Apple Demos More Vision Pro Spatial Videos, 3D Movie Icon Appears on Apple TV, Humane Ai Pin vs. Spatial Photos/Videos

Hello everyone. Welcome to a new week. We do have a few CY3Q23 earnings reports to go over. However, today’s update will take a spin through Vision Pro land.

Apple Demos More Vision Pro Spatial Videos

Over at Daring Fireball, here’s John Gruber:

“Yesterday Apple released developer beta 2 of iOS 17.2, the first version of iOS to include support for capturing spatial video with iPhone 15 Pro models. Today came the public beta, enabling the same feature. Apple invited me to New York yesterday, not merely to preview capturing spatial video using an iPhone, but to experience watching those spatial videos using a Vision Pro.

The experience was, like my first Vision Pro demo back at WWDC in June, astonishing…

My demo yesterday was expressly limited to photography in general, and spatial video in particular, and so my demo was, per Apple’s request, limited to the Photos app in VisionOS. It was tempting, at times, to see where else I could go and what else I could do. But there was so much to see and do in Photos alone that my demo — about 30 minutes in total wearing Vision Pro — raced by.”

The full post made for an interesting read, especially if you want the details regarding how Apple is implementing spatial videos via iPhone 15 Pro. For example, the iPhone 15 Pro needs to be held horizontally “to put the two capturing lenses on the same plane. The iPhone uses the main (1×) and ultra wide (0.5×) lenses for capture when shooting spatial video, and in fact, Apple changed the arrangement of the three lenses on the iPhone 15 Pro in part to support this feature.”

When Apple announced this past September that the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max would be able to capture spatial video, my assumption was that iPhone videos

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OpenAI and Jony Ive Discuss HW Venture, What Is AI Hardware?, Humane Provides First Look At Ai Pin

Hello everyone. Yesterday, we talked about live events. Today, we talk about AI hardware. Let's jump right in.

OpenAI and Jony Ive Discuss HW Venture

Here’s the Financial Times:

“OpenAI is in advanced talks with former Apple designer Sir Jony Ive and SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son to launch a venture to build the ‘iPhone of artificial intelligence’, fuelled by more than $1bn in funding from the Japanese conglomerate.

Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief, has tapped Ive’s company LoveFrom, which the designer founded when he left Apple in 2019, to develop the ChatGPT creator’s first consumer device, according to three people familiar with the plan.

Altman and Ive have held brainstorming sessions at the designer’s San Francisco studio about what a new consumer product centred on OpenAI’s technology would look like, the people said.

They hope to create a more natural and intuitive user experience for interacting with AI, in the way that the iPhone’s innovations in touchscreen computing unleashed the mass-market potential of the mobile internet.

The process of identifying a design or device remains at an early stage with many different ideas on the table, they said.

Son, SoftBank’s founder and chief executive, has also been involved in some of the discussions, pitching a central role for Arm — the chip designer in which the Japanese conglomerate holds a 90 per cent stake — as well as offering financial backing.

Son, Altman and Ive have discussed creating a company that would draw on talent and technology from their three groups, the people said, with SoftBank investing more than $1bn in the venture.

Discussions are said to be ‘serious’, but no deal has been agreed, they cautioned, and it could be several months before a venture is formally announced. Any resulting hardware product is likely to take years to bring to market.”

The most surprising part of this news may be that it leaked in the first place. It’s tough to see Jony being thrilled with this kind of attention being placed on him and his design company. It's one thing to put information out there in hopes of garnering friendly press coverage which can then be used for employee hiring and other financial considerations. It's another to begin fueling high expectations that will become difficult to beat.

Upon hearing this news, my first impression was that

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Humane’s Worrying Reveal, Humane’s Miscalculation, Tesla Follow Up (Daily Update)

We kick things off with Humane’s co-CEO Imran Chaudhri unveiling what the company has been working on in a series of demos during a TED Talk. It’s the first time the buzzy HW startup with dozens of former Apple employees has shown off anything publicly. The discussion then turns to a misclaucation Humane has made. We conclude with some follow-up to our discussion regarding Tesla earnings.

Happy Monday. Welcome to a new week.

Earlier today, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the district court’s decision in Epic Games vs. Apple. It’s (another) major legal win for Apple and the company’s App Store practices in the U.S., although the legal back-and-forth could continue. We will talk about the ruling this week.

Let’s jump into today’s update.

Humane’s Worrying Reveal

Last month, we talked about Humane, the buzzy hardware startup comprised of dozens of former Apple employees. Based on patents, hiring activity, and marketing materials, the company has been working on a wearable camera and accompanying projection system technology. More recently, the company has been talking up AI.

Last week, Humane’s co-CEO Imran Chaudhri unveiled what the company has been working on in a series of demos during a TED Talk. It’s the first time the company has shown off anything publicly. You can check out the demo clips below (the blue links).

Based on what was shown off, major questions need to be asked about Humane’s strategy and path forward.

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Spotify’s Stream On Event, Humane Raises Another $100M, What Is Humane Working On? (Daily Update)

Today’s update kicks off with Neil’s thoughts on Spotify’’s Steam On event in LA. We go over why Neil thinks there is an opening for Apple Music to win share against Spotify in countries where the two services go head-to-head. The update then turns to Humane. We go over why the company is grabbing so much buzz and what the company is likely working on.

Hello everyone. Happy Thursday. Apple announced it will launch its standalone classical music app on March 28th. We will likely talk about the app next week.

Spotify’s Stream On Event

Yesterday, Spotify held an event in LA aimed at creators (music and podcasts). The company had various content creators, including some YouTubers, go on stage to talk about why Spotify is the place to be. The main message was that Spotify cares about creators and the company wants musicians and podcasters to call Spotify home.

Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek kicked off the hour-and-a-half presentation by saying how the music industry is doing great with streaming. He's right when it comes to music rights holders. However, music artists? Not so much.

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