The Nothing Phone 4b was secretly designed as a CMF phone but rebranded at the last minute because RAM prices made the original budget price impossible.
Waveform: The MKBHD Podcast
The Nothing Phone 4b was secretly designed as a CMF phone but rebranded at the last minute because RAM prices made the original budget price impossible.
TL;DR
The Waveform crew — Marques, Andrew, and David — dissect a packed week in tech. Pickle, the overhyped AR glasses startup, cancels its first preorder batch and refunds deposits [1] — Marques "Pickle preorder cancelled: Pickle, the AI AR glasses startup, cancelled its first batch of preorders and issued full refunds after missing …" 09:13 , validating earlier skepticism that its demos were fake. Nothing's Phone 4b gets a thorough breakdown: it's essentially a rebranded CMF phone forced upmarket by RAM price inflation [2] — Marques "Nothing 4b: 6,000mAh battery in India: The India SKU of the Nothing Phone 4b includes a 6,000mAh battery and lacks NFC, while other markets…" 19:35 , while the Ear 3a earbuds earn praise as a top $99 recommendation. Samsung Unpacked (July 22) and Google's August 12 Pixel 11 event are previewed. The episode closes with David's deep-dive clarifying that iOS 27's new Siri capabilities won't fully appear until third-party apps adopt entity and intent schemas at the official fall launch — and Google's cooperation is critical.
Marques, Andrew, and David cover Pickle's preorder cancellation, review the Nothing Phone 4b and Ear 3a, preview Samsung Galaxy Unpacked and the Google Pixel 11 event, discuss Meta's new Muse AI image model, Twitter's new video editing tool, and David's deep dive into iOS 27 App Intents and Siri's third-party integration gap.
The episode kicks off with a sponsor segment for Plaud — a dedicated recording device that combines hardware with AI transcription and summarization. The pitch targets executives, journalists, project managers, and anyone whose work depends on getting conversations right. A promo code offers 15% off at plaud.ai/wavform.
Before the official intro, the crew falls into a loose riff about sun exposure nihilism, the Empire Mine in California's gold country, and a hypothetical mime podcast where the host can't move their body. It's the kind of warmup that signals a relaxed, banter-heavy episode. Marques finally calls the show to order, previewing an eclectic lineup: a Pickle startup update, a wave of Nothing products, Samsung and Google event teasers, Twitter's new video editor, and whatever deep dive David fell into the night before.
Andrew opens with a genuine moment of appreciation for a feature most people forget exists: Google's ability to identify a song from a hummed or mumbled melody, accessible by tapping the mic in the search bar. He's used it roughly every six months — his search history confirms December, May, and January hits — and it works almost every time. The crew traces the lineage back to a pre-acquisition world where Shazam and SoundHound competed fiercely, with SoundHound having the edge at identifying hum-based searches — exactly the capability Google now owns natively. Marques notes this is a textbook 'Sherlocked' story: both apps are now redundant. David adds that younger users might not even associate the Shazam name with song recognition — they're more likely to think of the superhero film. Andrew floats a video idea: a tier list of phone gimmicks that either became essential features or died quietly.
Andrew opens with a genuine moment of appreciation for a feature most people forget exists: Google's ability to identify a song from a hummed or mumbled melody, accessible by tapping the mic in the search bar. He's used it roughly every six months — his search history confirms December, May, and January hits — and it works almost every time. The crew traces the lineage back to a pre-acquisition world where Shazam and SoundHound competed fiercely, with SoundHound having the edge at identifying hum-based searches — exactly the capability Google now owns natively. Marques notes this is a textbook 'Sherlocked' story: both apps are now redundant. David adds that younger users might not even associate the Shazam name with song recognition — they're more likely to think of the superhero film. Andrew floats a video idea: a tier list of phone gimmicks that either became essential features or died quietly.
It's a story the crew has followed since Meta's glasses launch: people were physically drilling out the recording-indicator LED on their Meta Glasses and then recording covertly without any visible warning. The reason it worked for so long is almost poetic in its simplicity — the glasses' firmware detected that current was still flowing through the LED circuit and assumed the light was functioning normally, even when the physical LED was absent. Joanna Stern's investigative video helped surface the exploit publicly, and Meta even acknowledged it at their last glasses launch event. Now they're finally doing something about it with a mandatory software update, though the crew hopes it can also retroactively catch glasses that have already been tampered with.
