This week, we dive into two meaty topics. First, we dig into Apple’s recent App Store changes to support third party payments in the US (sort of), and additionally support side-loading of apps (i.e. supporting non-Apple app stores) in the EU. Spoiler: Apple is pushing the limits to see how little they can give up while being compliant but the updates in EU are promising for app developers like Epic Games that directly monetize their apps.
Second, we dig into Semafor’s AI news play. They are a one-year old news property started by prominent journalists / editors, and recently made an announcement launching AI-generated Semafor Signals. We discuss the state of the media landscape today & how it came to be, the quality of this content vs their human-written pieces, brand implications for media houses using AI, and where AI can actually be useful in the journalistic process.
Spotify | Apple Podcasts links if you prefer listening there - you can also follow us there for easy access. Auto-generated transcript available on Substack if you prefer not to listen.
Apple's (reluctant) App Store changes, and Semafor tries AI news