Apple Built Around the Smartphone

Now that we've had a few days to digest the Apple CEO succession news, Nilay and David get some help from Daring Fireball's John Gruber to discuss Tim Cook's legacy, the potential for change under John Ternus, and whether the Touch Bar actually could have been great. Then, Nilay and David react to some breaking news: Microsoft is going back to the Xbox. And everything is an Xbox now. Finally, in the lightning round, we have a round of Brendan Carr is a Dummy, a very 2026 new microphone, a BMW we can't figure out, and Meta's new AI training tool: its employees.

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Further reading:

• Behold the cursed 2027 BMW 7 Series interior (via Car and Driver)
  

• Tim Cook’s departure is the start of a new era at Apple 

• Read Tim Cook’s letter to the Apple world as he departs as CEO 

• Wearable health tech might be Tim Cook’s greatest legacy  

• Who is Apple’s new CEO John Ternus? 

• Tim Cook: “I am healthy. My energy is high, and I plan to be in this new role for a long time.”
  

• Xbox Game Pass Ultimate gets a price cut but loses new Call of Duty games 

• Microsoft says the ‘idea’ of an Xbox mobile store ‘is not dead’ 

• Call of Duty never made much sense for Xbox Game Pass 

• We found Microsoft’s amicus brief about the Xbox mobile game store.
  

• Variety: Trump’s FCC Wants Input on Whether ‘Transgender and Gender Nonbinary’ TV Programming Is ‘Appropriate’ for Children
  

• Anthropic’s most dangerous AI model just fell into the wrong hands
  

• Insta360 is putting screens on its next wireless mics to show logos or images
  

• Now Meta will track what employees do on their computers to train its AI agents
  

--EPISODE RUNDOWN--

(Timestamps are approximate.)

00:01:00 Tim Cook to step down as Apple CEO

00:50:00 Xbox rebrand

01:06:00 Brendan Carr is a Dummy

01:08:00 FCC targets "transgender and gender nonbinary" kids' TV

01:13:00 Mythos

01:21:00 BMW 7-Series' confusing interior

01:27:00 Insta360 mic with screen

01:30:00 Meta tracks employees

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