434: ‘Knee-Jerk Contrarian’, With Dan Frommer
Special guest Dan Frommer returns to the show. Topics include the indie media business, the iPhone Pocket, the iPhone Air (including rumors about the second generation model), AI “personalities”, and five years of Apple Silicon Macs. Also, six years of Dan’s site, The New Consumer.
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Transcripts: Unofficial but surprisingly good.
Links:
Dan’s site: The New Consumer.
Fromedome.
iPhone Pocket:
Apple’s announcement.
My link.
Recalling iPod Socks.
Steve Jobs’s signature black turtlenecks.
Sold out in hours.
iPhone Air:
WSJ: “Apple’s iPhone Air Is a Marketing Win and a Sales Flop”
My response.
Rumors re: the second-gen iPhone Air.
Jason Snell at Six Colors, in 2022: “Find Photos Taken by Specific iPhone Lenses”.
Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz, Two MLB Pitchers, Charged in Gambling Investigation.
Ricoh GR IIIx:
A few example photos I’ve taken with mine.
This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.
288: ‘It Shouldn’t Be Hard to Get a Smoothie’ With Dan Frommer
Dan Frommer returns to the show for more analysis of WWDC 2020, including App Clips and the Mac’s transition to Apple silicon.
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Links:
Dan at The New Consumer: “Why Apple’s New ‘App Clips’ Matter”.
WWDC 2020 sessions on App Clips.
This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.
(Bonus) The Curious Case of Casper (with Dan Frommer)
One of my favorite newsletters—I’ve really gotta give you all a list of all the newsletters I subscribe to if you’re interested at some point—one of my favorite newsletters is The New Consumer (subscribe here) by Dan Frommer. Dan published his own analysis of the Casper IPO, and I couldn’t help myself. I needed to delve into the Casper financials in greater detail. But also: scandal marketing! Can brands be “cancelled”? And analysis of this week’s Netflix earnings.
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(Bonus) The Razr and the Reality of 5G with QZ's Mike Murphy
So, that Razr event, out in LA... obviously I didn’t get to cover it live… and if there was ever a recent hardware event crying out for “hands-on” reporting, this was one. So, I reached out to someone who was there: QZ.com’s Mike Murphy, and actually, his take was pretty different than some of the others I read to you on Thursday. Come for that, and stay for the reality check about what will really make the 5G revolution happen.
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263: ‘The Dumbest Thing Possible’ With Dan Frommer
Special guest Dan Frommer returns to the show for a preview of this week’s Apple event.
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Links:
The New Consumer — Dan’s new subscription newsletter.
“What to Do When SIM-Swapping Happens to You”.
Gruber and Merlin: Obsession Times Voice at SXSW 2009.
The Athletic — great subscription site for sports fans.
Jon Ostrower’s The Air Current.
The Points Guy.
Ben Thompson’s Stratechery.
Neil Cybart’s Above Avalon.
The “iPhone Math” rumor.
This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.
WWDC Preview and Consumer Startups With Dan Frommer
Y’all know Dan Frommer. Veteran tech journalist. We’re gonna do a WWDC preview here today, but before that, Dan has his own, excellent newsletter, the new consumer! Sign up for it in the show notes! Link to the free and paid editions. Because this is the beat Dan covers so well, before we get into the WWDC and Apple stuff, a lengthy discussion of the whole consumer unicorn startup space, that I don’t think we cover enough.
https://newconsumer.com/
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Uber, Lyft and Bird- The Economics of Sharing with QZ's Alison Griswold
Lyft has gone public. Uber will do so soon. So will Airbnb. Quartz’s Alison Griswold covers this stuff every day, and she has a great newsletter, covering this stuff every week. It’s called Oversharing, you can get it for free at oversharing.substack.com… Because she covers the sharing everything… we talk to her today about the ride sharing companies… but also about the deliver me something companies and especially, the e-scooter companies… the economics of all things sharing!
Alison's newsletter: oversharing.substack.com
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231: ‘It’s a Deep Notch’ With Dan Frommer
Dan Frommer returns to the show. Topics include Apple Watch Series 4 and the notion of third-party watch faces, Google’s Pixel 3 phones and Pixel Slate two-in-one tablet/notebook, and Bloomberg’s disputed “The Big Hack” story.
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Links:
Points Party — Dan’s email newsletter on credit card and airline rewards programs.
Bloomberg’s disputed “The Big Hack”.
Daring Fireball items on the story.
Supermicro’s old-school website (even uses a .cfm file extension).
Supermicro’s stock dive in the wake.
Custom watch faces by Steven Troughton-Smith.
David “Underscore” Smith’s retro watch face.
The Verge hands-on with on Photoshop for iPad.
The new “Palm” phone.
Punkt’s minimal MP02 phone.
Panic’s late great Status Board app for iPad.
This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.
185: ‘Warmest Regards’ With Dan Frommer
Special guest Dan Frommer returns to the show. Topics include the end of The Deck ad network, my weird story about getting kicked out of Amazon’s affiliate program, Apple’s new products announced last week (Red iPhone 7 models, larger-capacity iPhone SEs, the new 9.7-inch just-plain iPad, and Apple’s excellent new Clips app), Samsung’s new Galaxy S8, Twitter’s new reply system, CarPlay getting its ass kicked in a head-to-head comparison with Android Auto, ISPs and Privacy, and more.
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Links:
Jim Coudal announces the end of The Deck.
My farewell to The Deck.
Clips.
