Side Project Spotlight

Tim Cook is stepping down in September, and The Trio has plenty of thoughts on what the Ternus era means for Apple. Kotaro dives into his embedded systems rabbit hole (Raspberry Pis, ESP32s, and a Godot refresher), while Steve sounds the AI hype alarm, comparing the current frenzy to NFTs and the Metaverse, complete with a shoe company that somehow pivoted to GPU data centers on a $50M budget. Steve's monitor saga drags on, the SpaceX/Cursor "announcement of an announcement" gets the skepticism it deserves, and The Trio wraps up with details on the May 14 IRL meetup in Philly.

## Chapters

00:00 Introductions

05:54 Kotaro's Side Project Adventures

08:29 Diving into Hardware and Embedded Systems

11:17 Raspberry Pi Adventures and Microcontrollers

14:02 Creating AI Projects with Raspberry Pi

18:19 Exploring DIY Devices and Learning in Tech

23:21 Game Development and Learning Curves

24:16 AI Tools and Programming Challenges

26:55 The AI Hype Update and Economic Realities

36:57 Balancing AI Use in Software Development

39:53 The Hype Cycle of AI and Media

44:32 So Long, Time Apple, and Thanks for All the Fish!

53:07 The Future of Apple in the Ternus Era

56:43 Steve's Monitor Watch Update

58:57 Wrap Up

01:00:37 Tag

## Show Notes

- Tim Cook announced his retirement as Apple CEO, effective September, with hardware chief John Ternus set to take the helm.

- The Trio agrees Cook grew Apple into the world's most valuable company, and the MacBook Neo might just be his most quintessential product.

- Ternus is seen as more of an engineer/visionary, and Steve is cautiously hoping he'll bring more Jobs-era decisiveness to Apple's product direction.

- Kotaro is deep in embedded systems this year, learning Raspberry Pi 5s and ESP32 microcontrollers the hard way (wrong cables, wrong GPIO boards, all of it).

- He's built a basic AI chatbot device (think DIY Rabbit R1, hooked to Google Gemini) and is eyeing a 5-inch touchscreen home automation kiosk.

- TRMNL, the E Ink dashboard device, comes up as a goal Kotaro is working toward, though the large version is sold out.

- GitHub Copilot paused new signups, dropped Opus from Pro plans, and started rationing usage, which Steve reads as AI's economic reality finally catching up.

- Steve puts AI hype at NFT/Metaverse levels: a shoe company pivoted to GPU data centers, and SpaceX "announced" it has the option to buy Cursor for $60B without actually buying anything.

- Steve's XDR monitor watch continues: he watched a glowing review, still can't justify the price, but is eyeing the nano-texture option for his glare-heavy room.

- The Trio closes with news of a PhillyCocoa IRL meetup on May 14 at the Vanguard building, featuring Kotaro on Metal shaders.

## Links

**Hardware & Devices**

TRMNL: https://trmnl.com/ | Rabbit R1: https://www.rabbit.tech/rabbit-r1

**Snazzy Labs TRMNL Review**

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWw5NKUx40o

**AI Hype Update**

We are near peak hype (Primeagen): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAREqdtUN48

SpaceX/Cursor ($60B): https://www.reuters.com/technology/spacex-says-it-has-option-acquire-startup-cursor-60-billion-2026-04-21/

**One More Thing**

IRL Meetup RSVP (May 14): https://luma.com/i00ll61z

**PhillyCocoa:** http://phillycocoa.org

Intro music: "When I Hit the Floor", © 2021 Lorne Behrman. Used with permission of the artist.