Marques admits he genuinely forgot he preordered a Pickle until the CEO's email arrived. Back in January, Pickle promised the world's first 'soul computer': binocular full-color AR displays, the lightest personal computer in history, a memory-based operating system that turned your life into searchable 'bubbles,' and a price that seemed physically impossible. The crew was skeptical from day one — Andrew notes the live demos appeared to not match the promised resolutions — and those early doubts aged perfectly. The Pickle Twitter account went dark after the launch video, the CEO tweeted once more and then vanished, and now Batch 1 is being refunded while Batch 2 hangs in limbo with no new delivery date. David points out that getting a refund is small consolation given inflation, and Adam notes the CEO's Twitter bio — 'I'm in a pickle' — turned out to be documentary rather than cute. The crew's verdict: vaporware, never shipping.
The Nothing Phone 4b is a phone that probably shouldn't exist under this name. David's source confirmed what Marques theorised in his review: the device was originally blueprinted as the CMF Phone 3 Pro, but skyrocketing RAM prices made it impossible to hit the CMF price point without selling at a loss — and nobody would accept a CMF branded device at Nothing-tier pricing. So they invented the B-series [1] — David "Nothing Phone 4b is rebranded CMF phone: A source confirmed to David that the Nothing Phone 4b was originally planned as the CMF Phone 3 Pr…" 17:57 . The result is an AMOLED, 120Hz Android phone with a Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 chip — a low-mid processor whose CPU performance, as Marques's benchmarks show, sits around the same level as Google's Tensor G2 and the 2019 OnePlus 7 Pro. The India SKU adds a 6,000mAh battery and drops NFC; the global version gets 5,200mAh with NFC. The design is divisive — the crew finds it underwhelming for a Nothing device, noting a vestigial circular design element in the corner that betrays its CMF origins. The subreddit is unhappy, but for its price and software experience, Marques argues it beats Moto G and Samsung A-series alternatives.
At $99, the Nothing Ear 3a is Andrew's top earbud pick for anyone not locked into the Apple ecosystem — and he admits this despite giving Nothing plenty of criticism elsewhere. The case design is nearly identical to the Ear A, which Andrew actually prefers. The new feature that generated the most discussion is Audio Snapshot: the case packs 32MB of storage that can record what you're hearing — calls, media, ambient audio — for up to 2 hours, accessible and editable through the Nothing X app. The crew debates the legal implications of call recording, notes it's already possible on iPhones, and broadly concludes the feature is primarily useful for meeting transcription. David suspects Carl Pei's AI ambitions are the real driver behind Audio Snapshot, positioning the earbuds as a wearable second-brain device. The colour options — white, black, yellow, new pink — have the accent colour on the inner earbud housing rather than the stems, which the crew finds a missed styling opportunity.
The mid-episode ad features Framer — positioned as a pro-level site builder where AI agents draft and refine pages on the same canvas where the real site is built, managed, and published. The pitch emphasises that AI-generated content is immediately editable and production-ready rather than requiring a separate handoff. A 30% discount on the annual Pro plan is available at framer.com/wave.
Samsung has dispensed with subtlety: the Unpacked invitation for July 22 literally shows a tear-off animation revealing the new foldable's shape — a wider, more square 'passport-style' form factor. The crew anticipates this will be called the Galaxy Z Fold 8 (without the Ultra suffix), positioned below the Z Fold 8 Ultra. Leaked European pricing from 9to5Google puts the standard Z Fold 8 at approximately €1,999 and the Ultra at €2,199 — a smaller gap than expected. The differentiators are expected to be camera count, battery size, and possibly display technology, rather than a dramatically lower chipset. David notes he prefers the wider aspect ratio personally but worries it's being positioned as mid-range when it's clearly a premium device. The question of S Pen support and software exclusives also gets floated.
