This Week in Tech (Audio) TWiT 1049: Gas Station Lafufu - Apple's Pumpkin Spice Orange & Influencer Era
24 snips
Sep 15, 2025 
Victoria Song, a senior reviewer at The Verge, discusses the challenges of tech embargoes and corporate storytelling at Apple events. Jason Hiner, editor-in-chief at ZDNet, analyzes the implications of AI in search tech and explores the evolving marketing strategies in the industry. Dan Patterson, from Blackbird AI, tackles the impact of social media bans in Nepal and the role of narrative manipulation in geopolitics. Together, they highlight the rise of tiny vinyl records and the mix of tech with celebrity culture, making for a lively conversation.
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Design Over AI At Apple
- Apple framed the event around design and incremental hardware improvements rather than AI grand promises.
- Reviewers observed Apple leaning into confident storytelling to meet current consumer demand, not investor-driven AI hype.
Influencers Slowing Press Access
- Victoria described being slowed on the spiral staircase by influencers shooting content en route to the event.
- She contrasted fast-paced reporters seeking seats with influencers staging prolonged selfie moments.
Health Features Intentionally Non-Diagnostic
- Wearable health features are framed as detection rather than diagnosis to avoid medical-device liability.
- Apple uses baseline ML comparisons over time, so watches flag issues but don't provide definitive readings.
