Apple Tries to Impress at WWDC 2025 & College Athletes Get Paid

0:26Race the rudders! Good morning, Brew Daily Show. I'm Neil Freiman. And I'm Toby Howell. Today, can Apple get its mojo back? Don't ask Siri. She doesn't know anything. Then college athletes feel free to add guac to your Chipotle bowl because schools will soon be able to pay you directly. It's Monday, June 9th. Let's ride.

0:53There are almost infinite reasons why you could be delayed at airport security, but it's time to add a new one to the list. The person in front of you is trying to check in using their Costco membership card. Last week, TSA had to issue a PSA on social media, reminding travelers that Costco cards are not a substitute for the real IDs you now need to get on a flight. We love hot dogs and rotisserie chickens as much as the next person TSA wrote, but please stop telling people their Costco card counts as a real ID because it absolutely does not. This fake travel hack pops up about every year or so and was most recently spread by the food site Chowhound, which published an article called How Your Costco Card Could Save You at the Airport.

1:36Oh, it can save you lots, but not at the airport. Okay, I see the issue here. It's got your face on it. It's got a gold star on it. So if it walks like a real ID and it talks like a real ID, is it not a real ID? Still, I feel like I have a simple solution to this issue. Let Costco run airport security. Free samples in line, helpful workers,$1.50 hot dogs once you make it through. Who says no? Not me. I'm not saying no. And now a word from our new sponsor, Domain Money. Neil, what do you know about building wealth? Just that you need a fresh supply of groundwater, a bucket, a rope. Wealth, Neil, not wells.

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2:47That's domainmoney.com slash mbdaily. Quick disclaimer, we are current clients of Domain Money Advisors, LLC. Through Domain's sponsorship of Morning Brew Daily, we receive compensation that included a free plan and thus have an incentive to promote Domain Money. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Checking off the boxes on your to-do list is a great feeling. And when it comes to checking off coverage, a State Farm agent can help you choose an option that's right for you. Whether you prefer talking in person, on the phone, or using the award-winning app, it's nice knowing you have help finding coverage that best fits your needs.

3:22Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Later today, Apple will kick off its annual developers conference, WWDC, with an opportunity to announce impressive AI upgrades that will help narrow a widening gap with its competitors. But it's not going to do that. Apple is expected to steer clear of whiz-bang AI features and focus instead on improvements to legacy operating systems. An embarrassing acknowledgement that when it comes to AI, the company is just not ready for the big leagues yet. It could be a bump in the road or signify something much worse. Apple missing out on a once-in-a-generation technological revolution.

4:00In the past, Apple has used its developers conference to hype its biggest announcements and upgrades. In 2023, it revealed its virtual reality headset, the Vision Pro. Last year, it debuted Apple Intelligence, a suite of AI features that were supposed to fend off upstarts like OpenAI and spur a new cycle of people trading in their older iPhones for a new one with AI capabilities. That push has so far been a failure. Most of the Apple Intelligence features added to iPhones have been underwhelming at best, like notification summaries. And the AI showpiece, an upgraded Siri that would work just as well as voice assistance from ChatGPT and Google, is still nowhere to be seen.

4:38So, Toby, Tim Cook is in the hot seat after promises made at last year's WWDC have yet to pan out. Odds are Apple will strike a more cautious tone at the keynote this afternoon. Yeah, a lot of commentators and watchers of the industry say that we almost want to see an apology out of Apple because what they promised with Apple intelligence last time around just didn't come to fruition at all. A lot of people are calling it pure vaporware, which is just tech that looks like it's something, but nothing is really there if you dig down to what you're actually dealing with. And so there is probably not going to happen.

5:12Apple is not going to come out and say, hey, we're so sorry for these missteps that occurred. They're probably just going to smile and project confidence like they always do. But yeah, certainly a moment in Apple's like WWDC history where it doesn't feel like they have the next big thing to announce. The next big thing to announce for them is just rebranding its iOS and rebranding how it's numbering some things. So it's not a big paradigm shifting thing. So they're at this crossroads right now. And how they project confidence going forward is going to be very interesting to watch because they don't exactly have an ace in the hole at this moment.

