Rene Ritchie

Rene Ritchie is a technology show that keeps Apple at the center without letting it stand alone. Apple is measured against Intel, Qualcomm, Google, Samsung and MediaTek, and against the physics that limits all of them. The chip episodes are conversations with a guest, and they stay concrete. One takes on thermal limits: as enclosures get smaller and more elegant, some companies keep adding power and cores while others build dedicated silicon engines for specific tasks. The discussion follows Apple's move from licensing ARM core designs to a package that is almost entirely custom, apart from a thin Qualcomm modem. Google's Tensor chips come up too, leaning on Samsung IP a little less each year. In 'Apple vs Intel vs Qualcomm — Who wins 2023!', a lightning round goes vendor by vendor. A guest argues that Intel's foundry business matters more to its future than Intel's products, and questions whether Samsung's in-house processors have much of a future. Then the register changes. When the subject is Elon Musk and Twitter, the host talks in quick, joke-heavy bursts, describing Musk as 'speed running social network leadership fantasy camp' and picturing a 'burning balrog shaped hole' if the platform fails. There is an argument under the humor. The host has been on Twitter since 2007 and already pays for Twitter Blue, but still calls it incompetent to equate a subscription with verification. In 'How (NOT) to save a company', the case is that a network earns its place with creators by paying them. That money depends on advertisers, and advertisers depend on brand safety. The line that sticks turns 'moving fast and breaking things' into 'thinking deeply and building things'. 'The Elon Phone' starts from the idea, floated on Twitter, that Musk should make his own smartphone if Apple and Google pulled Twitter from their app stores. It then explains why that is so hard. Apple managed it with the Mac's technology stack and Steve Jobs' conviction that existing phones fell short. Google bought Android because it feared Microsoft would own mobile. Huawei had to do it after being cut off from US technology. Health tech gets its own conversation, with @DoctorMike, where trackers and smartwatches draw the verdict 'largely overrated'. The verdict is carefully dated to December 7th, 2022, in case a later breakthrough proves it wrong. The sharper point is about screening: catching a cancer early can look good on paper while deaths from other causes rise through unnecessary treatment, so the downstream effects have to be studied. Sign-offs point to the channel, to playlists and to the next video, so the show also lives as video. For chips, start with the Apple, Intel and Qualcomm lightning round. For platform drama, try 'Elon v Twitter — Endgame'.