Apple Executives Discuss WWDC and Delayed Siri Features in Interviews

[risenphoenixkai]

I'm curious... How are all of the Apple devices in your house rendered *useless* due to Siri?

If I had a keyboard that had even a 0.1% failure rate, like once in a while it typed S instead of A, I would throw that keyboard in the recycling bin.

Siri’s (subjective) failure rate started at around 5% in 2011. It’s more like 75% now. It is an utter POS that tarnishes the rest of the user experience of Apple devices, both for me (been an avid Apple nerd since 1982) and my partner (only managed to lure her to the Apple side a few years ago).

Every single time I invoke Siri, I brace myself for idiocy. It’s like having a personal assistant who recently suffered a massive head injury and is trying to hide that fact — and not at all succeeding.

*****

“Hey, Siri: bedroom light 100%.”

*turns bedroom light off*

“Hey, Siri: bedroom light on.”

*no response*

*****

“Hey, Siri: what’s the weather like in Hastings?”

*gives me the weather for Hastings in the UK; I live in New Zealand*

*****

“Hey, Siri: set a four minute timer.”

(around five minutes later) “Hey, Siri: how long is left on the timer?”

“There are no timers running.”

*****

“Hey, Siri: give me driving directions for (specific address in Lower Hutt)”

*gives me directions for the Lower Hutt CBD*

“No. Give me directions for (specific address)”

*repeats same directions for Lower Hutt CBD*

“NO. GIVE ME DIRECTIONS FOR (SPECIFIC ADDRESS)”

*no response*

*****

“Hey, Siri: what’s the temperature in the bathroom?”

“The temperature sensor is not responding.”

*checks in Home app: the temperature sensor definitely is responding*

*****

“Hey, Siri: can cats safely eat pumpkin?”

“I found some web results. You can view them on your iPhone.”

*****

“Hey, Siri: add milk to the groceries list.”

“Who is speaking?”

*****

“Hey, Siri: how long will it take me to get home?”

“You’ll need to unlock your iPhone first.”

(I’m driving and don’t want to crash my damn car trying to unlock my damn iPhone)

*****

“Hey, Siri: tomorrow at 7, remind me to take out the rubbish.”

*creates a reminder for 7pm tonight instead of 7am*

 

[Naraxus]

What has iJustine actually achieved to warrant these interviews?

A whole lore more than you and others give her credit for

 

[Cameront9]

iJustine knows her stuff. Yes, she makes a certain kind of YouTube video that is very popular with the algorithm. But she also knows her tech very well.

 

[Lioness~]

Joanna Stern wasn't pulling any punches, I feel like her interview (from what I've seen so far) was tougher than anything Gruber ever did.

Joanna Stern did a really good interview.
Pretty clear for now that Siri is way behind, not easy to make something not so smart to smart.
She has not been part of my journey this far, and won’t be in the future either, where I think AI can serve me.

 

[Pyrazol]

:hide-the-Siri-pain-Craig:

 

[dss33k]

Good point. There are times when Gruber puts up multiple posts in a row are about non-tech and Appleley stuff. That's fine - it's his site. But at some point you wonder if companies just want to steer clear of that.

But they’re fine paying for ads on Twitter. A Nazi bar.

 

[ipedro]

I wonder how John Gruber feels about his "Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino" piece right now. Apple didn't decide they just weren't going to do WWDC interviews with creators this year, they decided they weren't going to do WWDC interviews with John Gruber. Ouch.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I wonder how John Gruber feels about his "Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino" piece right now. Apple didn't decide they just weren't going to do WWDC interviews with creators this year, they decided they weren't going to do WWDC interviews with John Gruber. Ouch.

I'll bet he feels just fine.

It's called having some integrity.

The shills lining up to suck on whatever Apple puts in their mouth are embarrassing.

 

[mlayer]

IMO Gruber's AI criticism isn't the problem. It's the format. The Talk Show (this week's installment still unreleased as of this comment) happened on Tuesday night, at the end of the Craig & Joz PR tour. Most of the PR hits for them were 15-30 minutes. The Talk Show is longer and more freeform than that even when it breaks into segments as it usually does when an official Apple exec visits. Apple clearly wanted to stay on message, and Gruber has shown a tendency to drift during interviews into fanboy territory. Gruber's not the guy you call when you want a hard interview. And frankly, I'm not sure he's ever done a truly straight journalistic interview that *might* get into combative territory, as Joanna Stern's did.

