It’s been intriguing to watch Wall Street and Silicon Valley become enamored by AI. Seemingly every week, we are met with the latest and greatest advancements made possible by AI models. ChatGPT may need to pass the baton over to Sora in terms of capturing hearts and minds. While all may seem well, AI mania is hiding a growing problem involving technology once again outpacing design.

Fourteen months ago, I was one…

Two weeks ago, Spotify re-signed podcaster Joe Rogan to a new $250 million multiyear deal. Compared to the hoopla that surrounded the company’s initial deal with Rogan, the renewal seemed to fly under the radar of some. The new deal is a significantly different one from the first. Instead of an exclusivity arrangement in which Joe Rogan’s podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” would only be available on Spotify, the new deal will…

These past two weeks have been a whirlwind for Disney. Last week’s Apple Vision Pro launch saw Disney as one of the largest third-party video streamers to embrace Apple’s new computing platform. On Tuesday, news broke of Disney forming a surprising partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery and FOX for an all-new sports app. On Wednesday, Disney announced it would buy a stake in Epic Games as part of a larger agreement that…

With Apple Vision Pro now officially on sale, Meta finds itself in quite the predicament. After initially pooh-poohing Apple’s headset, there are signs of Mark Zuckerberg and company already pivoting to reinvigorate their own headset strategy. Such a change in mindset suggests Meta will be a different kind of competitor than Apple has seen in the past, and yet I don’t have confidence that Meta can compete against what Apple is selling.

Earlier this week, the LA Times announced plans to cut 20% of staff. The cuts go deep with the DC bureau being hit hard along with sports and the video division. Simply put, the news has led to yet another round of journalist freak-out. Mass layoffs are only part of the problem for the sixth-largest paper in the U.S. in term of circulation (fifth when counting subscribers). The LA Times’ executive editor…

Last week, news broke that Google was reorganizing its devices division. Along with laying off hundreds of employees, Google appears to have admitted defeat with Fitbit as its co-founders are leaving the company after three years. The remaining team is being combined with other HW assets. While the preceding items may surprise some, they all are predictable. In late 2022, we talked about how Google’s HW bet was struggling. We are…

Rabbit has the appearance of being the hardware startup that AI-centric folks have been waiting for. Unlike Humane’s $200 million multi-year tease that culminated in one of the oddest consumer gadget unveilings in recent memory for its Ai Pin, Rabbit unveiled its $199 r1 to little fanfare with a taped keynote posted to X. With its $30 million of funding, Rabbit won’t be able to escape the same fundamental AI hardware issues…

Predictions don’t excite me. They are often lackluster attempts at providing answers to the unknown. To then get the timing behind such predictions correct makes the whole thing a charade with little to no added value. Instead, for the first Inside Orchard essay of 2024, we will embrace the unknown and look at tech questions that are on my mind for 2024.

Generative AI. Since companies have already spent a significant amount…

As we wrap up another year, we look back at what comes across as an eventful 2023. Macro issues and lingering COVID talk led to a shaky start. We then saw a fair share of winners (“Barbie” / NVIDIA / OpenAI) and losers (Disney / consumer gadget sales / EVs). While most people would position “AI” as the tech story of the year, there’s something about that decision that doesn’t sit right…

More than a year into Elon Musk’s Twitter ownership, it’s safe to say it’s been an eventful journey. Last month, Musk generated another wave of controversy at an NYT conference by publicly going after former Twitter / X advertisers for pulling away from the platform. The saga brought a renewed look at what X is becoming. Enough time has passed with Musk at the helm that we are able to point out…

Every few months, Spotify seems to go through a PR fiasco that leads to people saying the company has a toxic culture. The Joe Rogan saga created a wave of pushback that Spotify was incorrectly putting its thumb on the moderation scale. Due to periodic battles over payments to artists, Spotify has a reputation of being hostile to artists. Earlier this week, Spotify took on heat for announcing a substantial round of…

Earlier this month, the tech news cycle was overtaken by the attempted board coup at OpenAI. The drama played out on X seemingly minute by minute. After a few days, it became clear the board’s effort ultimately would fall short. At a certain level, many people loved the twists and turns, as if we have been starved of such drama in tech. I guess the Elon Musk drama became a bit tired…

One of the defining post-pandemic shifts in tech has been unfolding in the social media space. Seemingly overnight, tech giants including Meta and Google found themselves on the ropes, fighting a new kind of competitor: TikTok and algorithm-fueled video timelines. From my vantage point of analyzing quarterly earnings, we are already seeing the next phase of TikTok’s influence seeping through the industry, and the observations make me increasingly worried about where things…

After what seemed like a never-ending stream of teases and leaks, Humane finally revealed its hyped product: Ai Pin. It’s a wearable camera worn on clothing that is meant to move people beyond smartphones. While the company has received some accolades for simply getting to the point of announcing a new product – something that strikes me as being an awfully low bar to get over – there has been no shortage…

Airbnb started out as a relatively simple premise: make some extra money by offering travelers a bed, a place to work, and breakfast. Instead of going through the complicated process of opening and running an actual bed and breakfast, a homeowner could “share” their space with others. Jump ahead 15 years and Airbnb is a platform with more than $60 billion of booking volume per year.

The idea behind Airbnb isn’t revolutionary…

News of GM dialing back its EV sales targets wasn’t met with much surprise. Elon Musk’s downbeat Tesla earnings call a week prior had already lowered EV demand expectations. However, the question remains: Is EV demand declining simply because of higher interest rates resulting in higher financing costs? It’s prudent not to box ourselves into such a narrow explanation. Instead, there is a bigger problem at play. EVs are waiting for, and…

We still have two months to go in 2023. A lot can and will likely happen. However, we are already able to point to a few broad tech themes that have come to define the year.

It’s been a very busy two months for consumer gadget enthusiasts. With Samsung kicking off the fall product cycle earlier than usual in July to Google’s product event in NYC last week, we now have a good view of how tech companies are positioned heading into the holiday season. As the gadget recession rages on while AI mania remains palpable, the way companies are thinking about hardware is splintering leading to more…

Earlier this week, Google held its annual fall event for new products. Along with new hardware, Google unveiled various AI-powered editing features for photos taken on Pixel 8 smartphones. The features make me nervous about where we are headed from the perspective of AI.

Among the announcements, the following three new features stood out to me:

For the better part of the past decade, there has been talk of the U.S. government coming down hard on Big Tech. Upset and frightened by how a handful of companies have grabbed so much power, lawmakers and regulators have tried to sound tough about doing the hard work to protect the public. At least based on the early battles to date, the bark has been worse than the bite. Earlier this…