Tech Brew Ride Home - Mon. 09/16 – A Bunch Of Apple Stories

Starting point is 00:00:00 On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the Tech meme right home for Monday, September 16th, 2024. I'm Brian McCullough today. A bunch of Apple stories. FDA approval for sleep apnea detection on the watch, signs of poor pre-order sales for the phone, and a quick review of the new AirPods.

Starting point is 00:00:49 Also, how did Intel lose out on making the chips for the next gen PlayStation? And are dating apps responsible for income inequality? Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Man, I guess somebody knows how to play the regulatory approval game. The FDA has approved sleep apnea detection in the Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Ultra 2, quoting TechCrunch. The feature announced at last week's iPhone 16 event will arrive as part of the imminent watchOS 11 release. Once enabled, it requires 10 nights of sleep tracking data spread out over a 30-day span to determine whether a user may have the condition. During that time, it also offers insights into nightly sleeping disturbances, utilizing the onboard accelerometer. The FDA classes the feature as, and quote, over-the-counter device to assess risk of sleep apnea.

Starting point is 00:01:42 Apple is quick to note that the addition is not a diagnostic tool, rather it will prompt users to seek a formal diagnosis from a health care provider. The condition which causes breathing to become shallower or repeatedly stop during the night is associated with a variety of different symptoms. The Mayo Clinic notes that it can cause insomnia, headaches, daytime sleepiness, and other long-term conditions. Apple isn't the first consumer electronics firm to offer the feature. Whittings has offered sleep apnea detection in devices for some time, while Samsung received FDA approval for its Galaxy Watchline earlier this year, end quote. I was sort of tempted to pass on this because it's so preliminary, but it is Ming Chi Quo. The superstar Apple analysts has a note out saying that new iPhone first weekend pre-orders

Starting point is 00:02:34 were down around 12.7% to 37 million or so units. The iPhone 16 Pro declined 27% and the iPhone 16 Pro Max was down 16% compared to the iPhone 15. Quote, the delivery times of the iPhone 16 Pro series are significantly shorter than those of the 15 Pro series. In addition to the shipment increase before the pre-order, the key is that demand is lower than expected, as evidenced by the year-on-year decline in first weekend sales. One of the key factors for the lower than expected demand for the iPhone 16 Pro series is that the major selling point, Apple Intelligence is not available at launch alongside the iPhone 16 release. Additionally, intense competition in the Chinese market continues to impact iPhone demand.

Starting point is 00:03:18 While first weekend sales of the iPhone 16 Plus and standard version were up year-on-year, their impact on total iPhone shipments is limited. Despite the year-over-year decline in first weekend pre-order sales of the iPhone 16 Pro series, the supply chain's production plans are unlikely to change significantly in the near term. Apple still has opportunities to improve sales through the release of Apple Intenture. and peak season promotions, year-end holiday season in America and Europe, and double 11 in China. These factors will be key points to watch for changes in iPhone demand, end quote. Meethinks, that might be why Apple's stock is down 3% this morning at what I believe are one-month lows.

Starting point is 00:04:03 This is somewhat surprising. EU Commissioner Tieri Britton, who oversees Big Tech regulation, says he is stepping down over a rift with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Quoting Reuters, France picked foreign minister Stefan Sejourn as its new candidate for the next European Commission as the incumbent, Tieri Breton, abruptly quit on Monday with tough words for the EU's re-elected executive chief Ursula von der Leyen. This was an unexpected twist in the highly political EU power transition that follows the June European elections and in which key jobs in the bloc's powerful decision-making institutions are shared out, for the next five years. But ditching Briton, who had publicly clashed with von der Leyen, was the price to pay for France to keep a big portfolio in the next European Commission team, which von der Leyen is expected to announce this week. A source familiar with the matter said President Emmanuel Macron had negotiated a beefed-up internal market and industry executive vice president brief for the French nominee overseeing a cluster of commissioners.

Starting point is 00:05:09 As the EU's second biggest member state, France made it clear it wanted a major post in the shake-up of key jobs in EU institutions that follows the June elections. The president has always sought to obtain a key European Commission portfolio for France focused on the issues of industrial, technological, sovereignty, and European competitiveness. McCrone's office said in a statement. Sojourn 39 is a Macron loyalist, a close ally who chairs his party and a former EU lawmaker, who led the party's ticket in the 2019 European Parliament election. He has kept a low profile at France's foreign ministry, which he has been leading since January. January and where he stuck to and defended Macron's line. In his resignation letter, Breton said that

