iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Austin Carr

Cecilia D'Anastasio @cecianasta.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

New -- Valve: anticorporate hero or big tech but small? Gamers know Valve as a freewheeling enterprise, but previously unreported docs show controversial business practices that, critics say, restrict both gamers and game-makers. Feature w @austincarr.bsky.social: www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

bloomberg.com

Valve, the Anticorporate Hero of the Games Industry, Has Its Antitrust Moment

Lawsuits in the US and the UK allege the company’s Steam store is abusing its market power. Valve disagrees.

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Reposted by Austin Carr

nilay patel @reckless.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

If you thought social media had scrambled America’s CEOs just wait until they’re fully cooked by AI apple.news/AJ_ht7MMyT9G...

Copilot consumes Nadella’s life outside the office as well. He likes podcasts, but instead of listening to them, he loads transcripts into the Copilot app on his iPhone so he can chat with the voice assistant about the content of an episode in the car on his commute to Redmond. At the office, he relies on Copilot to deliver summaries of messages he receives in Outlook and Teams and toggles among at least 10 custom agents from Copilot Studio. He views them as his AI chiefs of staff, delegating meeting prep, research and other tasks to the bots. “I’m an email typist,” Nadella jokes of his job, noting that Copilot is thankfully very good at triaging his messages.

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Reposted by Austin Carr

Dina Bass @dinabass.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

2 years ago Microsoft set out to spin an early GenAI lead (courtesy of the OpenAI deal) into corporate & consumer AI gold. @austincarr.bsky.social I take a look at how it's gone, how Satya is hedging bets, building new AI models & navigating changing OAI conditions www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

bloomberg.com

Microsoft’s CEO on How AI Will Remake Every Company, Including His

Nervous customers and a volatile partnership with OpenAI are complicating things for Satya Nadella and the world’s most valuable company.

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Austin Carr @austincarr.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

No worries, we've all been there. I'd just note the cover line is part of an AI issue, so more stories to come. The 'what's next' = more DeepSeek models, homegrown chips, MiniMax/Moonshot/etc, US co's reacting. Or maybe you'd prefer the cover line: "DeepSeek was just a one-off, let's move on" : )

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Austin Carr @austincarr.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

Sorry, you missed the stuff on Huawei/Baidu chips rivaling Nvidia's? Or our reporters in Hangzhou/Beijing describing other AI dragons? Or Xi's tech embrace, Ma's return & the national startup pride that doesn't exist here? Or the whole theme about China *not shoveling* money into LLMs like the US?

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Austin Carr @austincarr.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

Funny to hear relief on Boston radio this week that it wasn't Bezos...WEEI folks were worried he'd be too profit-driven and wouldn't care if Massholes hated him 😅

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Austin Carr @austincarr.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Still mad that Apple yanked my Flappy Bird into the cloud at some point...it worked for a long time after the dev originally killed it

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Reposted by Austin Carr

cale weissman @caleweissman.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

I still have an app on my phone called "birthcandle" that i downloaded at a bar over 10 years ago so my friend could blow out candles on her birthday. The app no longer opens but I refuse to delete it. bsky.app/profile/aust...

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Austin Carr @austincarr.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Still being able to open these things brings back strong memories. I am sure @dens.nyc has way more digital artifacts than me, but Foursquare is one I will surely miss and never delete.

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Austin Carr @austincarr.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

God, I really miss the simpler days of Yo and HQ Trivia... New @bloomberg.com essay on why I keep "ghost apps" on my iPhone like Foursquare & Vine: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

bloomberg.com

The Case for Keeping Dead Apps Around on Your Phone

Obsolete apps like Flappy Bird and Yo hearken back to a time when Silicon Valley wasn’t so fraught.

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Reposted by Austin Carr

Stacey Shick @staceyshick.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

In today's Businessweek Daily, @austincarr.bsky.social has some color (I'm sorry, I'm sorry) on the work that goes into the fire retardants being airdropped in Los Angeles www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

bloomberg.com

Ground Crews Keep Red Stuff Flowing to Fight Wildfires

Perimeter Solutions’ flagship product is hard to miss. Plus: Green tech optimism, and the lure of Buc-ee’s.

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Austin Carr @austincarr.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

They did have an Nvidia chip, incidentally

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Austin Carr @austincarr.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

Fwiw, it was actually the startup (Cooler Screens) that raised $170m to disrupt fridges. Walgreens could be on the hook for $200m in their ongoing lawsuit. The founder told me ~$50m of their abandoned smart doors are lying in a Texas warehouse. Perhaps they could be converted to Hans Solo carbonite!

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Reposted by Austin Carr

Alex Blechman @alexblechman.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

Walgreens lost $200 million installing 10,000 video doors nobody wants or needs. We could already see soda bottles through the glass. What they should have done is install 10,000 video doors that all display Han Solo frozen in carbonite

Those stupid video screen fridge doors at Walgreens that show bottles on a shelf.
The bottles behind the door

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Reposted by Austin Carr

Gregory Pratt @royalpratt.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

Walgreens is at center of some really baffling decisions, and this Bloomberg story about the drama behind their video freezer screens is a great read www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

bloomberg.com

Walgreens Replaced Fridge Doors With Smart Screens. It’s Now a $200 Million Fiasco

A startup promised the pharmacy chain its high-tech coolers would track shoppers and spark an in-store ad revolution.

