OpenAI (MacRumors, Hacker News):
It became clear that our ambitions to develop, engineer and manufacture a new family of products demanded an entirely new company. And so, one year ago, Jony founded io with Scott Cannon, Evans Hankey and Tang Tan.
We gathered together the best hardware and software engineers, the best technologists, physicists, scientists, researchers and experts in product development and manufacturing. Many of us have worked closely for decades.
The io team, focused on developing products that inspire, empower and enable, will now merge with OpenAI to work more intimately with the research, engineering and product teams in San Francisco.
As io merges with OpenAI, Jony and LoveFrom will assume deep design and creative responsibilities across OpenAI and io.
Mark Gurman and Shirin Ghaffary (tweet):
Hankey, who will become an OpenAI employee along with Tan and Cannon, said that ChatGPT’s debut prompted a realization that hardware technology would have to change. “A number of us looked at each other and said, ‘This is probably the most incredible technology of our career,’” she said in an interview.
While Ive and LoveFrom will remain independent, they will take over design for all of OpenAI, including its software. Altman said his first conversations with Ive weren’t about hardware, but rather about how to improve the interface of ChatGPT.
“We are obviously still in the terminal phase of AI interactions,” said Altman, 40. “We have not yet figured out what the equivalent of the graphical user interface is going to be, but we will.”
LoveFrom has a number of former Apple designers who helped create the look of the Mac and iPhone operating systems, including Bas Ording, Mike Matas and Chris Wilson, Ive said.
Emphasis added.
Ryan Jones:
Imagine 55 people being worth $6.5B.
xgolwks:
What the other commenters are forgetting is that this is the same Sam Altman who planned and executed the extraction of Reddit from Condé Nast.
This acquisition (and the Windsurf acquisition) are all-stock deals, which have the added benefit of reducing the control the nonprofit entity has over the for profit OpenAI entity.
How do you extract the for profit entity out of the hands of a nonprofit?
Step 1: you have close friends or partners at a company - with no product, users, or revenue - valued at 6.5billion.
Step 2: you acquire that entity, valuing it unreasonably high so that the nonprofit’s stake is diluted.
And now control of OpenAI (the PBC) is in the hands of for profit entities.
Matt Sephton:
To think that Apple could have had this from Jony and team…but for whatever reason they chose to throw it all away.
Maybe someday we’ll hear more about why Ive and his team wanted to leave Apple, but it seems unlikely that this is what they’d have been doing had they stayed.
John Gruber (Mastodon):
This is just a vibes teaser, but the vibe is a shot across the bow. It conveys grand ambition, but without pretension. To say I’m keen to get my hands on what they’re making is an understatement.
BasicAppleGuy:
How it started & how it’s going
Previously:
Acquisition Artificial Intelligence Business ChatGPT Jonathan Ive OpenAI
Meek Geek (tweet):
If you migrated to a new Mac running Sequoia using Migration Assistant instead of a clean install:
- Notifications from iPhone will stop showing up
- Widgets from iPhone will still be there based on the state before the migration, but will never update anymore
Previously:
Bug iOS Widgets iPhone Mirroring Mac macOS 15 Sequoia Migration Assistant Notification Center
Chance Miller (MacRumors):
After a nearly five-year hiatus, Fortnite is back on the App Store for iPhone and iPad users in the United States. Epic Games announced the return of the battle royale gaming app this afternoon, and you can head to the App Store now to download it.
Fortnite is also back in the Epic Games Store and AltStore in the European Union.
[…]
The situation took another turn yesterday when Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said the Apple official “personally responsible for ensuring compliance” would have to appear in court if Epic and Apple failed to resolve the matter. That person would need to be “fully prepared to answer any questions on the topic” during a hearing on May 27.
John Gruber (Mastodon):
The craziest thing about this entire saga is that Apple won the original lawsuit on 9/10 or 10/11 points, depending on how you count them.
[…]
All Apple had to do was allow apps to link out to the web, which clearly should have been allowed since forever ago — link-outs were the antitrust/competition escape valve — and they’d have swept the entire Epic lawsuit and it would have been over four years ago.
Jeff Johnson:
Honestly, YGR seems like kind of a hypocrite. It doesn’t make any sense that the judge allowed Apple to ban Epic’s US developer accounts—indeed they’re still banned!—but then magically use a developer account from the EU.
This inconsistency may help Apple on appeal.
The judge’s reasoning remains unspecified. I posted a guess the other day, which is that this is all the result of a combination of the US and EU cases. YGR found that Apple could ban both Epic’s US and Swedish developer accounts. But she also found that Apple can’t block Fortnite for linking out. With the EU ensuring that Epic has the Swedish account, that creates a route to both submit the app and have it not be rejected (so long as it follows the rules). One of these is that it does have to offer IAP.
M.G. Siegler:
It is both wild that it has been nearly five years since Fortnite left the App Store – but far more wild that Epic has kept up the battle this long, despite what must be billions in lost revenue. It’s easy to get lost in the day-to-day of this back-and-forth, but just take a step back: Fortnite is one of the, if not the, biggest games of the world. And it wasn’t on the largest platform for half a decade.
And now it’s back. I would argue – as I have been for the past five years – that it’s the direct result of a calculated long-game maneuver by Tim Sweeney. Per above, it could not have been worth it, monetarily, obviously. Even with the ability to accept payments on the web, saving Epic from Apple’s 30% cut, it will take years to earn back that lost revenue – if they ever do, because you have to assume most customers will still choose to use Apple’s in-app payment mechanisms!
That’s one of the silliest things about all of this. Had Apple just agreed to compete for the customer’s wallet here, they undoubtedly would have won most of the time – yes, even with the 30% cut. Because convenience often trumps cost, and Apple’s system is seamless and very well done!
Dare Obasanjo:
Hats off to Tim Sweeney. He played the long game and won a victory for the entire industry.
Previously:
App Store Epic Games External iOS Payments Fortnite In-App Purchase iOS iOS 18 iOS App Lawsuit Legal