Starting point is 00:05:49 von der Leyen had asked France, quote, a few days ago to withdraw his name as its pick for the commission, quote, for personal reasons, in return for, end quote, allegedly more influential portfolio, end quote. In light of these latest developments, further testimony to questionable governance, I have to conclude that I can no longer exercise my duties in the college, Breton said in the letter. Vonderlian's office declined to comment on Bruton's allegations and his resignation. A commission spokesperson said Vondelan still hoped to be able to present the proposed new commission team on Tuesday. Britton, one of the highest profile members of the European Commission for the past five years, is best known for sparring publicly with tech billionaire Elon Musk and playing a key role in shaping the 27-Nation EU's big tech regulation,

Starting point is 00:06:34 its COVID vaccine response, and efforts to boost defense industries. A former French minister and business executive, he was the EEO, EU's industry and internal market commissioner during von der Leyen's first term. He had backed the telecom sector push to get big tech to help fund the rollout of 5G and fast-speed broadband across Europe. But Breton and von der Leyen's relationship took a turn for the worse over recent months. The French commissioner, a liberal, angered von der Leyen by publicly criticizing her nomination as the European Conservative EPP's party candidate to head the commission for a second term, EU officials have said. Breton's public feuds with Musk had also been met with dismay among other commission colleagues.

Starting point is 00:07:13 Officials added, end quote. Slack has unveiled agents for Slack, letting paid users access Salesforce AI agents, third-party agents from Asana, Kohir, Adobe, and others, and users' own agents. Quoting Venture Beat. The new feature, agents for Slack will be available for paying users. It will bring Salesforce's AI agents, third-party agents from partners and Slack customers' own agents into the chat platform. Rob Seaman, Slack's chief product officer, said in an interview with Venture Beat, that desk workers are increasingly wanting to consolidate more of their workflow into a single place

Starting point is 00:07:53 so they don't have to hunt for information. We see that desk workers are spending a self-reporting third of their day on tasks they consider low value, and half of the people we talk to aren't able to find the information they need to do their jobs, Siemens said. We think this is because there are more and more apps and services they use on a daily basis, and it's hard to keep track of. While Slack does not necessarily have its own agents, it hosts agents from the platforms its customers use. Salesforce, with its new suite of AI agents, Agent Force, lets people talk to their data on Salesforce and take action on tasks. Seaman says people can type questions or instructions to Agent Force, quote, so your responses will be based on the data in your CRM

Starting point is 00:08:34 and the conversation and context happening on Slack. Slack will also connect to out-of-the-box AI agents built by Asana, Cohere, Adobe Express, Workday, and Writer. The actions these agents would take will depend on the programming set by the partners. Customers who made their own AI agents can also integrate those into Slack as well. Bringing AI agents into Slack means users can call up, say, agent force from a dedicated interface on Slack. This brings up that AI agent where the user can then ask questions normally stored in the customer relationship management system in the Slack window. The agent can recommend the next steps or draft emails on the user's behalf. path. However, Slack insists that agents will only have limited access to customer information.

Starting point is 00:09:14 We built a new API specifically for agents where there's a contract seated with it that the data cannot be exported, stored or used for LLM training, Siemens said. Agents made by Slack customers can still train on their data. Siemens said to think of AI agents on Slack as more powerful versions of the apps already connected to the chat service like Google Calendar or Zoom. Slack is just one of the companies adding access to AI agents, but it is probably one of the larger workplace productivity companies offering it to customers. Agents are fast becoming one of the biggest trends for enterprises.

Starting point is 00:09:45 Recently, other providers like ServiceNow announced AI agent capabilities for users. However, few agents have been in use for very long, so employees have little experience using them. We're still developing autonomous agents that will not require as much prompting or continuous instructions, end quote. Man, the hits just keep on coming. Sources say that back in 2022, Intel lost out to AMD and TSM are. on a contract to design and fabricate Sony's PS6 chip, a significant blow to its contract manufacturing

Starting point is 00:10:22 unit. Quoting Reuters, the effort by Intel to win out over advanced microdevices in a competitive bidding process to supply the design for the forthcoming PlayStation 6 chip and Taiwan's semiconductor manufacturing, as the contract manufacturer would have amounted to billions of dollars of revenue and fabricating thousands of silicon wafers a month, two sources said. Intel and AMD were the final two contenders in the bidding process for the contract. Winning the Sony PlayStation 6 chip design business would have been a victory for Intel's design segment and would have doubled as a win for the company's contract manufacturing effort or foundry business, which was the centerpiece of Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger's turnaround plan.