Google's Pixel 11 launch is locked in for August 12, and the teaser image — top half of a phone showing the unmistakeable pill visor — is about as understated as Samsung's Unpacked invite. The crew is cautiously interested in Pixel Glow rumours (a model with a luminous visor) but can't square them with the absence of any glow-related teasing. Marques holds out hope for meaningful Tensor improvements. On the Watch side, leaks point to two sizes (41mm and 44mm), four colors including the intriguing pyrite (satin/matte gold) and warm gold (polished), and — for the first time in the product's five-generation history — a price increase of roughly $50 per variant, bringing the entry point to $399. Andrew gives Google credit for holding the price for four generations but notes $399 remains expensive for a Pixel Watch.
With the episode's recurring pickle motif firmly established — both the startup and the Shakespeare trivia — Ellis seizes the moment to ask who popularised 'in a pickle' as an English-language idiom. He drops the hint that it's an English author whose usage turned an obscure earlier phrase into mainstream vocabulary. Andrew nominates John Green, Marques writes J.J. Abrams, and David is caught between two authors he can't quite name. The answer will come at the end of the episode.
Meta's superintelligence lab has produced its first public model: Muse AI, an image generator baked directly into Instagram. The feature that immediately alarmed the crew: anyone can tag an Instagram profile or post in Meta AI and generate images using that person's likeness or photos — and it's opt-out by default. David provides step-by-step instructions for turning it off (Instagram Settings > Sharing and Reuse > Allow people to use your content on Instagram with AI features). The crew also critiques Meta's claimed safety measure — an invisible watermark that can be detected by uploading the image to a separate web tool — as essentially theatrical. Marques lands the sharpest observation: the places where you most need to know something is AI-generated (fast-moving social media feeds) are precisely where no one checks. The invisible watermark helps only after harm is already done. David ties this back to a broader frustration: a handful of corporations have become so deeply embedded in daily life that their repeated privacy violations barely register as news anymore.
Twitter's head of product Nikita Bear announced a new in-app video creation suite — vertical recorder, text overlays, auto-captions, green screen — framed as a move to encourage original content creation. The crew is unconvinced. Andrew notes the irony that the tool launched iOS-only in 2026, years after competitors. Marques argues the real problem is structural: stolen TikTok videos dominate Twitter's short-form feed, and a native editor doesn't stop a bad actor from importing someone else's video. His proposed solution — ban watermarked stolen content from monetization — mirrors what Instagram and YouTube have already done with TikTok watermarks. Ellis raises the DMCA angle: platforms must make a 'good faith effort' to remove copyrighted content for legal protection, and Twitter's laissez-faire approach likely doesn't qualify. Andrew uses a Billy Madison pickle-racing analogy to describe the randomness of short-form content performance across platforms.
Adam pivots to the second trivia question, linking it to the earlier phone gimmicks conversation: what Android version did the LG G7 ThinQ ship with? David connects it to his memory of being in a specific Airbnb when Google announced they were dropping Android's dessert names for numbered versions — a characteristically elaborate chain of reasoning. Both Andrew and David write Android 10, while Marques goes with 11. The correct answer is Android 8.0 Oreo — 2018 — making everyone wrong, though David takes some satisfaction in being more wrong than the others.
David opens by clarifying a misconception that's been spreading on tech Twitter: many observers assumed Apple was deliberately restricting the new Siri to Apple apps only. The truth is more mundane but more important. iOS 27 introduces two new developer tools — entity schemas (structured index cards that label app content types so Siri can categorise and search them) and intent schemas (a list of specific actions Siri is permitted to take within an app). The current Xcode beta does not allow developers to ship these capabilities, meaning all current Siri demos and reviews only show Apple's native apps working. Third-party support won't appear until the official fall release alongside iPhone 18. The crew then reaches the existential question: will Google support these schemas? David relays former Apple Shortcuts team member Matthew Castanelli's optimistic take — that Google is already pivoting away from in-app advertising as its primary revenue driver, making a better user experience in its iOS apps more strategically valuable than keeping users inside the app. Marques remains cautiously hopeful but notes that for Google's dominant services, the calculus is different than for smaller developers who have competitive pressure to adopt. The closing plea — 'Google, support this stuff because I want to use Siri' — neatly encapsulates the entire segment's stakes.