5:45No, it was supposed to be Siri, this upgraded Siri that would work just as well as ChatGPT. You know, in Siri's history, for a time, it was the only voice assistant around. So we thought, OK, Siri exists. It's not that good. But hey, that's what voice assistants are. They're just not that good. And then ChatGPT has come along with its chat feature, but also its voice assistant. And every single other AI company, big tech company, has rolled out something like this. Meanwhile, Siri has been just in the development room for so long. I know, you know, we're not expecting Apple to issue apology at this WWDC because that is not something that they would do.

6:21But Tim Cook has come out in the past few months saying that we are not releasing the new Siri because the tech did not meet our high quality bar and it was taking a bit longer. Then we thought they had these ads that they had to pull from TV starring The Last of Us' Bella Ramsey. A huge embarrassment. So Apple really, at a crossroads right now, it's very interesting to see that all these other tech companies have these big developers conference. We just came off Google's where they're announcing huge AI features that are truly wowing people and wowing developers. Apple just doesn't have that right now.

6:54It does seem like the biggest AI-related announcement that we are going to get is that they're opening up their foundation models, their large language models, for the first time that power Apple intelligence. That will let outside creators, app creators, build AI features on that same tech that has, you know, powered the pretty scant writing tools, Genmoji, custom emojis, its summarization technology. So Apple is basically saying, I mean, this is what developer conferences are. They're like, hey, here's the sandbox. Go play in it. Go create something new. And that is what has powered Apple for, you know, decades now.

7:26Let's see if it's even a sandbox, though, that developers want to play in because Apple's frontier models are not necessarily the most sexy thing in the industry right now. So they do want to try to attract people and say, maybe you can build something better than what we've rolled out so far and hopefully get us back in this AI game that we're lagging behind in right now. JP Morgan is behaving a little bit like your jealous ex in that they really don't want you talking to anyone else other than them. The largest bank in the world recently told incoming grads that they'd be fired if they accepted a future job offer within their first 18 months at the bank.

8:03The rule comes as the bank is trying to crack down on associates jumping ship over to big bad private equity firms looking to plunder their junior talent. The bank didn't call out any industries by name, but the implication is that they want to crack down on PE companies on cycle recruitment periods where firms hand out offer letters two years in advance of expected start dates, poaching new hires after they've grabbed some investment banking experience. Wall Street obviously doesn't like this. So JP Morgan warned analysts that they could be fired for skipping summer job training after some junior bankers have snuck out of onboarding sessions to interview for lucrative private equity roles.

8:40Neil, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has publicly criticized the P.E. recruitment process, labeling it as unethical to work as an analyst for a bank while knowing you're heading to P.E. soon after. But this hardline stance puts the bank at odds with some of its most valuable clients as well. Jamie Dimon just doesn't seem to care about that. For years, he's been going after this style of recruiting, which people who are outside the industry must it must seem a little wild. The fact that these people are getting offers two years ahead of time for while they're working at companies that they don't even work for.

9:17And Jamie Dimon last year, he told a bunch of young undergraduates at Georgetown. I know a lot of you work at J.P. Morgan. You take a job at a private equity shop before you even start with us. I think it's wrong to put you in that position. you have to kind of decide the next career move before you have a chance to even decide what the company is like. And particularly for JP Morgan or any bank that's hiring someone who already has an offer letter, it's kind of like you are a farm team for a rival. So maybe there's this hot new prospect, a soccer prospect, Toby Howell, and I'm Liverpool, and I basically have to train this guy up.

9:51And then two years later, he's going to Manchester United. You can understand why Jamie Dimon says, I don't love this at all. Yeah, and part of the issue is that the Manchester United, in this metaphor, are the PE buyout shops that can offer these newly minted bankers much bigger compensation packages than what they're getting. And even America's biggest banks can't compete with what these offer letters are. Associates at PE firms can make up to$300 ,000 a year with bonuses that are almost around the same exact thing. Compare that with what Glassdoor filings show for JP Morgan. Figures put first range associate banker salaries at around$200 ,000 to$289 ,000.

