We are so grateful to all of our listeners & followers for hanging with us for a year of talking about Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, Disney, Square Enix, video games, anime, friendship, love, and so much more!
Wesley Hilliard
@hilli.tech
Writer and podcaster at @appleinsider.com. HilliTech blog. 10 year US Navy veteran. He/Him
While I don't have a solution, I spent some time musing over where we are with smart glasses today and why, inevitably, it'll be Apple's problem to solve.
Meta has made it Apple's job to fix the smart glasses privacy problem
Weirdos and abusers buy smart glasses with cameras. At least, that's where society has landed on this nascent technology today. Men (yes, in this case, primarily or exclusively men) have been buying Meta smart glasses, paying to have the recording light removed, and recording their interactions with people. Some
hilli.tech
Another week, another newsletter. Just a reminder, this is a free newsletter that I send to your inbox and publish on my website. Sign up for free! New subs let me know people are reading and it's a nice motivator. I'm still thinking about how often to post otherwise, but the newsletter is weekly!
HilliTech's Newsletter: 109 billion reasons Apple is doomed
It will never cease to fascinate me to watch analysts and investors react to what might be the single most successful company on earth report quarterly earnings. Tim Cook took over in 2011 when the annual income was $108 billion, and during his last earnings call, he shared that Apple
hilli.tech
Another week, another newsletter. Just a reminder, this is a free newsletter that I send to your inbox and publish on my website. Sign up for free! New subs let me know people are reading and it's a nice motivator. I'm still thinking about how often to post otherwise, but the newsletter is weekly!
HilliTech's Newsletter: 109 billion reasons Apple is doomed
It will never cease to fascinate me to watch analysts and investors react to what might be the single most successful company on earth report quarterly earnings. Tim Cook took over in 2011 when the annual income was $108 billion, and during his last earnings call, he shared that Apple
hilli.tech
The Apple Upgrade program has been revealed, so it's time to discuss what leasing your Apple products actually means. Plus, your hosts discuss Apple's plan to combat the chip shortage on the AppleInsider Podcast.
iPhone leasing, the new China problem, & Apple's future on the AppleInsider Podcast
The Apple Upgrade program has been revealed, so it's time to discuss what leasing your Apple products actually means. Plus, your hosts discuss Apple's plan to combat the chip shortage on the AppleInsider Podcast.
appleinsider.com
Harrison Ford, the actor behind loveable scoundrels Han Solo and Indiana Jones, started his career as an on-set carpenter. That makes him a roguelike deckbuilder.
Investors: Oh dear, Apple services are flat! Demand is so high that the supply chain can't make enough devices!! How will Apple survive??? Also investors: Meta lost $88 billion on the metaverse, has a mediocre AI that cost many more billions, and sells perv glasses. What an innovative company!!!
If you're an analyst of any kind and can walk away from Apple's quarterly earnings with some weird ass take like "didn't grow fast enough" I hope you get a permanent splinter in your finger.
For those concerned about the "purchase fee" that isn't clearly defined by Apple, I reached out and asked. Klarna doesn't charge any additional fees or interest. If you close out your lease at the end and buy the device, what you owe is the remaining MSRP plus tax. So, essentially same as cash.
AppleInsider@appleinsider.com · last wk.The newly announced Apple Upgrade program brings car-like lease-to-buy options to iPhones, Macs, and more. There's no question, it's great for Apple, but whether it's good for you or not is much harder to decide.
I don't really feel that strongly about Apple Upgrade and Klarna. It's *fine*. Might cost a bit more in some instances. I just checked, and after taxes, my payments would be $4 less per month and I'd need to get AppleCare, which I have with AppleCare One. So I'm basically breaking even. No problem.
Elon Musk and Sam Altman are both grifters that benefit from the absolute trust provided by ignorant fans. This is the most nothing statement made by someone with no idea how to monetize their multi-billion-dollar investment scheme before running out of cash in two years. Why do people like OpenAI?
Dare Obasanjo@carnage4life.bsky.social · last wk.“What we need to explain to the world: Number one, we are close to creating a genie that can grant any wish. Number two, we are going to make sure that our first wishes broadly benefit humanity” - Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI — This is definitely the opposite of Anthropic’s AI kills all jobs pitch.
How people think about AI is broken and it is on us, the individuals, the nerds, to try and help change that. My newsletter for the week, written from my vacation spot in Virginia Beach.
HilliTech's Newsletter: Misplaced trust in AI
Artificial intelligence is a dumb name for a useful technology that can be a productivity-enhancing tool when used appropriately. "Trust" shouldn't even be a part of the discussion, but here we are. Here are some stories I'd like to share this week: Layoffs Leave The Future Of
hilli.tech
How people think about AI is broken and it is on us, the individuals, the nerds, to try and help change that. My newsletter for the week, written from my vacation spot in Virginia Beach.