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Austin Carr @austincarr.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

The guy who led Walgreens' investment in Theranos bet on another startup:

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Reposted by Austin Carr

Amanda Mull @amandamull.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

This is such a satisfying @austincarr.bsky.social story about a niche disaster that has fascinated me for years: The Walgreens video cooler door fiasco. A true retail cautionary tale. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

bloomberg.com

Walgreens Replaced Fridge Doors With Smart Screens. It’s Now a $200 Million Fiasco

A startup promised the pharmacy chain its high-tech coolers would track shoppers and spark an in-store ad revolution.

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Austin Carr @austincarr.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

Seems to be a common reaction among some: The initial novelty was eye-catching, but if shoppers ran into glitches or opened the smart doors and saw different products, the novelty quickly wore off. Walgreens says they frequently flicked, crashed, showed the wrong inventory, or even caught fire : x

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Austin Carr @austincarr.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

If you don't like locked-up shelves, may I interest you in Walgreens' high-tech refrigerators?? New Businessweek feature on the wildly glitchy smart doors that sparked a $200 million lawsuit with Walgreens: www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

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Austin Carr @austincarr.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

Walgreens putting food and drinks behind high-tech refrigerator screens also turned out to be a disaster. New @bloomberg.com feature on the $200 million lawsuit sparked from Walgreens' attempt to digitize the cooler aisle www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

bloomberg.com

Walgreens Replaced Fridge Doors With Smart Screens. It’s Now a $200 Million Fiasco

A startup promised the pharmacy chain its high-tech coolers would track shoppers and spark an in-store ad revolution.

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Austin Carr @austincarr.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

An Xbox app for WebOS?! I wonder if it'll work on my HP Touchpad

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Austin Carr @austincarr.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

If Hulu + Live now has access to Fubo's RSNs, that makes it very tempting to switch from Youtube TV for sports fans. The standalone streaming service here for watching the Bruins/Red Sox costs an insane $30/month. YouTube dropped the channel in 2020, but Fubo has it.

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Austin Carr @austincarr.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

To automate my Bluesky replies

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Austin Carr @austincarr.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

That said, I've found the new 2.0 experimental advanced model to be pretty damn good

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Austin Carr @austincarr.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

Stupid/funny workaround: I've noticed Gemini is more open to responding if you mention the years instead of the Trump/Biden/etc admins. Eg, you can ask it about inflation rates or gov't policies or whatever from 2017-2021 or 2021-present...just don't dare mention who was in charge!

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Austin Carr @austincarr.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

The Jets should really think about recruiting Bo Jackson considering his skill levels in Tecmo Bowl www.youtube.com/watch?v=3X-M...

youtube.com

Family Guy - Bo Jackson in Tecmo Bowl

YouTube video by QuickLitSports

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Reposted by Austin Carr

The Boston Globe @bostonglobe.com · 12/12/2024

Heavy rains Wednesday night flooded a ramp in the Ted Williams Tunnel along with other highways and left some 2,000 customers without electricity early Thursday, according to the National Weather Service and MassDOT. trib.al/WEqmC4a (Video courtesy of @mariabarajas_ and @drevankappler)

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Austin Carr @austincarr.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

Don't worry. We'll surely develop our pick into a star in the years ahead, and then promptly trade him to the Dodgers.

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Austin Carr @austincarr.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

Imho, ChatGPT Plus remains a steal at $20/month, and I imagine OpenAI could get away with charging a lot more than $200/month for ChatGPT Pro considering what it includes www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

bloomberg.com

OpenAI Tests Limits of AI Enthusiasm With $200 ChatGPT Plan

OpenAI is looking to answer exactly how much we’re all willing to pay for the best artificial intelligence tools around. But first...

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Austin Carr @austincarr.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

A bit alarming that my most played Spotify song is the 50 Cent cover from "Anatomy of a Fall"

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Austin Carr @austincarr.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all. Grateful to get to spend another turkey day with this turkey

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Austin Carr @austincarr.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Rereading Jurassic Park, I enjoyed Crichton poking fun at the founder/VC dynamic: a Palo Alto startup raised $870m by misleading investors about product readiness, promising absurd revenues ($20bn/year!), hiding engineering problems, avoiding gov’t/board oversight. A lovely passage on GPs involved:

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Reposted by Austin Carr

Shira Ovide @shiraovide.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Anyway, tapping this sign from the lesser-cited part of Michael Crichton's “Gell-Mann Amnesia effect.” www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

“Futurists don’t know any more about the future than you or I,” Crichton said, later ripping into the cheapness of heralding the world of tomorrow. “You can’t lose. Even though the speculation is correct only by chance, which means you are wrong at least 50% of the time, nobody remembers, and therefore nobody cares. You are never accountable.”

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