The trivia payoff is genuinely worth the wait. Ellis reveals that while an earlier usage exists, 'in a pickle' was popularised by Shakespeare in The Tempest, spoken by Trinculo: 'I have been in such a pickle since I saw you last, I fear me will never out of my bones.' Ellis translates the Elizabethan English: Trinculo means he drank so much alcohol that his body would be preserved from fly-infestation — a pickled corpse. The crew is briefly awed. David follows up with a Frankenstein bonus: 'don't cry over spilled milk' originates from Mary Shelley, with the original line reading 'the milk that is spilled cries not out afterwards.' Marques defends calling Shakespeare a 'three-hit wonder.' Final trivia scores are tallied, the crew wraps with Adam's password-protected Apple Note revelation ('the password was nice'), and Ellis signs off with a mime bit as the outro music plays.
Chapter 3 · 01:42
Andrew opens with a genuine moment of appreciation for a feature most people forget exists: Google's ability to identify a song from a hummed or mumbled melody, accessible by tapping the mic in the search bar. He's used it roughly every six months — his search history confirms December, May, and January hits — and it works almost every time. The crew traces the lineage back to a pre-acquisition world where Shazam and SoundHound competed fiercely, with SoundHound having the edge at identifying hum-based searches — exactly the capability Google now owns natively. Marques notes this is a textbook 'Sherlocked' story: both apps are now redundant. David adds that younger users might not even associate the Shazam name with song recognition — they're more likely to think of the superhero film. Andrew floats a video idea: a tier list of phone gimmicks that either became essential features or died quietly.
Google's ability to identify a song you hum or mumble is one of those ambient computing features that quietly became indispensable. It replaced two competing apps — Shazam and SoundHound — and is now so seamlessly built into Android that Pixel phones can identify playing music without you even asking.
Andrew uses Google's hum-to-search feature roughly every six months and finds it reliably identifies songs he can only hum or mumble.
Andrew floats the idea of tier-listing phone gimmicks — features that seemed like marketing stunts at launch but became genuinely useful over time. Instant candidates include the Pixel's ambient music detection, Samsung's privacy screen, and the LG Soli radar and vein ID sensors, which land firmly in F-tier.
Chapter 4 · 06:35
Andrew opens with a genuine moment of appreciation for a feature most people forget exists: Google's ability to identify a song from a hummed or mumbled melody, accessible by tapping the mic in the search bar. He's used it roughly every six months — his search history confirms December, May, and January hits — and it works almost every time. The crew traces the lineage back to a pre-acquisition world where Shazam and SoundHound competed fiercely, with SoundHound having the edge at identifying hum-based searches — exactly the capability Google now owns natively. Marques notes this is a textbook 'Sherlocked' story: both apps are now redundant. David adds that younger users might not even associate the Shazam name with song recognition — they're more likely to think of the superhero film. Andrew floats a video idea: a tier list of phone gimmicks that either became essential features or died quietly.
David noted that for several years, each new Pixel launch brought a meaningfully new ambient computing feature that quietly became part of daily life. That era has ended, and no competitor has replaced it — a loss that mostly went unmourned because it happened gradually.
Chapter 5 · 07:37
It's a story the crew has followed since Meta's glasses launch: people were physically drilling out the recording-indicator LED on their Meta Glasses and then recording covertly without any visible warning. The reason it worked for so long is almost poetic in its simplicity — the glasses' firmware detected that current was still flowing through the LED circuit and assumed the light was functioning normally, even when the physical LED was absent. Joanna Stern's investigative video helped surface the exploit publicly, and Meta even acknowledged it at their last glasses launch event. Now they're finally doing something about it with a mandatory software update, though the crew hopes it can also retroactively catch glasses that have already been tampered with.
Meta is pushing a mandatory software update to block the exploit where users physically drilled out the recording-indicator LED on Meta Glasses to record covertly without any warning light. The glasses couldn't detect the tampering because current was still flowing through the circuit even with no LED present.
Chapter 6 · 09:13
Marques admits he genuinely forgot he preordered a Pickle until the CEO's email arrived. Back in January, Pickle promised the world's first 'soul computer': binocular full-color AR displays, the lightest personal computer in history, a memory-based operating system that turned your life into searchable 'bubbles,' and a price that seemed physically impossible. The crew was skeptical from day one — Andrew notes the live demos appeared to not match the promised resolutions — and those early doubts aged perfectly. The Pickle Twitter account went dark after the launch video, the CEO tweeted once more and then vanished, and now Batch 1 is being refunded while Batch 2 hangs in limbo with no new delivery date. David points out that getting a refund is small consolation given inflation, and Adam notes the CEO's Twitter bio — 'I'm in a pickle' — turned out to be documentary rather than cute. The crew's verdict: vaporware, never shipping.
