190: ‘Anything Luxury’ With Ben Thompson
The Talk Show With John Gruber
05/13/17
•202m
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Ben Thompson returns to the show. Topics include Microsoft's announcements from Build 2017, search engines, Amazon's new (confusingly-named) Look and Show devices, the need for HAL 9000, Apple's WeChat problem in China, and more.
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- Fracture: Your pictures, printed directly on glass.
Links:
- Microsoft's Build 2017 Keynote.
- Fish Shell.
- Surface Laptop "luxury" treatment.
- 2007 Apple iPhone commercial.
- Bob Borcher's iPhone guided tours.
- Phil Schiller dumping Instagram in 2012.
- WeChat and the iPhone in China.
- When a ReadWriteWeb article became Google’s top result for “Facebook login”.
This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.
Previous Episode
189: ‘Long Press on the French Fries’ With Rene Ritchie
May 7, 2017
•134m
Rene Ritchie returns to the show. Topics include Apple’s Q2 2017 financial results, the iPhone’s decline in China over the past two years, Microsoft’s new Surface Laptop and Windows 10 S, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick getting called to Tim Cook’s office regarding Uber’s surreptitious “fingerprinting” of iPhones, judging Apple Watch’s success, Hulu’s entry into the cord-cutting “live TV” subscription market (and Apple’s conspicuous absence from that same market), and more.
Sponsored by:
- Casper: An obsessively engineered mattress at a shockingly fair price. Use code thetalkshow for $50 toward your mattress.
- Squarespace: Make your next move with a beautiful website. Use code gruber for 10% off your first order.
- Audible: With Audible, you’ll find what you’re looking for. Get a free 30-day trial.
Links:
- Apple Q2 2017 results:
- Is WeChat a problem for Apple in China?
- Ben Thompson: “Apple’s China Problem”.
- John Gruber: “Apple’s China Problem: WeChat”.
- Connie Chan: “When One App Rules Them All: The Case of WeChat and Mobile in China”.
- Other events in San Jose during WWDC week:
- Layers design conference (save $100 with code “martini” or “🍸”).
- AltConf.
- CocoaConf.
- Apple’s “Beyond WWDC” page.
- Scandal of the week at Uber:
- App Store economics:
- Matt Gemmell: “No company has done as much damage to the perceived value of software, and the sustainability of being an independent developer, as Apple.”
- Rene Ritchie: “Indie Development in the Age of the App Store”.
- Hulu’s new $40/month live TV service.
- It sucks that you can’t type common characters like tab and π, ¶, and © on an iOS software keyboard.
This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.
Next Episode
191: ‘He Ends Up Fighting Hervé Villechaize’ With Jim Dalrymple
May 27, 2017
•145m
Special guest Jim Dalrymple returns to the show to speculate about what Apple might announce at the upcoming WWDC 2017: Apple Watch, iPad, iOS, updated MacBooks, Apple TV, and more. Also: a celebration of the great Roger Moore.
Sponsored by:
- MailRoute: Hosted spam and virus protection for email. Use this link for 10 percent off for the life of your account.
- Squarespace: Make your next move with a beautiful website. Use code gruber for 10 percent off your first order.
- Fracture: Your photos printed in vivid color directly on glass. Great gift idea.
Links:
- Car reviewer Nick Murray on Alcantara, the synthetic leather Microsoft is using for their new Surface Laptops.
- CNBC: Tim Cook spotted testing Apple Watch glucose monitor.
- Marc Haynes on meeting Roger Moore as a 7-year-old in 1983.
- Fred Brooks’s “The Mythical Man Month”.
- Seth Weintraub’s preview of iOS 7 a few days before it was announced at WWDC 2013.
- Bozoma Saint John on Instagram.
This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.
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