Notices by Ian Betteridge (ianb@mastodon.well.com), page 3

What do we think Musk can fail at next?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-07-12/musk-s-x-falls-short-on-promises-of-new-video-shows

What's the odds that this will recommend quite a large number of Amazon-brand products?

https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/12/amazon-ai-chatbot-rufus-is-now-live-for-all-u-s-customers/?guccounter=1

It seems strange to say “I wish I could have my time again” when I haven’t finished having my time yet.

Those who cannot remember the excuses that monopolists of the past made are condemned to repeat them.

This is great - a look at the Apple PenLite, the pen-based Mac that lost out to Newton https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc-QRgpUIqU&t=417s

So, Apple, which bits of the DMA does Apple Intelligence violate? Because unless you can actually tell us - which case we clearly have a bit of a problem with some of the claims you've made about how it works - or you're talking bullshit, and just trying to get some leverage with the EU. Which is it Tim?

https://www.ft.com/content/360751cb-7a22-48e0-9b00-6a30ff41dcfe

@dave @gruber I think this is one of the things for Apple to consider, from a PR perspective. The days when it was basically seen as "the good guys" by consumers and not just another big tech company are waning.

The response to the iPad ad was a good example of this: a lot of people did not give them the benefit of the doubt, where in the past they would have.

@dave @gruber I genuinely don’t know what they’re trying to achieve with their responses. I just can’t see what the end goal is for them. Get the EU to apply the law differently to them? Not going to happen. “Punish” Europe? Not going to help their sales, and they come off as corporate bullies which isn’t a good place for them. (1/2)

@gruber @dave If owning a market is their end goal, that's not going to fly. And that's what much of this comes down to: Apple has grown rich off controlling the market for applications on iOS, and doesn't want to give up that money. But similarly, the entire point of the EU is to prevent *any* company controlling big markets, because to the EU, free markets are the very reason for its existence. Interesting times.

I love how the Apple client websites are framing the FT getting the exclusive on what the EU is up to as a "leak". We used to call that "journalism". Maybe you guys should look it up?

https://www.ft.com/content/898338c2-b9fd-4494-be3f-75b7c669c705

Related: Apple has a good 25 year history of playing favourites with the press like no other company on the planet. And the notion that Apple doesn't leak stuff when it suits it is hysterical. It just doesn't do it about products.

This is your occasional reminder that the biggest creators and spreaders of lies, misinformation, and general bullshit remains human beings, not LLMs.

“Given that the prime minister has been campaigning on the idea young people should complete a year’s national service, what does it say that he appears to have been unable to complete a single afternoon of it?”

Ooof.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jun/07/rishi-sunak-d-day-blunder-uk-election

No.