Pickle, the startup that promised binocular full-color AR glasses with a memory-based OS for under $1,000, has cancelled its first preorder batch and refunded deposits after missing its end-of-June deadline. The crew predicted this in January when they argued the live demos were probably fake.
Pickle, the AI AR glasses startup, cancelled its first batch of preorders and issued full refunds after missing its end-of-June delivery deadline.
Pickle's glasses were priced around $1,300 full price, with an early-adopter rate of roughly $800–$900.
Chapter 7 · 16:07
The Nothing Phone 4b is a phone that probably shouldn't exist under this name. David's source confirmed what Marques theorised in his review: the device was originally blueprinted as the CMF Phone 3 Pro, but skyrocketing RAM prices made it impossible to hit the CMF price point without selling at a loss — and nobody would accept a CMF branded device at Nothing-tier pricing. So they invented the B-series [1] — David "Nothing Phone 4b is rebranded CMF phone: A source confirmed to David that the Nothing Phone 4b was originally planned as the CMF Phone 3 Pr…" 17:57 . The result is an AMOLED, 120Hz Android phone with a Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 chip — a low-mid processor whose CPU performance, as Marques's benchmarks show, sits around the same level as Google's Tensor G2 and the 2019 OnePlus 7 Pro. The India SKU adds a 6,000mAh battery and drops NFC; the global version gets 5,200mAh with NFC. The design is divisive — the crew finds it underwhelming for a Nothing device, noting a vestigial circular design element in the corner that betrays its CMF origins. The subreddit is unhappy, but for its price and software experience, Marques argues it beats Moto G and Samsung A-series alternatives.
The Nothing Phone 4b was originally designed as the CMF Phone 3 Pro, but RAM price inflation made it impossible to sell at the CMF price point. So Nothing rebranded it — giving birth to the new B-series and angering the subreddit that expected flagship-level ambition.
A source confirmed to David that the Nothing Phone 4b was originally planned as the CMF Phone 3 Pro but was rebranded because RAM price inflation made it too expensive to sell under the CMF brand.
The India SKU of the Nothing Phone 4b includes a 6,000mAh battery and lacks NFC, while other markets get a 5,200mAh version with NFC.
The Nothing Phone 4b uses a Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 — a mid-low-end chip whose CPU performance benchmarks near the much older OnePlus 7 Pro.
CPU benchmarks from Marques's Nothing Phone 4b review revealed that Google's Tensor G2 — found in recent Pixel phones — performs at roughly the same level as the budget Snapdragon 6 Gen 4, which itself matches the CPU score of the OnePlus 7 Pro from 2019.
Chapter 8 · 26:40
At $99, the Nothing Ear 3a is Andrew's top earbud pick for anyone not locked into the Apple ecosystem — and he admits this despite giving Nothing plenty of criticism elsewhere. The case design is nearly identical to the Ear A, which Andrew actually prefers. The new feature that generated the most discussion is Audio Snapshot: the case packs 32MB of storage that can record what you're hearing — calls, media, ambient audio — for up to 2 hours, accessible and editable through the Nothing X app. The crew debates the legal implications of call recording, notes it's already possible on iPhones, and broadly concludes the feature is primarily useful for meeting transcription. David suspects Carl Pei's AI ambitions are the real driver behind Audio Snapshot, positioning the earbuds as a wearable second-brain device. The colour options — white, black, yellow, new pink — have the accent colour on the inner earbud housing rather than the stems, which the crew finds a missed styling opportunity.
The Nothing Ear 3a costs $99, matches the original Ear A on price, and earns Andrew's top recommendation for non-iPhone users looking for quality wireless earbuds. Available in white, black, yellow, and new pink colorways, it also adds a novel Audio Snapshot feature for recording calls and media.
The Nothing Ear 3a earbuds retail at $99, matching the price of the original Ear A, making them Andrew's top non-iPhone earbud recommendation.
The Nothing Ear 3a case contains 32MB of onboard storage to record audio snapshots of calls, media, or conversations for later review in the Nothing X app.
