platforms, and it is deepening its moat through Apple Intelligence, which only Apple can do; that demand is then being brought to bear on suppliers who probably have to eat the costs of getting privileged access to Apple’s userbase.
It pains me to admit how great a take this is. Nailed it.