From the transcript of Sunday’s Face the Nation on CBS:

Shyam Sankar: You know, I take — I think there’s a profound truth to Pascal’s saying that every human has a god-shaped hole in their heart, and it’s important to understand that many of these folks in Silicon Valley who are building this technology have filled that hole with the machine God of AGI. And I mean, there’s so many interesting stories around this. Like, for example, so many AI researchers have started smoking as a way of signaling to other researchers how much they believe in AI. I believe so much — (CROSSTALK)

Margaret Brennan: What? That makes no sense. What do you think —

Shyam Sankar: I believe so much in AI that it’s going to cure cancer. So I will — I’m showing you my chips are all in. So there is kind of this mass psychosis, social delusion around it, and I think it’s getting in the way of actually what is happening with AI.

Sankar doesn’t name anyone, alas, but if there’s any truth to this (and good god do I hope there is) it’s got to be Anthropic researchers specifically. They’re the religious kooks who believe they’re creating an AI god and hold the psychotic belief that Claude is already conscious. Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em, you crazy fucks.

Via Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion, who notes that the nation’s finest news source was on this story 13 years ago.

Joe Rossignol, MacRumors:

If you were hoping to surprise someone with an iPhone Duo for Christmas, you might be out of luck, as Apple’s online store in the U.S. is already showing an estimated shipping date of January 25 for all configurations following the start of pre-orders today.

It is possible that some Apple Stores will have the iPhone Duo available for walk-in customers on Friday, October 23 launch day, but it seems likely that inventory will be very tight.

I suspect it’s a combination of high demand and low supply but I doubt we’ll get any insight on that from Apple itself. It’s in their interest to let people think demand is simply very high, and not draw attention to their production limits.

I feel for the folks on the West Coast who woke up for a 5:00am start and still got stuck with December or even January ship dates. This is one of those times where it’s frustrating that, per Apple’s consistent schedule, pre-orders always start before reviews appear. People are left to guess whether they’re going to like it without any word from people who’ve used it.

Apple Newsroom, Tuesday morning:

The new Apple TV 4K features three far-field microphones, letting users control what they’re watching and discover new shows completely hands-free. Advanced echo cancellation intelligently isolates a user’s voice from background sound to deliver crystal-clear “Hey Siri” or “Siri” recognition, even while audio is playing.

This is nice, but I don’t think it buys me anything, because my existing Apple TV 4K is paired with 2nd-gen HomePods, and the HomePods each have a “four-microphone design for far-field Siri”.

The A19 chip in the new Apple TV 4K delivers up to 50 percent faster CPU performance and up to 2× faster GPU performance than the previous generation, for greater responsiveness, faster navigation, and smoother animations. The A19 chip also includes a new, dedicated AV1 decoder, enabling more efficient, high-quality streaming while using less bandwidth.

The new AV1 decoder seems like it might be meaningful, but does anyone think UI navigation and animation smoothness is improved by going from the A15 to the A19 SoC? I mean navigation is going up/down/left/right. I’m sure the graphics and CPU improvements matter for gaming, but the only mention of gaming in Apple’s own Newsroom announcement is this sentence: “With Apple Fitness+, the living room becomes a workout studio, while Apple Arcade and the App Store’s library of games turn it into a home arcade.” I wish it were otherwise, but gaming is such an afterthought on Apple TV that it only garnered the second half of a sentence that started with Fitness+, a service that has only been in the news this year because Mark Gurman says Apple laid off part of the team.

The new Siri Remote keeps its familiar design while adding Find My support with Precision Finding and an option to play a sound on the remote — making it far easier to locate.

That’s my single favorite feature in the announcement. I hate to say it though, but the previous remote should have supported these features. The 3rd-gen Apple TV 4K came in 2022, but Apple launched AirTags with Precision Finding in 2021. Remote controls are right after keys on the list of things people misplace most frequently, and Apple’s remote controls, because they’re small and thin, are particularly susceptible to being snatched by couch-cushion gremlins. Speakers, so the remote can play a sound to help you find it, were invented even earlier than 2021.

Pairing HomePod with Apple TV 4K already offers users an immersive viewing experience that’s easy to set up, and the new Apple TV 4K takes it even further. For the first time, users can create a four-speaker surround sound experience with Apple TV 4K (4th generation) and HomePod mini 2. The four speakers work together with Apple TV 4K to intelligently recognize their position in the room so audio timing and levels are automatically calibrated to the space. HomePod (2nd generation) can also be used in this four-speaker setup for the ultimate audio experience, as long as the front and rear speaker pairs match.

This is tempting to try. In other words, in addition to the two 2nd-gen HomePods I already have paired in my living room, I can add two of the new HomePod Mini 2’s behind the sofa for surround sound.

The elephant in the room, though, is price. Before this week, Apple sold two models of the 3rd-generation Apple TV. On a percentage basis, they were hit the hardest of any products Apple sells by the company’s across-the-board price increases this summer:

The new Apple TV 4K announced this week only comes in one model, and it costs $300. It’s great that there’s only one model for simplicity’s sake, but the number one complaint when the previous generation cost $130/150 was that it was too expensive compared to set-top boxes and sticks from Amazon and Roku. (Or the “free” option of using the “smart TV” software that comes with every TV set.) Now, with the new Apple TV, it’s twice as expensive — and Apple is not keeping the 3rd-gen models around as lower-priced options. I still think it’s worth it, personally, but the general consumer market thought the old prices were too high and I don’t see any of the new features making Joe or Jane Consumer think, “Sure, I was skeptical about the old one at $130, but this new model — which looks exactly the same — this seems worth $300.”

HomePod Mini 2 now costs $150. That’s not too much of an increase over the new-since-June-25 $130 price for the old HomePod Mini, but it’s a stiff 50 percent increase from the old HomePod Mini’s $100 price from November 2020 through June 24 this year. I generally round Apple’s prices up from their “99” values, but it’s worth noting that what I’m calling $100 was actually $99, and going to just two digits does have a psychological effect on buying behavior. Again, I think $150 is a reasonable price for the HomePod Mini 2, but it doesn’t feel as much like a lark as $99 did. $99 was a bit of a “Sure, let’s get another one” price; $150 is more of a “Do we really need another one of these?” price.

At the old pre-June prices, you could buy a 128 GB Apple TV and a pair of HomePod Minis for $350 ($150 + $100 + $100). Four short months later, with today’s new models, that combination would cost $600 ($300 + $150 + $150). That price difference is much more striking than any of the new and improved features in the products.