Chapter 10 · 39:40
Samsung has dispensed with subtlety: the Unpacked invitation for July 22 literally shows a tear-off animation revealing the new foldable's shape — a wider, more square 'passport-style' form factor. The crew anticipates this will be called the Galaxy Z Fold 8 (without the Ultra suffix), positioned below the Z Fold 8 Ultra. Leaked European pricing from 9to5Google puts the standard Z Fold 8 at approximately €1,999 and the Ultra at €2,199 — a smaller gap than expected. The differentiators are expected to be camera count, battery size, and possibly display technology, rather than a dramatically lower chipset. David notes he prefers the wider aspect ratio personally but worries it's being positioned as mid-range when it's clearly a premium device. The question of S Pen support and software exclusives also gets floated.
Samsung's Unpacked invitation confirms a new foldable form factor with a different aspect ratio, almost certainly a wider 'passport-style' device. Leaked European pricing puts the Z Fold 8 at ~€1,999 and the Z Fold 8 Ultra at ~€2,199, with the key differences expected to be camera count, battery size, and possibly display technology.
Leaked European pricing suggests the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra will start at approximately €2,199, with the standard Z Fold 8 at around €1,999.
Samsung Galaxy Unpacked is scheduled for July 22, 2026, where a new wider-aspect-ratio foldable is expected to debut alongside the Z Fold 8 Ultra.
Chapter 11 · 44:50
Google's Pixel 11 launch is locked in for August 12, and the teaser image — top half of a phone showing the unmistakeable pill visor — is about as understated as Samsung's Unpacked invite. The crew is cautiously interested in Pixel Glow rumours (a model with a luminous visor) but can't square them with the absence of any glow-related teasing. Marques holds out hope for meaningful Tensor improvements. On the Watch side, leaks point to two sizes (41mm and 44mm), four colors including the intriguing pyrite (satin/matte gold) and warm gold (polished), and — for the first time in the product's five-generation history — a price increase of roughly $50 per variant, bringing the entry point to $399. Andrew gives Google credit for holding the price for four generations but notes $399 remains expensive for a Pixel Watch.
Google confirmed its Pixel 11 launch event for August 12, showing the familiar pill-shaped camera visor in its teaser. Rumours of a 'Pixel Glow' model with a luminous visor persist, but the crew is skeptical — if it were real, Google would almost certainly be teasing the glow itself.
Google's Pixel 11 launch event is confirmed for August 12, 2026, with the teaser image showing the familiar pill-shaped visor design.
Rumours indicate the Pixel Watch 5 will cost roughly $50 more than its predecessor per variant, pushing the starting price to $399 — the first price increase in five generations.
Chapter 13 · 50:40
Meta's superintelligence lab has produced its first public model: Muse AI, an image generator baked directly into Instagram. The feature that immediately alarmed the crew: anyone can tag an Instagram profile or post in Meta AI and generate images using that person's likeness or photos — and it's opt-out by default. David provides step-by-step instructions for turning it off (Instagram Settings > Sharing and Reuse > Allow people to use your content on Instagram with AI features). The crew also critiques Meta's claimed safety measure — an invisible watermark that can be detected by uploading the image to a separate web tool — as essentially theatrical. Marques lands the sharpest observation: the places where you most need to know something is AI-generated (fast-moving social media feeds) are precisely where no one checks. The invisible watermark helps only after harm is already done. David ties this back to a broader frustration: a handful of corporations have become so deeply embedded in daily life that their repeated privacy violations barely register as news anymore.
Meta's new Muse image generation model is deeply embedded in Instagram and allows anyone to remix other users' photos and likenesses by default. It's opt-out only, the AI watermark is invisible, and the detection tool is a separate web upload — meaning most people will never know their likeness is being used.
Meta's Muse image model lets anyone remix other users' Instagram photos by default; users must manually opt out via Instagram's sharing settings.