 

[DavidByrneApple]

I wonder how John Gruber feels about his "Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino" piece right now. Apple didn't decide they just weren't going to do WWDC interviews with creators this year, they decided they weren't going to do WWDC interviews with John Gruber. Ouch.

And? It was a brillant analysis, right to this day. He said it was vaporware, which by the definition of vaporware is still true. The features from last years keynote are still not shipped, so they were vaporware.
I gained actually a lot of respect for Gruber with this piece knowingly risking his good connection to Apple.

 

[Johnny907]

What’s the story with the shirts? Did these all get filmed on the same day?

Yeah, it's called a Press Junket. They film these things back to back over the course of a day or two.

 

[Donkey Man]

I wonder how John Gruber feels about his "Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino" piece right now. Apple didn't decide they just weren't going to do WWDC interviews with creators this year, they decided they weren't going to do WWDC interviews with John Gruber. Ouch.

How nice of Apple to grant interviews only to its sycophants, heh? No wonder their conferences are all pre-recorded now; they couldn't bear any boos from the audience.

 

[2DeedleD]

I'm curious... How are all of the Apple devices in your house rendered *useless* due to Siri?


"I wasn’t planning on buying anything new for a while, but I’m seriously tempted to give the other side a try."

I say go for it and find happiness. If I was that unhappy I certainly would. Stat!

Amen. Don't talk about it, BE about it!

 

[DrJR]

What’s the story with the shirts? Did these all get filmed on the same day?

yes

 

[iPhoneFan5349]

What’s the story with the shirts? Did these all get filmed on the same day?

Of course, that’s how it works. The guy sits there and journalists wait in line until it’s their 15 minutes to interview

 

[GrassShark]

They've said multiple times in these interviews that the contextual Siri last year was a working demo and not fictitious which is what Gruber accused the of so I feel that article he wrote really touched a nerve.

In fact they've made a point of going to multiple different interviewers apart from him this year. Last year I believe it was just Gruber that got an interview with Craig and Joz.

Again, has anyone checked on him? Can't feel great to be jilted like that from a company you have a life long love for and had such access to.

They do multiple interviews every year. It's not like they only did Gruber's thing before this and now they're branching out for the first time. I'm sure they were annoyed by what he wrote, regardless of whether it was justified or not, but I think people are reading way too much into this.

It's not like Gruber is a rational voice of truth in the Apple community. That one blog post aside, he's essentially Apple PR. I get that he's been doing this a long time but he's far from an objective or rational observer. He's a fanatic who got grumpy one time and had an outburst.

 

[Padriac]

It's not like Gruber is a rational voice of truth in the Apple community. That one blog post aside, he's essentially Apple PR. I get that he's been doing this a long time but he's far from an objective or rational observer. He's a fanatic who got grumpy one time and had an outburst.

And yet he was the rational voice of truth that caused Apple to have to go on a damage control tour this WWDC. Stern’s interview doesn’t go as hard it did without him starting the fire. “Gruber is a schill”… except when he isn’t. Gruber isn’t a journalist (unlike Stern, Patel, etc.) but he also hits harder than soft Youtubers Apple decided to talk to. He’s a self-admitted Apple fan but that’s not unique. Citation needed on him being irrational.

This is classic “objectivity = negativity” fallacy that Macrumors thrives on. Nitpicking every move Apple makes wouldn’t be any more objective than praising their every move. In the middle lies the truth.

 

[GrassShark]

And yet he was the rational voice of truth that caused Apple to have to go on a damage control tour this WWDC. Stern’s interview doesn’t go as hard it did without him starting the fire. “Gruber is a schill”… except when he isn’t. Gruber isn’t a journalist (unlike Stern, Patel, etc.) but he also hits harder than soft Youtubers Apple decided to talk to. He’s a self-admitted Apple fan but that’s not unique. Citation needed on him being irrational.

This is classic “objectivity = negativity” fallacy that Macrumors thrives on. Nitpicking every move Apple makes wouldn’t be any more objective than praising their every move. In the middle lies the truth.

Quite a few issues in what you said here.

And yet he was the rational voice of truth that caused Apple to have to go on a damage control tour this WWDC.

There's no evidence that anything Apple has done this year is as a result of Gruber. You can obviously choose to believe that if you want, but it's not based on anything but vibes.

“Gruber is a schill”… except when he isn’t. Gruber isn’t a journalist (unlike Stern, Patel, etc.) but he also hits harder than soft Youtubers Apple decided to talk to. He’s a self-admitted Apple fan but that’s not unique. Citation needed on him being irrational.

