Tutti Bianchi
I have always said Apple and F1 are perfectly adjacent. Both Pinnacles of technology and innovation. Great article by AppleInsider on this exact point, specifically in relation to the Oracle RedBull Racing 2026 F1 car launch with Ford in Michigan on January 15, 2026.
Apple opened a beautiful new/relocated store on Sainte-Catherine West in downtown Montreal. As is typical of Apple retail they restored a former historic building, keeping the outside facade and overall ascetic. Simple and sleek. I have been to the original relocated store and it was small. This looks stunning cannot wait to visit.
According to the Wall St. Journal: “The product will be capable of being fully aware of a user’s surroundings and life, will be unobtrusive, able to rest in one’s pocket or on one’s desk, and will be a third core device a person would put on a desk after a MacBook Pro and an iPhone.” Like I said in yesterday’s post. No issues for Apple short term. But I’m curious to see if they actually take this seriously and pivot accordingly. But who knows. I haven’t seen many pivots from them lately.
Just a quick observation on the Jony Ive/io announcement from earlier today. I think the timing was on purpose. WWDC is less than 3 weeks away. That WHITE ELEPHANT is definitely going to be walking around Apple Park.
We all knew this was coming. What we didn’t know and still don’t is what the product is. But we now have an idea on the structure of what the people building it will look like. Jony Ive’s io will merge with OpenAI. That’s a separate company from LoveFrom. Evans Hankey and Tang Tan previously at Apple with Jony are also cofounders of io. LoveFrom is handling the design and I assume materials design. I believe the software is under io. You can watch the announcement here. I absolutely love Jony, I still think the biggest mistake Apple made was letting him leave. I don’t think we will ever know the real story of what transpired. However I don’t like Sam. Never have and I don’t think I ever will. Maybe I’m too old for AI. I really don’t use it for anything important. I use mostly Grok for search and information, nothing more than that. The big WHITE ELEPHANT in the room is how this will ultimately affect Apple. Short term not so much. But I will go out on a limb and say that the fuse is lit and long term this might be what starts the end for Apple. Yes I know that’s a big statement. But aside from the whiny Apple pundits who bitched and complained about Jony’s later designs. He is still the best designer of the last 20 years. Maybe of all time. Bet against him at your own peril.
UPDATE: according to Bloomberg LoveFrom will “take over design for all of OpenAI, including its software,”
Finally!!!
At this point I truly believe that Jony Ive needs to return to Apple. Either Apple re-ups LoveFrom‘s original consultant/customer gig or Apple purchases LoveFrom outright, like they did Beats and let Jony do what he does best. Plus it turns out from the most recent court docs that Tim is a hypocrite and cares more for the almighty dollar than he does about doing what’s right.
“simply” wonderful.
If this is what they can do with Dua Lipa(marketing only). Imagine how Apple & Porsche combined could do some amazing things to push the upcoming 2026 Cayenne.
Bianco Mac 