Thoughts on Technology

This is a good overview of the state of things, as well as a warning of what’s to come if consumers don’t push back on automakers.

The detail on how companies are structuring the debt they’re taking on to build data centers is interesting, and scary. The financial engineering around the AI boom is all too reminiscent of other boom/bust cycles, so I guess we just have to hope to dodge the bust this time.

At the bottom, in the section called “Apple’s Values”, Snell contrasts this year’s statement on how Apple expresses its values through action and their statement on that subject this time last year. It’s worth the quick read.

I’m particularly happy about the profile picker: my family never changes it, and pollutes my Up Next, Recently Played, etc. I’m hoping that other apps will be able to map these profiles to theirs and make it so I don’t have to pick a profile in every single app.

The whole thing is good, but this point about rental cars is an important one: I won’t take a GM rental car that can’t use CarPlay.

Looks interesting. Yet another thing to put on the list to check out.

One interesting part of this review about the foveated rendering on Vision Pro reminds me of how the original iPhone rendered a grid for the parts of the screen that it couldn’t render real detail for to keep that smooth flowing sensation, and it caught up when it could.

I’m glad to see this kind of thing, and I hope—as the article indicates—that the other chains continue to invest in their large-format screens. In particular, I’d love to see more 70mm-capable IMAX screens. It’s one of the few things that gets me to go to the theater anymore.

Interesting article about how food delivery like Uber Eats and DoorDash, accelerated mightily by COVID, transformed the restaurant industry to its current state, where “nearly three out of every four restaurant orders [are] not eaten in a restaurant”.

It’s a false premise that GM must offer either its “deeply integrated experience” OR CarPlay. GM doesn’t want to offer CarPlay next to their own experience, not because they can’t, but because they know that people want the apps that are on their phones, not GM’s.

Ads like these are product cancer. Apple made its success by offering the best experience for people who paid the premium for its offerings. This is a terrible direction.