Yes, if he's overly positive and willing to handwave away any flaws or problems with Apple, then yes, this one article is the outlier. If there are any other exmaples of him criticising Apple's practices in any meaningful way maybe I'm wrong, but I haven't seen them.

On the irrational part, totally fair, bad choice of words on my part. Maybe balanced or reasoned would have been more appropriate. What I mean is that pretty much any time up until a few weeks ago, you knew what you were getting with a Gruber post before you even clicked it. If there was an problem, Apple wasn't at fault. If there was a lawsuit, Apple was the victim. If there was a new feature, even if it had existed elsewhere for years, Apple had just changed the game and no one could comprehend this level of genius. They read like someone making up their mind and working backwards to justify the conclusion they had jumped to, not someone assessing the facts of a story and coming to an outcome based on those facts.

This is classic “objectivity = negativity” fallacy that Macrumors thrives on. Nitpicking every move Apple makes wouldn’t be any more objective than praising their every move. In the middle lies the truth.

I never said objectivity = negativity, that's something you've just made up. Objectivity is being able to see both sides of an issue, which is the antithesis of 99% of everything he's written in the last decade. I'm not saying he has to be an outspoken hater, but almost everything I've read or heard from him essentially boils down to "here's why Apple is the best and anyone who disagrees is dumb and wrong". You can even look to his threads account, where there was a period of like a year where all he did was whine about the EU and gloat whenever Apple withheld a feature from that market. Maybe he has a secret second blog where he's less fanatical and discusses both sides of issues properly, but again, I haven't seen it.


Now, this is all just my opinion and I expect you'll disagree with most or all of it, but it is what it is.

 

[ethanwa79]

nvmd

 

[Padriac]

Here’s you:

I never said objectivity = negativity, that's something you've just made up. Objectivity is being able to see both sides of an issue, which is the antithesis of 99% of everything he's written in the last decade.

But also here’s you:

Yes, if he's overly positive and willing to handwave away any flaws or problems with Apple, then yes, this one article is the outlier. If there are any other exmaples of him criticising Apple's practices in any meaningful way maybe I'm wrong, but I haven't seen them.

If this isn’t you defining objectivity by some invisible positivity to negativity ratio, then what is it?

Back to your “objectivity”:

What I mean is that pretty much any time up until a few weeks ago, you knew what you were getting with a Gruber post before you even clicked it. If there was an problem, Apple wasn't at fault. If there was a lawsuit, Apple was the victim. If there was a new feature, even if it had existed elsewhere for years, Apple had just changed the game and no one could comprehend this level of genius.

Come on, how can anybody take you serious on this topic when you say things like this. Gruber couldn’t have the rep he has in the community if this is what he really did. I repeat: citation needed. When it comes to your commentary on him ironically you seem guilty of something similar to what you accuse him of. Your comments read like someone making up their mind on what he’s about and what he wrote before you even read it and working backwards to justify the conclusion you jumped to, not someone assessing what was actually said and coming to an unbiased opinion based on facts.

You can even look to his threads account, where there was a period of like a year where all he did was whine about the EU and gloat whenever Apple withheld a feature from that market. Maybe he has a secret second blog where he's less fanatical and discusses both sides of issues properly, but again, I haven't seen it.

Since you brought up the EU/Legal topic, let’s just focus on that one bit. Gruber has been very vocal that he feels the EU’s approach is heavy handed with all sorts of things like USB-C mandates and cookie consents and etc.. This is a rational take: anybody who has has nearly lost their mind constantly opting out of cookie consents would agree. You can agree or disagree, but finding issues with the EU’s approach does not automatically = Apple Fanboy

But related to that he’s also been very upfront since the beginning that he feels Apple’s anti-steering policies were a very bad mistake. Here is an actual article he wrote where he sides with the judge and calls out everybody at Apple but Schiller as making a mistake that ended up “disastrous for Apple’s reputation and credibility”. This was only 2 months ago, not exactly hard to find given you assert he has never been critical of Apple except for the AI thing.

Now, this is all just my opinion and I expect you'll disagree with most or all of it, but it is what it is.

It’s not about disagreeing or agreeing, it’s about the hypocrisy of what you accuse and what you actually do. It’s fine if you don’t like Gruber but please don’t pull things out your ass or use your “vibes” as you say to justify it.

 

[GrassShark]

Here’s you:


But also here’s you:


If this isn’t you defining objectivity by some invisible positivity to negativity ratio, then what is it?

