Three Eras of Facebook (and the Internet), The Problems with FTC v. Meta, The Realities of Perfect Competition
Tracing the history of Facebook to understand the challenges for the government in this month's FTC v. Meta trial, and thoughts on the nature of competition on the Internet and its impact on the economy at large.
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1:09:24
(Preview) Apple Gets a Temporary Reprieve, The End of Internet 2.0, An Incomplete Tech Blog Post Canon
Andrew and Ben discuss another weekend of pivots, updates and clarifications to the Trump trade policies, the big picture shifts and fundamental questions underlying these policies, a question about Spotify, and Stevie's platform rant inspires an emailer's request for a tech blog post canon.
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11:56
American Disruption, Tech’s Manufacturing History in Asia, The Power of Demand in an Uncertain Future
Ben and Andrew return to discuss Liberation Day whiplash, Apple’s history in China and tech’s history in Asia, and the various challenges inherent to the efforts to rejuvenate America’s industrial capacity. At the end: Ben recaps a visit to a Formula 1 race in Japan.
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1:14:28
(Preview) xAI Buys X, The Bitter Lesson for Everyone, Everywhere, Google’s Only Hope in AI
Thoughts on both X and xAI in the wake of Friday’s announcement from Elon Musk, Chat GPT’s image capabilities and whether AI-adjacent SaaS companies will ever have a moat, and emailers offer counterpoints on Sam Altman’s ads answer and the notion that Google can’t make great products anymore. At the end: Should Substack serve ads?, answers on Israeli cybersecurity, and more on Steve Jobs and Studio Ghibli.
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12:58
(Preview) The Delights of Images in GPT, The Future of Graphic Design, Signal and Multiple Dimensions of Security
Reactions to OpenAI's "Images in GPT," and thoughts on the Trump administration's Signal debacle, including a few points Ben neglected to emphasize earlier this week.
Brasil