When they put out ad campaigns about the feature Apple intentionally deceived us all. John was just the first to directly and bluntly connect the dots of how bad they messed it up. This is classic “shoot the messenger”
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John Gruber Reacts to Apple Declining His Interview After His Criticism
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When they put out ad campaigns about the feature Apple intentionally deceived us all. John was just the first to directly and bluntly connect the dots of how bad they messed it up. This is classic “shoot the messenger”
There are definitely pathways to thinking otherwise, and they have more than speculation to back them, as explained in comment 218
OR the Macrumors audience is also deeply concerned with Apple’s missteps, how they publicly deal with them, and what that says about the current state of the company. This isn’t so much about AI and Gruber as it is company culture and communication.
Apple is wrong about a great many things, but Gruber is a complete hack. He gets paid $11,000 per week ($572,000 per year!) by advertisers on his blog, so he can write whatever he wants, so long as he doesn't completely alienate himself from Cupertino. He would dearly love you to think he's an independent journalist with an independent mindset, but he knows who butters his bread.
Craig did talk to Federico Viticci. That might not have been a hard hitting interview but Federico has been very critical of iPad Pro and iPad OS. I think a lot of the changes this year are a direct response to his criticism (which others have articulated too).
So it's wrong to make money as a blogger? And be a business?
To stay "independent" you must do it for free? To not be a hack?
How much money does MacRumors make from these Papa John's and State Farm ads on my screen?
As long as Gruber isn't getting paid by Apple to advertise and say nice things then I don't see how he's doing anything wrong.
Even when they have it in a multimillion dollar ad campaign?? You’re out of your mind. False advertising is illegal for obvious reasons.
A fair point, but you do realize that your observation, sadly, only validates my – and Gruber’s – criticism, right? That’s what complacency does to you, it kind of creates a vicious cycle… Going back to live events, even if the first ones (after the pandemic hit, that is) sucked, or if the very first one had to be very judiciously picked in order for it not to be a complete snoozefest, would do them wonders in terms of motivation.
Do you mean revenue for Apple?
MacRumours have a very active fan base, and I’m not ashamed to admit I am a fan of Apple gear and always have been. Gossip and rumours are intrinsically linked so given that’s the point of the site, I think that’s a positive.
Frankly, I’m surprised he still has a large readership/ following that he can command high advertising rates.
Semantics. Sure, under-delivering isn't the same as lying, but Apple really blurred the line. The criticism is still fair, even if some see Gruber as coping.
At WWDC, they only showed the safest, most basic stuff. The big "personalized Siri" upgrades were pure vaporware nothing functional. No live demo, just a concept video. Then they ran a commercial hyping those same unfinished features... and quietly pulled it from YouTube.
Not technically lying, but pushing features that don't exist yet absolutely hurts Apple's credibility. You can only overpromise so many times before people stop buying it.
Apple shunning Gruber shows how absolutely right he was and how terribly wrong (cowardly and petty) Apple still are.
From your comments I suspect that you would have only promoted personalized Siri if you believed it was progressing adequately and you were confident you could ship it. If so, why is it easier to believe that Apple lied than to believe that they mistakenly thought they could ship it in the estimated timeframe?
If they were lying it would be idiotic to promote something they knew they couldn’t ship. The people who brought us this miraculous device I’m using to reply to this thread are not idiots. The whole they were lying perspective makes zero sense.
Yes.
No. Switching back to live events wouldn’t help I suppose. There are so many reasons why I (and I’m sure many others) watched WWDC keynote with passion in the past but started to watch it in the background more like lately with hope for at list one BIG announcement. And only SOME of them being Apple’s fault:
- mature technology with most of users and developers needs already addressed (just check AV subsystem or Swift/SwiftUI presentations from this year - just small iterations; some of them being just filler content),
- innovation happens mostly in high level SW (AI, cloud services - that’s Google domain more like), but Apple’s “core business” is great HW and great OS with focus on privacy, which is blocking point for innovation these days (sadly as privacy is key feature of Apples products for me)
- seems like Apple is more and more plagued with corporation related problems lately, like siloses, <censored> and bureaucratic decision-making.
Gruber did not say what you are saying. Here is what Gruber said:
“The fiasco is that Apple pitched a story that wasn’t true, one that some people within the company surely understood wasn’t true, and they set a course based on that.”
Gruber accused Apple leaders of lying. That is well beyond promising something that “hasn’t come to fruition.”
What you said about Apple promising and not delivering is factual. Gruber accusing them of lying is not factual — it is unsubstantiated speculation that is a personal attack on the veracity and integrity of people who’ve shown Gruber grace for decades and yet he found it easier to attack them than giving them the benefit of the doubt.
This is not attacking Gruber who I admire — even though I believe he crossed the line from criticism into unjustifiable and ultimately self-sabotaging disrespect — it’s stating the facts.
Gruber is coming across very petty in this. He should conduct himself in a more professional manner.
Looks like Lew won’t have to film the next Unbox Therapy solo anymore… maybe it’s time for a podcast that reunites all the hosts Apple has unfriended!
Every year between 2015 and 2024, at least one Apple executive agreed to be interviewed by Daring Fireball's John Gruber for a special WWDC episode of his podcast, The Talk Show. Last year, for example, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi, marketing chief Greg Joswiak, and top AI researcher John Giannandrea joined Gruber on stage at the California Theatre in San Jose to discuss Apple Intelligence and more.
That decade-long tradition abruptly came to an end last month, when Apple declined Gruber's invitation to speak for this year's special episode.
A few months prior to that, Gruber published a blog post that was heavily critical of Apple. In that piece, the well-known Apple pundit said that the company "pitched a story that wasn't true" at WWDC 2024, when it previewed a more personalized Siri that was not close to being ready and is now delayed. He said that the situation damaged Apple's credibility, and he expressed concern that it could be a sign of bigger problems inside the company.
Unsurprisingly, Apple did not like the commentary.
In the latest episode of the Channels podcast, Gruber told Business Insider's Peter Kafka that Apple was "not happy" about the blog post and felt it was unfair.
However, Gruber said Apple's absence was actually a net positive for him.
"I'm not trying to lack humility here — but I feel them deciding not to do my show this year is a total win for me and was a huge loss for them," he said.
Why does he believe that?
"I think it asserts my independence," he argued. "And I think more than making me look good, I think it makes them look bad."
For his WWDC 2025 episode, Gruber ended up interviewing The Wall Street Journal's Joanna Stern and The Verge's Nilay Patel.
Article Link: John Gruber Reacts to Apple Declining His Interview After His Criticism
He’s absolutely right. Apple now becoming insular and defensive. Embarrassing.
How did he act unprofessionally? By giving a critical opinion? Is that what ‘unprofessional’ means in the Apple sphere now?
Yes. He could have hurt Apple's feelings. That's highly unprofessional.
Very true, but it would be nice if the Apple marketing machine shared a similar view of the consumer and didn't make empty promises in the first place. I'm getting on a bit, but I remember a time when marketing used to market the products and services you actually had and not the ones you heard about internally on a product road map.