Back to your “objectivity”:

Come on, how can anybody take you serious on this topic when you say things like this. Gruber couldn’t have the rep he has in the community if this is what he really did. I repeat: citation needed. When it comes to your commentary on him ironically you seem guilty of something similar to what you accuse him of. Your comments read like someone making up their mind on what he’s about and what he wrote before you even read it and working backwards to justify the conclusion you jumped to, not someone assessing what was actually said and coming to an unbiased opinion based on facts.



Since you brought up the EU/Legal topic, let’s just focus on that one bit. Gruber has been very vocal that he feels the EU’s approach is heavy handed with all sorts of things like USB-C mandates and cookie consents and etc.. This is a rational take: anybody who has has nearly lost their mind constantly opting out of cookie consents would agree. You can agree or disagree, but finding issues with the EU’s approach does not automatically = Apple Fanboy

But related to that he’s also been very upfront since the beginning that he feels Apple’s anti-steering policies were a very bad mistake. Here is an actual article he wrote where he sides with the judge and calls out everybody at Apple but Schiller as making a mistake that ended up “disastrous for Apple’s reputation and credibility”. This was only 2 months ago, not exactly hard to find given you assert he has never been critical of Apple except for the AI thing.


It’s not about disagreeing or agreeing, it’s about the hypocrisy of what you accuse and what you actually do. It’s fine if you don’t like Gruber but please don’t pull things out your ass or use your “vibes” as you say to justify it.

Fair enough, you clearly care more about his track record than I do and I can respect that. You're right that I’ve made some pretty broad claims and I don’t have a spreadsheet of citations to back every one of them up. I’ll own that.

That said, I think you're slightly missing the forest for the trees here. My point wasn’t to publish a peer-reviewed paper on Gruber’s objectivity, rather it was to push back on the idea that Apple skipping their usual interview with him this year must be some big signal that they're afraid of confrontation. I still think people are reading way too much into that. The fact they sat down with Joanna Stern should be proof enough of that.

As for Gruber himself, sure, maybe “never critical” was vastly overstating it, but my general impression (and I know I’m not alone in this) is that his tone generally leans very pro-Apple, often to the point of glossing over issues or framing Apple as the misunderstood geniuses in the room. You clearly don’t see it the same way, and that’s fine.

I've already spent more time talking about John Gruber today that I would like, so I'm going to tag out here. I'm not trying to convince anyone to stop following him or reading his stuff — hell, I'm still going to read it because whether I like it or not his stuff's still a part of popular Apple discourse.

 

[yabeweb]

why is IJustine still relevant, never saw such a downfail in clicks and relevance

If it was for me, Influencers should be non existent, i rarely open a video from any of them, but there are people who follow, and encourage this thing.
IJustine is just one of many obnoxious influencers, I find her annoying and repetitive, does the world really need those kinda video? Nope, but there sure are people following here so…

 

[Macbookey]

And? It was a brillant analysis, right to this day. He said it was vaporware, which by the definition of vaporware is still true. The features from last years keynote are still not shipped, so they were vaporware.
I gained actually a lot of respect for Gruber with this piece knowingly risking his good connection to Apple.

Agreed. I’ve actually started looking at his site again after a long hiatus. Good on John for calling them out on their BS. If Craig and Joz are damage control for Timmy, then it speaks volumes about the state of  and warrants the “rotten in Cupertino” analogy. Software has been an issue under Craig’s leadership, and look at some of the cringe marketing Apple has had in recent years. Cook’s biggest weakness has been his “executive (marketing yes people)” leaders". Ives in charge of software design when he was out his league, and Angela Ahrendts head of Apple retail trying to turn it into a cultural experience. LOL. Listening to these people is an insult to intelligence in and of itself.

 

[dwaite]

I'll bet he feels just fine.

It's called having some integrity.

The shills lining up to suck on whatever Apple puts in their mouth are embarrassing.

You can have more freedom to do emotionally driven flame posts like that (or his personal attacks on Tim Cook) when you are an independent, but you still have ramifications from it.

The "something rotten" post wasn't about Apple missing deadlines. It was about Gruber feeling personally betrayed.

Who is going to sign up for an interview with someone who is no longer able to be objective?

 

[Kottu]

It’s unfortunate that truly skilled interviewers have become rare. Many don’t know how to challenge or engage their guests meaningfully. I’m growing tired of scripted interviews that seem more focused on promoting someone else’s narrative than uncovering something real or insightful.