Actors Adam Scott, Tramell Tillman, and Britt Lower attend the live “Severance” podcast taping with Ben Stiller and Adam Scott (Eric Charbonneau/Getty Images)

Partnering with Peacock won’t put the “plus” back in Apple TV

Apple and NBCUniversal inked a deal to bundle their streaming services for a 30% discount.

Rani Molla

11h

Today Apple announced that starting October 20, customers will be able to bundle Apple TV and NBCUniversal’s Peacock for 30% off the price of streaming them separately, in what NBCUniversal Media Group Chairman Matt Strauss called a “perfect combination of entertainment.” Additionally, each company will add selective programming from the other to its own streaming service to bolster their own content lineups.

But perhaps the deal is yet another tacit acknowledgement that the content each provides just isn’t enough. As we wrote earlier this week, Apple TV recently shed the plus sign in its name at the same time that it, and other streaming services, have notably pulled back on original content. Perhaps they’re partnering up because they don’t have enough to offer on their own. (Alternatively, it’s possible Apple just wants cause more confusion among its product suite with the name change.)

Indeed, it seems like everyone in the streaming space has been bundling services lately as they try to staunch attrition and justify their ever-increasing prices.

Foremost among those is Disney, which, besides offering to bundle Disney+, Hulu, and HBO Max for less than the price of two of the services separately, is in the process of merging Hulu and Disney+ into a single app.

Of course, the elephant in the room here is Netflix, which has refused to create a first-party bundle, billing itself instead as a “go-to destination for entertainment thanks to the breadth and variety of our slate and superior product experience.”

But perhaps it shouldn’t discount Americans’ penchant for wanting more services for less. Data from analytics firm Antenna, reported by The Wall Street Journal earlier this year, found that the churn rate for the Disney+, Hulu, and HBO Max bundle was somewhat lower than for Netflix alone.

Apple TV may have dropped the plus, but they still know how to do addition.

44%

Matt Phillips9h

JPMorgan economists estimate that the basket of stocks they use as a rough gauge of AI’s market impact is now worth about 44% of the S&P 500’s total market cap, up from 26% in 2022.

Using a basket of 30 AI stocks picked by the bank’s equity analysts as a barometer of AI, the economists find that American households have seen their aggregate wealth go up by about $5 trillion over the last year as a result of AI, they reported in a note published Thursday.

They also estimate the surge in stock market wealth could raise annualized US consumer spending by some $180 billion, due to wealth effects.

JPM acknowledges some uncertainty around this estimate, noting that the spending impact could be lower “if the wealth gains are accruing disproportionately to upper income households with lower [marginal propensity to spend].”

Jon Keegan10h

Report: Apple’s next MacBook Pro will have a touch screen, a decade after everyone else

Steve Jobs would NEVER!

Apple’s next iteration of the MacBook Pro could have a touch screen, according to a report from Bloomberg.

Apple will be late to the party, as the rest of the industry adopted touch screens years ago. Apple cofounder Steve Jobs famously resisted the idea of a touch screen Mac, but over the years, the lines between Macs and iPads have been blurring.

The new high-end touch screen MacBook Pros are expected to have a slimmer design, run on Apple’s custom M6 chips, and feature a “hole-punch” at the top of the OLED display, matching the design of the iPhone, which allows the camera and sensors to be surrounded by screen at the top of the display.

This week, Apple released an updated MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Apple Vision Pro running on the M5 chip.

Apple Readies High-End MacBook Pro With Touch, Hole-Punch Screen

This week, Apple released an updated MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Apple Vision Pro running on the M5 chip.

Jon Keegan12h

Report: Hollywood talent agencies were blindsided by OpenAI’s Sora and its hazy opt-out scheme

Just before OpenAI unleashed its Sora app on the world, reports emerged that the company was taking a novel approach to dealing with intellectual property rights: rights holders would have to opt out of the service to prevent their likeness or characters from being featured in objectionable or disturbing ways.

Fast-forward a few weeks, and Sora now sits atop the App Store leaderboards and new details are emerging about how OpenAI engaged with Hollywood talent agencies seeking to protect their clients’ rights. According to a report from The Hollywood Reporter, the agency heads felt blindsided by the company’s approach of asking for forgiveness rather than permission.

One talent agency executive said OpenAI was “purposely misleading” in heated discussions about the use of represented clients’ likenesses, per the report. OpenAI executives reportedly told talent agency heads that individual clients would have to individually opt out of the platform, but did not yet have a streamlined process or dedicated staff to process the requests.

Days after Sora’s launch, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote on his blog that the company would “give rightsholders more granular control over generation of characters, similar to the opt-in model for likeness but with additional controls.”

But that hasn’t stopped calls from groups like the Motion Picture Association for OpenAI to respect copyright law and “prevent infringement” of rights owners’ intellectual property.

How Sam Altman Played Hollywood

But that hasn’t stopped calls from groups like the Motion Picture Association for OpenAI to respect copyright law and “prevent infringement” of rights owners’ intellectual property.

Jon Keegan16h

Apple suffers another AI setback as it loses key AI search leader to Meta

Apple’s efforts to get back into the AI race took another hit with news from Bloomberg that the head of AI search for a revamped Siri is leaving for Meta.

According to the report, Ke Yang took charge of Apple’s “Answers, Knowledge and Information” team just weeks ago. The team is reportedly targeting a March 2026 launch for the new version of Siri, which will feature the ability to search the web for answers to user queries.

Yang’s exit is the latest in a series of executive departures that have plagued Apple, and continues Meta’s hiring spree across the tech industry to lure top AI talent to the company with reported eye-popping nine-figure pay packages.

Bloomberg reports that roughly a dozen members of the Apple Foundation Models team have also departed recently, many joining Meta’s “superintelligence” team.

Apple’s Head of ChatGPT-Like AI Search Effort to Leave for Meta

Bloomberg reports that roughly a dozen members of the Apple Foundation Models team have also departed recently, many joining Meta’s “superintelligence” team.

Rani Molla17h

DoorDash jumps on news it’s partnering with Google’s Waymo for Phoenix deliveries

DoorDash is up more than 4% in early trading following news that it has partnered with autonomous car company Waymo to help deliver food and other goods in Phoenix. The service, which is meant to keep Waymos busy when they’re not in use as taxis, is currently in testing and is slated to roll out publicly later this year.

The Google-owned driverless car company has had a similar partnership with Uber in Phoenix since 2024. Waymo currently operates taxi services in five US cities, including Phoenix, with plans to expand to six more next year.