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Twitch, the venerable video game livestreaming platform which has repeatedly attempted to become the livestreaming platform for everyone, recently announced a slew of layoffsf. It also confirmed that the company, owned by Amazon, has never been profitable. 

Today, we're talking about Twitch: what it is, the escalating troubles it has faced, and why it and the livestreaming business in general has never quite managed to hit its stride.

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Apple is releasing its Vision Pro mixed reality headset in the US next month. But some of the biggest platforms in the world – from Netflix to Spotify – have announced they aren't supporting it from the get go.

That's partially because it's a niche device with an uncertain chance of success... but could it also be a rebuke of Apple's notorious developer policies, which have pissed off many people over the past decade and a half? We discuss.

Links

• Apple’s Testy Developer Relationships Threaten to Hamper Vision Pro – Bloomberg
• Vision Pro may have an app problem, with developers possibly unwilling to commit to Apple's 'revolutionary' new platform – TechRadar

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The age of the AI device is upon us. At this year's Consumer Electronics Show, the undisputed star was the Rabbit R1, a standalone AI companion device which uses a 'large action model' to understand the things you like doing on your apps and platforms, and does them for you. 

Will it work? Who knows. But Raph bought one. We discussed the hype about the Rabbit, as well as some of the other currents in AI devices which have emerged since the last time we talked about them.

Links

• Say Hello to Rabbit R1: A Tiny Orange Box That Trades Phone Apps for AI – CNET

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Over the Xmas break, the New York Times announced it would be suing OpenAI for copyright infringement, alleging that its GPT platform is trained on copyrighted NYT content. This has become a problem, according to the NYT, because OpenAI is now a direct competitor.

We dive into the lawsuit, and chat a bit about the media, AI and what the future of content looks like. If you're holding out for the last episode of The Down Round Experience... fear not, it's coming this week.

Links

• The Times Sues OpenAI and Microsoft Over A.I. Use of Copyrighted Work – NY Times
• OpenAI's response
• Sports Illustrated Published Articles by Fake, AI-Generated Writers - Futurism

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Happy New Year! We trust you're all well. Today, we're looking back on the 2023 that was – diving into some of the episodes we recorded and checking in how those things landed at the end of the year. These include:

• Afterpay/BNPL
• Crypto and NFTs
• Tech layoffs
• Instant groceries
• Dating apps

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This is part 3 of Down Round's Christmas and New Years production, all recorded in one session. To get every part, sign up to Premium here.

The Down Round Community is overflowing with geniuses. The next trillion dollar company will no doubt be founded by someone who is currently paying us $7 a month, representing one of the highest ROI investments anyone could make.

For today's episode of the Down Round Experience, we're taking your pitches. Our Discord community came with the ideas, and we're evaluating them in the inaugutal Down Round Shark Tank. Joining us is producer and musician Joyride (Rowan Dix) from The Meeting Tree, whose enterpreneurial nous fills out the panel.

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This is part two of our marathon holiday record. This is a preview – the full episode is available for premium subs. Sign up here.

The Down Round holiday episodes continue. As the beers continue to flow, we turn our critical attention to another major tech event of December: the hack and leak of Insomniac Games, a first-party developer owned by Sony. 

Links

• Insomniac finally responds to hack that leaked ‘Wolverine’ game and more – The Verge
• GTA 6 hacker handed indefinite hospital order – BBC

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Welcome to our holiday special.

We have recorded a marathon 4 hour podcast with much holiday spirit (we got drunk), and will be dropping it in parts throughout the holiday season.

We started with a quick reflection on the latest news: Bird Scooters has gone under, and Adobe's planned acquisition of Figma has collapsed. 

Plus, due to listener demand, we explain our not particularly complex recording and editing process.

Our original Adobe episode.

Descript audio/video editor

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We had it all planned out. A huge Xmas bonanza episode featuring guests, fun, laughs and all you could ever want from a Down Round variety show.

But then Raph was struck by a mystery illness and we had to delay it by several days. So, until then, enjoy this delightful backup episode where we dig into the world's biggest companies by market cap, and opine on our future. It isn't financial advice. But we would not blame you if you took it that way.

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For many years, Apple has enforced iPhone dominance by refusing to adopt modern text messaging standards, meaning group chats and multimedia messages between iPhones and Android devices has been fundamentally broken. But last month, Apple announced it would adopt the RCS standard.

But at the same time, it came down hard on Beeper Mini, an app which purported to bring the locked down iMessage experience to Android. In this ep, we dive into iMessage and the weird politics of the green bubble.

Links

• Apple has seemingly found a way to block Android’s new iMessage app – The Verge
• Apple announces that RCS support is coming to iPhone next year - 9to5Mac
• Google's site pleading Apple to adopt RCS

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