Chapter 14 · 58:12
Twitter's head of product Nikita Bear announced a new in-app video creation suite — vertical recorder, text overlays, auto-captions, green screen — framed as a move to encourage original content creation. The crew is unconvinced. Andrew notes the irony that the tool launched iOS-only in 2026, years after competitors. Marques argues the real problem is structural: stolen TikTok videos dominate Twitter's short-form feed, and a native editor doesn't stop a bad actor from importing someone else's video. His proposed solution — ban watermarked stolen content from monetization — mirrors what Instagram and YouTube have already done with TikTok watermarks. Ellis raises the DMCA angle: platforms must make a 'good faith effort' to remove copyrighted content for legal protection, and Twitter's laissez-faire approach likely doesn't qualify. Andrew uses a Billy Madison pickle-racing analogy to describe the randomness of short-form content performance across platforms.
Twitter launched an in-app vertical video editor with text overlays, auto-captions, and green screen effects — but only on iOS. The real problem is that stolen TikTok content dominates Twitter video, and giving people a native editor doesn't solve that. Marques argues penalizing stolen content by barring it from monetization is the only lever that would actually work.
Twitter's new in-app vertical video editing tool launched exclusively on iOS, with Android support still pending.
Chapter 15 · 1:04:00
Adam pivots to the second trivia question, linking it to the earlier phone gimmicks conversation: what Android version did the LG G7 ThinQ ship with? David connects it to his memory of being in a specific Airbnb when Google announced they were dropping Android's dessert names for numbered versions — a characteristically elaborate chain of reasoning. Both Andrew and David write Android 10, while Marques goes with 11. The correct answer is Android 8.0 Oreo — 2018 — making everyone wrong, though David takes some satisfaction in being more wrong than the others.
iOS 27 introduces two new developer tools — entity schemas (index cards that tell Siri what type of content something is) and intent schemas (a list of actions Siri is permitted to take inside an app). Until the official fall release, Apple's Xcode beta doesn't allow developers to ship these capabilities, meaning every Siri demo and review right now only shows Apple's own apps working. Third-party support, including from Google, is the make-or-break variable.
Chapter 16 · 1:05:10
David opens by clarifying a misconception that's been spreading on tech Twitter: many observers assumed Apple was deliberately restricting the new Siri to Apple apps only. The truth is more mundane but more important. iOS 27 introduces two new developer tools — entity schemas (structured index cards that label app content types so Siri can categorise and search them) and intent schemas (a list of specific actions Siri is permitted to take within an app). The current Xcode beta does not allow developers to ship these capabilities, meaning all current Siri demos and reviews only show Apple's native apps working. Third-party support won't appear until the official fall release alongside iPhone 18. The crew then reaches the existential question: will Google support these schemas? David relays former Apple Shortcuts team member Matthew Castanelli's optimistic take — that Google is already pivoting away from in-app advertising as its primary revenue driver, making a better user experience in its iOS apps more strategically valuable than keeping users inside the app. Marques remains cautiously hopeful but notes that for Google's dominant services, the calculus is different than for smaller developers who have competitive pressure to adopt. The closing plea — 'Google, support this stuff because I want to use Siri' — neatly encapsulates the entire segment's stakes.
Apple's current Xcode beta does not allow developers to ship apps with the new entity and intent schemas, meaning full third-party Siri integration won't arrive until the iPhone 18 launch in September.
The more Google services are used on iPhones, the more leverage Apple gains through Siri. But Google's reported pivot away from in-app ad revenue as its primary driver — according to former Apple Shortcuts team member Matthew Castanelli — may mean that a better user experience in Google's iOS apps is now more valuable than keeping users inside the app.
The phrase 'in a pickle' traces back to Shakespeare's The Tempest, where Trinculo uses it to describe being so drunk that his body would be preserved from fly-infestation. The original Shakespearean line is arguably better than the modern idiom.
The phrase 'in a pickle' was popularised by Shakespeare in The Tempest, where it referred to being so drunk one's body would be preserved like a pickle.
No indexed bits in this chapter.
Meta's new Muse image generation model is deeply embedded in Instagram and allows anyone to remix other users' photos and likenesses by default. It's opt-out only, the AI watermark is invisible, and the detection tool is a separate web upload — meaning most people will never know their likeness is being used.
iOS 27 introduces two new developer tools — entity schemas (index cards that tell Siri what type of content something is) and intent schemas (a list of actions Siri is permitted to take inside an app). Until the official fall release, Apple's Xcode beta doesn't allow developers to ship these capabilities, meaning every Siri demo and review right now only shows Apple's own apps working. Third-party support, including from Google, is the make-or-break variable.