Dan Frommer on the Galaxy S8 taking a bit of the piss out Apple's purported edge-to-edge iPhone coming later this year.
Dan Seifert’s report on the Galaxy S8, from Samsung’s headquarters in South Korea.
Viv, the Samsung-acquired voice-AI system from the creators of Siri.
The 12-year old Daring Fireball post that apparently got me kicked out of Amazon's affiliate program.
Andy Rubin's teaser tweet.
Eric Schmidt's tweet promoting Rubin's teaser, on the day of Samsung's S8 announcement.
Android Auto vs. CarPlay head-to-head.
Sam Biddle tries to get a telecom PR rep to make sense of their official position on “protecting user privacy”.
The iPhone Math, Dan’s favorite busted-ass rumor.
This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.
157: ‘A Nokia Phone and Some Pills (WWDC Prelude)’ With Dan Frommer
Dan Frommer returns to the show. Topics include Jeff Bezos’s and Elon Musk’s appearances at last week’s Code 2016 conference, Apple’s changes to the App Store (subscriptions for all app categories, search ads, and huge improvements to app review approval times), and, of course, our expectations for WWDC 2016 next week.
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Links:
Full video of Walt Mossberg’s interview with Jeff Bezos at Recode’s Code 2016 last week.
Full video of Mossberg and Kara Swisher’s interview with Elon Musk.
MacDailyNews: “Apple to Deliver iMessage to Android at WWDC”.
Motion Stills: new iPhone app from Google that makes Live Photos way better.
Mark Bergen’s report for Recode on Mercedes-Benz’s advanced self-driving car initiative.
This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.
142: ‘They Sherlocked F.lux’ With Dan Frommer
Special guest Dan Frommer returns to the show to deliver his first-hand report from last week’s CES in Las Vegas. Other topics include Periscope, Peach, why Apple never participated at CES, El Chapo’s re-capture, iOS 9.3, Apple Watch, Apple’s finances (and stock price), and self-driving cars.
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Links:
Dan Frommer’s report on Rupert Murdoch’s private super-conference held at the Wynn Las Vegas during CES.
Frommer: “Fitbit’s Long-Term Future Sales Curve Revealed”.
Frommer on Apple Watch, six months in.
The re-launched City Notes.
U.S. marshalls raid hovercraft booth at CES.
Philip Elmer-DeWitt: “Why So Much Apple Commentary Is So Clueless”.
The Boeing Dreamlifter (inspiration for Apple’s iPhone Smart Battery Case).
Sean Penn’s remarkable story for Rolling Stone on meeting with El Chapo.
Dave Winer on the El Chapo story, and the objection from some journalists regarding the disclosed concessions they made to create it.
This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.
120: ‘The Move to Frisco’ With Guest Dan Frommer
Special guest Dan Frommer returns to the show. Topics include David Letterman, iPhone docks, the space black steel Apple Watch, whatever happened to the Edition collection, San Francisco as the new system font for iOS and Mac OS X, and more.
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Links:
Letterman profiles in Rolling Stone and The New York Times.
Apple’s new iPhone dock, and the third-party docks I use.
Mark Bramhill’s excellent Welcome to Macintosh podcast.
Marco Arment on the new one-port MacBook.
Dan’s amazing iPhone stand.
Philip Elmer-DeWitt on getting his Apple Watch review unit.
103: ‘Robotitize the Assembly’ With Guest Dan Frommer
Special guest Dan Frommer joins the show to talk about prop bets in Vegas, more Star Wars, some follow-up on James Bond, what should Apple do with its mountains of cash?, speculation on why iPad sales growth has stagnated, and more. Also, some in-depth segments on Instagram and the concept of “institutional taste”.
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Links:
Great photo of Dan, recording the show at Quartz’s office.
Dan’s article, “Ten Things We Learned About Apple in 2014”.
The Cubs sign ex-Rays manager Joe Madden and pitcher Jon Lester.
Superbowl 51 will go back to stupid Roman numerals.
Eric Jackson’s piece for Forbes, “Apple’s $100 Billion Waste: Tim Cook’s Single Biggest Mistake As CEO”, wherein he argues Apple should buy Tesla, Twitter, and Pinterest.
GT Advanced and their crazy approach to making deals.
Instagram active user announcement.
Ev Williams “doesn’t give a shit” about Instagram’s numbers.
OK Go’s latest video. Seriously, watch this.
Stephen Colbert on the new Sith lightsaber in The Force Awakens teaser.
91: ‘BlackBerry Is Still Technically in Business’ With Dan Frommer
Topics include speculation — seriously, just speculation — on Apple’s purported upcoming wrist wearable thing, Apple’s fall event schedule, polarized sunglasses, market share in the post-PC era, and Beats’s integration into Apple (including a clever idea from Dan about the potential for a Beats Music channel on Apple TV).
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Links:
Google is stealing Microsoft’s future corporate customers
Which apps use the most cellular data?
82: ‘We're Allowed to Make Stuff Up; It's a Podcast’ With Dan Frommer
Special guest Dan Frommer. Topics include Dan’s new gig as senior tech editor at Quartz, tablets as a form factor for full-featured PCs (and the now-aging design of the MacBook Air), WWDC rumors, the rumored iOS-style redesign of Mac OS X, previous Mac OS visual designs, and more — including ticket information for next week’s live WWDC show in San Francisco.
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Links:
Henry Norr on the Mac OS 8.5 Appearance Manager and its missing themes
Dan Frommer on Microsoft’s new Surface Pro 3 tablet
City Notes