10:31Again, it's still a lot of money, but PE firms are coming in and dangling just a larger carrot for these young college grads. And you can't really fault them for saying, OK, this is my path. I do my time in investment banking. And then I go on to PE. It's even happening at the very highest levels as well. Goldman Sachs just had to roll out the red carpet for their chief operating officer, John Waldron. They gave him an$80 million pay package this year because Apollo, Mark Rowan's Apollo Global Management, came in and tried to poach him as well. They are a big PE firm. So you're seeing it all the way from associates all the way up to the very top level brass as well.

11:09And this is a free country, a free market that we have. So JP Morgan is going to have to change their tactics to retain these hot prospects. So what they've done in response to PE shops poaching their young bankers is they are shortening the promotion cycle for a junior banker to be promoted to associate from three years to two and a half years. So they are taking steps in addition to cracking down. They're doing a carrot and a stick in order to keep their junior bankers at JP Morgan and not going elsewhere. OK, it's time to reveal our winners of the weekend. the segment where Toby and I pick two things whose Instagram stories made you so jealous.

11:46I won the pre-show rock skipping contest, so I get to go first. And my winner is college athletes because you are about to get paid directly by schools for the very first time. On Friday, a judge approved a settlement that will allow universities to pay athletes, which nukes once and for all the NCAA's longstanding amateurism model and marks the biggest change for college sports in over 100 years. Under the new system, athletic departments will be able to hand out about$20.5 million a year in name, image, and likeness revenue to athletes over the 2025-2026 season. They'll also pay$2.8 billion in damages to former D1 athletes who weren't able to sign NIL deals when they were in school going back to 2016.

12:30Now, this has been a long time coming. Over the past two decades, college athletics has grown into a booming industry with a billion dollar TV deals and coaches who are the highest paid public employees in their state. But the athletes who create the product said, hey, what about us? We're the only ones not getting rich here and launched a swarm of lawsuits challenging the NCAA's cherished amateurism model. They've made some progress in recent years, like when athletes were allowed to sign NIL endorsement deals with third parties, but never, never before were they in line to receive a direct revenue share with colleges.

13:03Toby, this might be the end of the NCAA as we know it. Yeah, it totally changes things around. Scholarships are now being replaced by this salary cap model where you have a certain amount of money to dole out two players on your roster. The majority of this money is obviously going to go to those revenue-generating sports like football, like men's basketball. So it's going to be interesting to see how the so-called maybe Olympic sports at college and universities get supported because, you know, Olympic sports that don't generate revenue but do kind of power the pool of Team USA when it comes to the actual Olympics, are they going to have enough money left over after all the money's been doled out to the other revenue-generating sports?

13:46Also, there's some Title IX question marks. You know, Title IX states that you have to provide equal opportunities to male and female athletes, how is this new salary cap going to fall under that legislation as well? And then there's also this third-party clearinghouse thing where you're going to have to have these new rules have been designed to limit the free reign that boosters and collectives have had over the NIL era so far. There has to be a valid business purpose to every NIL deal that's handed out to an athlete now. So even though that this was a landmark settlement and now if you are a college athlete, you're in line to be paid.

14:23There are a lot of other question marks that have arisen as well. And it seems like with every change that we've had over the past few years, with every settlement, the change to the college athletics landscape is that the biggest programs will get bigger and the mid-majors and the smaller colleges will fall by the wayside. So that gap is only going to get bigger. And so it is with this particular settlement as well, because if you have$20.5 million to dole out, that is a lot of money. It's not something that every college university can come up with. Can Ohio State and Alabama? Probably because they are extremely rich.

15:02And so they will have the resources to marshal$20.5 million to hand out and create these juggernaut rosters. Meanwhile, other colleges that aren't as rich will have to scramble to raise the money to match the 20.5 million that Alabama and Ohio State can marshal. They could also, you know, NIL is not going away, so there could be third parties that come in and say, hey, you're getting a lot of money from the school, but I'll throw some sugar on top in order to get you to come. So the gap between the have and the have nots will only increase from this. Now let's take a quick break before we get to my winner of the weekend.