HilliTech's Newsletter: Misplaced trust in AI
Artificial intelligence is a dumb name for a useful technology that can be a productivity-enhancing tool when used appropriately. "Trust" shouldn't even be a part of the discussion, but here we are. Here are some stories I'd like to share this week: Layoffs Leave The Future Of
hilli.tech
On vacation this weekend so there may not be a newsletter depending on time. If there are any topics you think I should cover this week, let me know! Would help grease the wheels a bit.
Kind of wild to observe Google just owning the AI space so easily where OpenAI is falling flat on its face. It's even more amusing when you include Apple in all this, which spent nearly nothing on AI by comparison but will be one of few that survive the inevitable AI crash.
Paul Thurrott@thurrott.bsky.social · 2w agoOK y’all - let’s talk about these leaks… pod.link/1826633591/e...
Did Someone Really Leak The Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link Intro? (News & Rumors #3)
Listen to Did Someone Really Leak The Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link Intro? (News & Rumors #3) from Simple and Clean: A Kingdom Hearts Podcast wherever you get your podcasts!
pod.link
I will never understand what possesses someone to reply to a six-day-old forum post with a 2,000-word (mostly wrong) diatribe about Apple AI. Like, who do you think is going to read this? Who are you trying to convince? It's kind of psychologically scary. Very "go touch grass" I suppose.
This is all about to implode in the most glorious way.
Futurism@futurism.com · 2w agoIt's a bloodbath.
I love a good horror movie, but it increasingly feels like movie trailers are becoming this kind of short-form storytelling that exists outside of the film they're portraying. 20 jump scares in a 2 minute trailer will always be more intense than 30 in a 2 hour movie. The trailer always oversells it
Gary Whitta@garywhitta.bsky.social · 2w agoOkay allow me to be among the first to say FUCK THIS MOVIE JUST NO ABSOLUTELY NOT
Anime finally caught on to the restorative power of Kirby kissing his homies for the plot aftermath.site/i-want-to-love...
Here's a brain dump on that leaked Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link video. Tons of massive spoilers for the franchise, obviously, but if you want to see just how deep down the rabbit hole we are with lore in this series, this is where some of that madness is on display. #KingdomHearts
Let's break down the Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link leak
Let's get a few disclaimers and asterisks out of the way at the top. Obviously, this is leaked content that some are even calling fake. I'm not sure about that, but it's certainly offering a lot of interesting information about the game. Spoilers for literally anything and
hilli.tech
Here's a brain dump on that leaked Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link video. Tons of massive spoilers for the franchise, obviously, but if you want to see just how deep down the rabbit hole we are with lore in this series, this is where some of that madness is on display. #KingdomHearts
Let's break down the Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link leak
Let's get a few disclaimers and asterisks out of the way at the top. Obviously, this is leaked content that some are even calling fake. I'm not sure about that, but it's certainly offering a lot of interesting information about the game. Spoilers for literally anything and
hilli.tech
I demand that the @simpleandcleanpod.bsky.social hosts watch the first episode of Goodbye, Lara. Doesn't even need mentioned on the show. I just think it's an important addition to the pantheon.
Gizmodo@gizmodo.com · 3w ago'Goodbye, Lara' Is Easily the Most Enchanting Fairy Tale Reimagining You'll Watch This Year
This week’s episode is all about the mouse, the myth, the legend: King Mickey Mouse! pod.link/1826633591/e...
Who is King Mickey?
Listen to Who is King Mickey? from Simple and Clean: A Kingdom Hearts Podcast wherever you get your podcasts!
pod.link
I stopped using Reddit after they killed third-party apps because they wanted to emulate Musk. From my time there previously though, it seemed that it and X have very similar user bases of loud, angry, sad people that work hard to ensure any reasonable user is ultimately silenced and pushed off.
Marcel@marcel.fyi · 2w agoI heavily misjudged how negative people on r/comics are. Those comments are ANGRY. I posted this an hour ago... 200+ replies. 🥴
I'll always be happy when assholes make themselves known publicly. Much easier to add someone so blatantly awful to a block list.
Ian Betteridge@ianbetteridge.com · 3w agoI regret to inform you that DHH is still an absolute asshat. web.archive.org/web/20260717...
OpenAI (unprofitable) is burning investor cash to prop up Oracle (down 35% with debt at nearly “junk” status) while Anthropic (profitable but possibly because of sweetheart deals on compute) is doing the same for SpaceX (no earnings, PE ratio ♾️) — have I got all this right?
No one is talking about OpenAI's unknown future. Plus, I'm really loving the current anime season. Here's the newsletter for this week.
HilliTech's Newsletter: Don't call it a HomePod
OpenAI is in all sorts of trouble and the summer anime season is the best we've seen in years. Let's survive the apocalypse together. Here are some stories I'd like to share this week: The ‘Witch Hat Atelier’ and ‘Owl House’ Creators Had a Magical MeetupAfter years
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I know people's first reaction to price increases is to freak out (justified) but the competition is more expensive, and Apple One Premier is still one of the best values on the market. If you're paying for Spotify, idk what you're even doing anymore tbh.
AppleInsider@appleinsider.com · 3w agoApple Music is raising U.S. subscription prices for the first time since 2022, increasing every paid tier and hitting family subscribers with the largest jump.