Mark Gurman, in his weekly Power On column for Bloomberg (paywalled, alas):

Even with the rosy sales forecast, the road ahead won’t be easy. Apple is betting heavily on the new Siri, which will lean on Google’s Gemini model and introduce features like AI-powered web search. But there’s no guarantee users will embrace it, that it will work seamlessly or that it can undo years of damage to the Siri brand.

And then, down below in his “Post Game Q&A”:

Q: Is Apple still planning to use Google Gemini to power the new Siri?

A: As I’ve reported a few times now, Apple is paying Google to create a custom Gemini-based model that can run on its private cloud servers and help power Siri. Apple held a bake-off this year between Anthropic and Google, ultimately determining that the former offered a better model but that Google made more sense financially (partly due to the tech giants’ preexisting search relationship). I don’t expect either company to ever discuss this partnership publicly, and you shouldn’t expect this to mean Siri will be flooded with Google services or Gemini features already found on Android devices. It just means Siri will be powered by a model that can actually provide the AI features that users expect — all with an Apple user interface.

This is quite the aside to tuck into a one-paragraph Q&A item. First, I love the idea that Apple is pursuing technical excellence as a top priority for the next-gen LLM-powered Siri. If Apple winds up using its own models, it should be because those models are truly competitive with the best models on the market. And if they can work out a deal to use models from Google because those models are technically superior to Apple’s own, they should.

It’s kind of wild though to think that, if this comes to pass, neither company will publicly acknowledge the arrangement. I believe it’s possible — but it would be odd. Right now Apple has a public partner for Apple Intelligence: optional integration with ChatGPT. Apple labels that integration as an “extension”, and has repeatedly stated — including as recently as last week — that they’re looking at other partners to add. The most obvious partner Apple could add — one that Craig Federighi mentioned by name on the day that Apple Intelligence was announced at WWDC 2024 — would be Google Gemini.

If what Gurman is reporting comes to pass, and Apple’s own cloud-based LLM technology is a white-label version of Google Gemini, it’d be pretty weird if that ships and Google Gemini still is not a named extension partner for Apple Intelligence. But it would also be a little weird if Google Gemini does become a named partner for Apple Intelligence alongside ChatGPT, while Apple’s own default cloud-based Apple Intelligence is powered by Gemini’s models.

Anthony Castrovince, writing for MLB (News+ link):

Behind a stunning, game-tying swat from Miguel Rojas in the top of the ninth, a first-of-its-kind, go-ahead blast from Will Smith in the top of the 11th and the absurd extra work World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto provided on zero days’ rest, the Dodgers broke Toronto hearts with their comeback 5-4 victory in a game that merited its own month on the MLB calendar.

The Dodgers are MLB’s first repeat champs since the 1998-2000 Yankees, and the four-hour, seven-minute, extra-innings affair it took to decide that was a fitting end to a true Fall Classic in which these two clubs exhausted each other — not just in the 18-inning epic at Dodger Stadium in Game 3 but throughout a Series in which they both had to empty the tank.

When a series goes to game 7, every fan hopes it’s a good game. But this was a great game — as good as baseball gets. Great pitching, clutch hitting, and some amazing fielding plays. Simply riveting to watch. The Blue Jays came within an inch or two of winning the Series on this play in the bottom of the 9th (and I think they would’ve won on that play if Kiner-Falefa had run through home plate rather than inexplicably sliding).

My thanks to Jaho Coffee Roaster for sponsoring this week at DF. Jaho has been family-owned since 2005, and they’re guided by their slogan: “Live Slow”. Jaho knows that great coffee takes care. From sourcing small-lot single origins to blending coffees for balance, they small-batch roast their award-winning coffees in Salem and Tokyo.

For the at-home coffee drinker, they roast to order and pack the same coffees brewed and served in all of their cafés. For the office worker, Jaho is proud to be a wholesaler with select partners across the nation and in Japan. Jaho was kind enough to send me a few bags of their beans, and I can vouch that they roast excellent coffee — the kind of tasty beans where, when I finish my last morning cup, I’m tempted to brew a little more even though I know I’m fully caffeinated.

For the month of October, every year, Jaho donates all online coffee bean sale profits to Susan G. Komen for Breast Cancer Awareness. (The pink in their brand colors originated from this partnership.) For this DF sponsorship, they’re carrying that promotion for all online sales through the end of day on Monday, November 3.

Jaho ships their fresh beans nationwide, and they’re offering a special deal for DF readers: take 20% off with code DF. Give up bad coffee for good, and support a great cause at the same time.

The president of the United States, on his blog:

Seth Meyers of NBC may be the least talented person to “perform” live in the history of television. In fact, he may be the WORST to perform, live or otherwise. I watched his show the other night for the first time in years. In it he talked endlessly about electric catapults on aircraft carriers which I complain about as not being as good as much less expensive steam catapults. On and on he went, a truly deranged lunatic. Why does NBC waste its time and money on a guy like this??? - NO TALENT, NO RATINGS, 100% ANTI TRUMP, WHICH IS PROBABLY ILLEGAL!!!

The funny part about Trump wildly flailing that Late Night With Seth Meyers is somehow “probably illegal” is that the very sentence of the segment that so upset Trump begins with this: “Donald Trump called criticism of his trip to Asia ‘almost treasonous’ and threatened to send active duty military into US cities. For more on this, it’s time for ‘A Closer Look’.”

Paul Lukas, founder of Uni Watch:

Due to a perfect storm of negative developments, I have reluctantly come to the unfortunate conclusion that continuing to publish Uni Watch is no longer viable. This will be the site’s final post.

Yes, I’m serious. And no, this isn’t a Halloween-related prank. Uni Watch is shutting down, for real.

I realize this news probably comes as a shock and that you no doubt have lots of questions, so let’s shift into Q&A mode. [...]

Will the site’s archive remain on the web?

No, unfortunately. Most of the archive — everything but the past few days’ worth of content — has already been taken down. The rest of the site, including this post, will be taken offline soon, probably around next Wednesday.

26 years is a hell of a run (dating back to 1999, a few years before Uni Watch became a standalone site), but I don’t understand why sites don’t leave their archives standing when they close down. It shouldn’t cost much to keep the domain name registered and a static version of the site’s archive online.

Uni Watch, to me, epitomized a certain mindset from the early web. To wit, that there ought to be a blog (or two or three) dedicated to every esoteric interest under the sun. You want to obsess about sports team uniform designs? Uni Watch was there. For a good long stretch, there seemingly was a blog (or two or three) dedicated to just about everything. That’s starting to wane. New sites aren’t rising to take the place of retiring ones.