The Nothing Phone 4b was originally designed as the CMF Phone 3 Pro, but RAM price inflation made it impossible to sell at the CMF price point. So Nothing rebranded it — giving birth to the new B-series and angering the subreddit that expected flagship-level ambition.
This episode
Factual claims made this episode, and whether a source was named.
Meta's mandatory software update to Meta Glasses is designed to stop users who drilled out the LED from recording covertly.
Meta Glasses could not detect the LED drilling exploit because electrical current still flowed through the circuit even with the LED physically removed.
The Nothing Phone 4b was originally designed as the CMF Phone 3 Pro but was rebranded after RAM prices made the CMF price point untenable.
Google's Tensor G2 CPU performs at roughly the same level as the budget Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 and the older OnePlus 7 Pro.
The Nothing Ear 3a case contains 32MB of onboard storage for the Audio Snapshot call and media recording feature.
The Nothing Phone 4b India SKU omits NFC to reduce cost and fits a larger 6,000mAh battery, while the global version has NFC and a 5,200mAh battery.
Leaked European pricing puts the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 at approximately €1,999 and the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra at approximately €2,199.
The Pixel Watch 5 will receive its first price increase across five generations, with the starting price rising by approximately $50 to $399.
Meta's Muse AI image model allows Instagram users to remix other people's photos and likenesses and is opt-out by default.
The phrase 'in a pickle' was popularised by Shakespeare in The Tempest, where it referred to being so drunk one's body would be preserved from fly infestation.
Apple's current Xcode beta for iOS 27 does not permit developers to ship apps using the new entity and intent schemas, so full third-party Siri integration won't be publicly available until the official fall release.
Former Apple Shortcuts team member Matthew Castanelli believes Google is already planning for a future where in-app advertising is not its primary revenue driver, making App Intent adoption more likely.
Under the DMCA, platforms must make a good-faith effort to remove copyrighted content to retain legal safe-harbor protection, a standard that Twitter arguably does not meet.
Instagram's algorithm penalises Reels that contain a visible TikTok watermark.
The idiom 'don't cry over spilled milk' originates from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, with the original phrasing being 'the milk that is spilled cries not out afterwards.'
This episode
Discussed extensively in the context of their new Phone 4b and Ear 3a products, lineup confusion, and their budget sub-brand CMF.
Referenced across multiple segments: hum-to-search, Pixel 11 event, Pixel Watch 5 leaks, and the critical question of whether Google will adopt iOS 27 App Intents schemas.
Discussed in the context of Shazam acquisition, iOS 27 Siri improvements, App Intents schemas, and whether their new Siri capabilities will extend to third-party apps.
An AI AR glasses startup that cancelled its first preorder batch after missing its June delivery deadline, with the crew skeptical it will ever ship.
Discussed in context of the upcoming Galaxy Unpacked event on July 22 and leaked pricing for the Z Fold 8 and Z Fold 8 Ultra.
Nothing's ultra-budget sub-brand; the Phone 4b was originally designed as a CMF device before RAM price inflation forced a rebrand.
Discussed regarding a mandatory update to stop LED drilling on Meta Glasses, and the launch of Muse AI with opt-out photo remixing on Instagram.
Discussed regarding their new iOS-only in-app vertical video editing tool and failure to meet DMCA good-faith standards for removing stolen content.
The focus of David's deep-dive into iOS 27 App Intents: new entity and intent schemas promise much richer third-party integration, but the full experience won't be visible until the official fall launch.
Upcoming Samsung foldable expected at Galaxy Unpacked July 22, rumoured to feature a wider aspect ratio and be positioned below the Z Fold 8 Ultra.
Identified as the platform where Meta's Muse AI model is deeply embedded, enabling opt-out AI photo remixing of user content.
Song-identification app acquired by Apple, now built into iOS quick settings; discussed as an example of a product being Sherlocked by platform owners.
Google's upcoming flagship phone confirmed for an August 12 launch event, with rumours of a glowing visor design and elimination of the 128GB base tier.
Leaked as receiving its first-ever price increase across five generations, starting at $399, with two sizes and four colorways including new pyrite and warm gold.
Flight-tracking app cited as an example of a useful category (flights) not yet supported by iOS 27's entity schemas, frustrating its developers.
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