Starting point is 00:11:01 Gelsinger announced plans for Intel to create a foundry unit in 2021 and formally launched it at an event in San Jose, California in February of this year. The PlayStation chip deal originated in Intel's design segment, but would have been a boon to the financial performance of the Foundry business after this year's separation. Details of the discussions and how Intel missed out on the contract for Sony's as-yet-onounced Next Generation Game Console are reported here for the first time. Typically, Sony consoles sell more than 100 million units across a half a decade. For a chip designer, the console business delivers a lower profit than the gross margins of more than 50% for products like artificial intelligence chips, but nonetheless represents steady business that can profit from technology a company has already developed. Sony's business also could have helped boost Intel's contract manufacturing business,

Starting point is 00:11:47 which now struggles to find big new clients. A dispute over how much profit Intel stood to take from each chip sold to the Japanese electronics giant, blocked Intel from settling on the price with Sony, according to two of the sources. Instead, rival AMD landed the contract through a competitive bidding process that eliminated others such as Broadcom, until only Intel and AMD remained. Discussions between Sony and Intel took months in 2022 and included meetings between the two companies' CEOs, dozens of engineers and executives. Similar to how big tech companies like Google and Amazon rely on outside vendors to help design and manufacture

Starting point is 00:12:22 custom AI chips, Sony relies on experienced design contractors to make the processors for systems. Console chip designs typically try to ensure compatibility with earlier versions of the system to allow users to run older games on the new hardware. Moving from A&D, which made the PlayStation 5 chip to Intel would have risked backwards compatibility, which was a subject of discussion between Intel and Sony engineers and executives, the sources said. Ensuring backward compatibility with prior versions of the PlayStation would have been costly and taken engineering resources, allowing PlayStation users to play games they have purchased for older systems is a feature Sony often includes in a next generation system, end quote.

Starting point is 00:13:04 Real quick, Apple AirPods for review, Chris Welch at the verge, says the active noise can is impressive for an open design. The upgraded sound and wireless charging are good, but better volume controls would be nice. Quote, I'll be going right back to regular earbuds after this review. That's just who I am, and I like having as much noise isolation as possible. But the AirPods, four with active noise cancellation, are far and away Apple's most compelling take on this open design yet. The noise cancellation isn't on par with more expensive in-ear alternatives, but it's easily good enough to ensure you can enjoy your music at a normal volume no matter where you might be. You can tell a difference when the ANC is working, which I can't say of other open

Starting point is 00:13:47 earbuds that have advertised noise cancellation. That combined with the wireless charging is the biggest reason I'd steer most people toward the more expensive model. The standard AirPods 4 give you the same good audio performance, and they effortlessly weave into Apple's ecosystem. They're also a substantial upgrade over the second-gen model that they've replaced for the same $129. But beyond the walled garden tricks, Apple left them with relatively few frills compared to the and C pair. So unless you're very price conscious, it's worth stepping up. Your ears will be supremely grateful you spent the extra $50, end quote. Finally today, this is an odd one. Research based on the U.S. Census Bureau's data from 2008 to 2021 suggests that online dating may be partially to blame for a

Starting point is 00:14:36 rise in income inequality in recent times. Quoting Bloomberg, since the emergence of dating apps that allow people to look for a partner based on criteria, including education, Americans have increasingly been marrying someone more like themselves. That accounts for about half of the rise in income inequality among households between 1980 and 2020. Researchers from the Federal Reserve Banks of Dallas and St. Louis and Haverford College found. Using data from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey from 2008 to 2021, when online dating quickly became prevalent, the economists found that women became slightly more selective when choosing partners based on age, while men became slightly more selective based on education. But when the researchers compared

Starting point is 00:15:17 that with data on married couples from 1960 and 1980, they found that people in the recent period increasingly went for partners with the same wage and education levels. And while many people married someone of the same ethnicity, people became less and less selective on race over time. Who people marry has a major impact on household income. The research shows that the two main contributors to inequality through the selection of a future spouse are educated. and skills. They are followed, to a much lesser extent, by income and age, while race plays a relatively inconsequential role. Co-author Paulina Restrepo Echavaria, an economic policy advisor for the St. Louis Fed, said in a blog post describing the paper. Overall, the predominance of online

Starting point is 00:16:00 apps to find a future partner has led to a three-percentage point increase in the Ginny coefficient, a widely used measure of income inequality the research shows. We find that the increase in income inequality over the past half a century is. explained to a large extent by sorting on vertical characteristics such as income and skill and their interaction with education, the economist wrote in the paper, end quote. Thanks to those of you who weighed in on the ads question this weekend. Over 93% of you said three ads would be fine if it comes out that it's the same amount of time in the end, the same amount of ad time, which it would be. So this gives me plenty of ammunition to go back

Starting point is 00:16:47 to my negotiations with this ad network. I appreciate your input and also the nice words many of you shared about the show. When we do switch over ad networks, I'll let you know that it's happened so you're aware. Talk to you on Monday.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Mon. 09/16 – A Bunch Of Apple Stories

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