Amicus Therap

The two products from the past couple of days have put me in deep thought.

1. Google Gemini 3.6 Flash: When I read the news about its launch, I was still lying in bed, and I felt absolutely no excitement like when the other two (OpenAI/Anthropic) launched new models, because it was just a version bump +0.1 and still the Flash version. Later, after seeing its model performance benchmarks, it felt like this couldn't even be called the launch of a new model; it's just fine-tuning and improvement.

2. Galaxy Z Fold 8: I'm referring to the shorter, stubbier version without the Ultra. It's neither here nor there; who would buy that? It's inconvenient for typing, and the screen isn't as big as a tablet for watching movies.

But yesterday during the day, while I was going about my usual work, I gradually realized that I might not have understood Gemini's development direction. Although I pay $200 a month for subscriptions to ChatGPT and Claude, Cursor has a standard paid subscription, and Grok comes with usage credits via Twitter (X) Premium+. Yet, I usually delegate tedious and simple Q&A tasks to Gemini. Not because it's the strongest—it clearly isn't—but because its speed is incredibly fast, and its spoken expression is relatively natural. Sometimes when I ask it to output a deep research report, its expression ability and report layout are the most readable for me.

If Google deeply understands user habits like mine, they might carve out a different path, focusing on fast response times and deep integration with their own services. Competing on scale-up might be secondary.

Whether it's a personal account or a corporate account, I use Google services.

So, an AI that reacts quickly and is deeply integrated into Google's ecosystem can firmly lock in users like me without needing the absolute top-tier reasoning intelligence. This is the path Google should take based on its home-field advantages. They may still do scale-up, but it's not the most urgent priority.

I saw the Galaxy Z Fold 8 product early this morning. Although I didn't feel much at first glance, even thinking it was a bit ordinary.

But while having breakfast, I couldn't help but think about this short, stubby little toy. The aspect ratio grows on you the more you look at it. I even started wondering if it's worth keeping a Galaxy Z Fold 8 in my bag alongside an S Ultra phone used as a daily driver and camera. If I confirm I don't need to take photos, I'll hold the Galaxy Z Fold 8 as my main device. Only when my schedule requires photography or making traditional phone calls will I take out the traditional S Ultra phone from my bag.

The unique screen aspect ratio has actually become a reason for me to consider buying it for daily use. Perhaps, many times we just need manufacturers to define "usage habits".