15:36The Jack Welch Management Institute at Strayer University helps you go from I know the way to I've arrived, with our top 10 ranked online MBA. Gain skills you can learn today and apply tomorrow. Get ready to go from make it happen to made it happen and keep striving. Visit Strayer.edu slash Jack Welch MBA to learn more. Strayer University is certified to operate in Virginia by Shev and as many campuses, including at 2121 15th Street North in Arlington, Virginia. Eczema isn't always obvious, but it's real. And so is the relief from EBCLIS. After an initial dosing phase, about 4 in 10 people taking EBCLIS achieved itch relief and clear or almost clear skin at 16 weeks.

16:18And most of those people maintain skin that's still more clear at one year with monthly dosing. EBCLIS, LibriKizumab, LBKZ, a 250 milligram per two milliliter injection, is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kilograms with moderate to severe eczema. Also called atopic dermatitis that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin or topicals or who cannot use topical therapies. EpGliss can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you're allergic to EpGliss. Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe.

16:47Eye problems can occur. Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems. You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with EpGliss. Before starting EpGliss, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. Searching for real relief? Ask your doctor about EpGliss and visit epgliss.lily.com or call 1-800-LILY-RX or 1-800-545-5979. My winner of the weekend is the iconic Goodyear blimp, which recently celebrated its 100th year anniversary of lazily patrolling the skies. The ubiquitous airships created by the tire company have been a feature at sporting events across the country for decades now.

17:22Their ability to provide aerial coverage of Pebble Beach's iconic fairways or show the sheer scale of a college football stadium make them invaluable parts of TV broadcasts. The blimps themselves haven't seen their technology change all that much over the decades. They're still huge, slightly longer than a Boeing 747, and still putter around at speeds rarely exceeding 70 miles per hour. The Akron-based company originally produced more than 150 blimps for the U.S. Navy, only later using one to cover sports starting at the 1955 Rose Bowl. In the decades since, their ability to fly and hover nearly 1 ,000 feet off the ground while remaining quieter than a car have made them indispensable.

18:02Broadcasters are increasingly looping in more drones to their coverage, but drones can't fly as high or as long as good old blimps, so airships aren't going away anytime soon. Neil, pretty remarkable how a technology pioneered with the flight over Ohio back in 1925 is still flying around today and still one of the best ways to document a spectacle from above. It is. Their tie-ins with TV networks have only increased, and they do this very interesting transaction model with these TV networks where they go to ABC or CBS or ESPN or any company that's putting on a sporting event, and they say, hey, we're not going to actually exchange any money.

18:42what I will give you a blimp and I will give you amazing overhead shots, which are stunning. And in exchange, you will mention Goodyear 10 seconds for every hour. And the way they do that calculation is to say, okay, well, I could buy a 30 second ad spot over this three hour broadcast, or I could get 10 seconds every hour for three hours. And that's about the same. And I'll maybe, and I'll send the Goodyear blimp there. So it's a very interesting model that they've worked out ever since the 1955 Rose Bowl. So a very, have you seen one of these in real life? Not in person, I'm realizing. I have, they are majestic.

19:17They are just hovering over there. They take up so much of the sky. They're almost a football field long. They are massive. It is just a really cool sight to see in real life. Yeah, people love these blimps too. I mean, it has its own Instagram account with over 160 ,000 followers. There are more astronauts in the world than there are people trained to fly the Goodyear blimp. So it is this weirdly elite club of pilots who know how to pilot these things around. They aren't quick. That's the funniest part about all of these. 70 miles an hour sounds like a lot, but in air speed terms, that is not fast.

19:49They usually don't fly more than 300 miles a day. So they do have to have this calculus in the back of their mind saying, where do we bring our blimps? Because they have some obligations, but other times they just go where the spectacle is. And so maybe it's a college game day. Maybe it's a golf tournament or something like that. But it is funny that they just have to putter around. They have these crews that work two at a time. They always have to have someone on call in case wind picks up because there's not exactly a great autopilot system. So just a fascinating piece of technology, fascinating airship in general that has just remained popular for decades.

20:22Yeah, and just a key part of American marketing history. The Goodyear blimp was the first to actually fly at night and project a neon sign. This was way back in 1930. So when you're in Times Square or anywhere with a lot of neon signs at night, you can thank Goodyear. OK, it's Monday. So here is what you need to know about the week ahead. Tensions will remain high in downtown Los Angeles, where widespread anti-deportation protests have been ongoing for three days. Things escalated yesterday when Trump made the highly unusual decision of deploying National Guard troops to the demonstrations. The first time since 1965, a president had activated a state's National Guard for a domestic operation without a governor's request, sparking pushback from state leaders.

21:07The protests, which at times involved setting self-driving Waymos on fire, do seem to be confined to the downtown area. And the rest of the sprawling city was carrying on its business as usual. But a lot of eyes are on L.A. as the week begins. And then on Wall Street, all eyes are on Wednesday's monthly inflation report. which is important for a few reasons. It'll show whether prices have ticked up due to the tariffs. And number two, it's the last big piece of economic data before the Fed makes its interest rate decision next week. The inflation report will be a big test for a stock market that is summer vibing right now.

21:42The major indexes have climbed back to their highest levels since February, and the S &P 500 is hovering just 2 % from its record high. Although I know this is the week ahead, let's flashback to Friday for a second, where the jobs numbers came in showed a resilient but slowing jobs market. U.S. added 139 ,000 new jobs. Unemployment rate held steady about 4.2%. So the market did have this pretty strong end of the week because it was essentially happy that the jobs report didn't come in worse than it did. So as each piece of hard data comes in, including the inflation report, we'll get a better sense of where the economy stands.

22:19And yeah, another test for a pretty high-flying stock market. And of course, we're also watching trade talks. U.S. and China are meeting in London today to see if they can produce a breakthrough. The talks will focus not just on tariffs, but on those non-tariff barriers. Remember, last week we were talking about how automakers were warning that China was withholding rare earths, which could shutter auto production kind of all around the world if China doesn't grant those export licenses. So they're meeting in London today. That will also be the talk of Wall Street to see what happens over there.

22:51In sports, the Pacers and Thunder head to Indianapolis for Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday with the series tied 1-1. In the NHL, the Panthers and Oilers are also locked up at one game apiece ahead of Game 3 in Florida tonight. And in golf, the U.S. Open begins on Thursday, which is one of the most anticipated in years. The world's best golfers will take on Oakmont Country Club outside of Pittsburgh, considered one of the most difficult courses in the world. Scotty Scheffler will be the overwhelming favorite. Again, I'm sorry for looking back, even though this is week ahead, but we have to mention the French Open finals.

23:27So shout out, Coco. Shout out, Carlos, for putting on one heck of a show. We really went in men's tennis from the big three straight to the big two pretty seamlessly. That was one of the greatest sporting events I've ever witnessed. Also, looking ahead, I do just want to get my U.S. Open picks on the books now. Other than Scott Scheffler, other than Bryson, who one of those two will probably win, I do like Shane Lowry, Ben Griffin, or Harris English as sneaky sleeper pics. And most of all, the star of the show will be the chorus. Seems so hard. So much hype for being so, so, so, so hard. A new documentary on Netflix out Wednesday will offer a behind-the-scenes look at the Ocean Gate submersible disaster from 2023 when an experimental sub exploring the wreck of the Titanic exploded, killing all five people aboard.

24:12The doc will look at all the warning signs given to the company's CEO that this vehicle was just not safe for anyone. Yeah, some details have already emerged ahead of the documentary dropping, including the chief submersible pilot getting fired for trying to warn the company CEO about the potential dangers of doing this experimental carbon fiber hole. So definitely going to be a salacious documentary that a lot of people from the business world and everywhere else will be tuning in. And then finally, at the tail end of the week, we've got a Friday the 13th coming up, spooky, the live action remake of How to Train Your Dragon coming to theaters and Father's Day on Sunday.