Until Apple delivers what they showcased and promised, John is right. Apple looks like a circus.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
John Gruber Reacts to Apple Declining His Interview After His Criticism
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Craig and Joz gave a ton of interviews during WWDC weeks in which they addressed the AI and Siri situations, so the theory that mentioning those situations cost Gruber the interview has zero credibility.
I would much more guess it was the crass and unprofessional “I wonder” post and maybe to a lesser degree his musing about the leadership.
These guys need to prioritize what they do in their time, and meeting somebody who posts that kind of thing half a town away instead of giving 6 more interviews with more reasonable people wouldn’t have been my first priority either.
Having Nilay and Joanna on the show, two people who Apple has never been able to be right by and never will, felt a little bit like getting like getting some kind of revenge. It was just as predictable as having Craig and Joz, maybe even more so, because the Apple managers have been able to share a few things that were not generally known before.
I think it would have been better if he had had one of the more critical people and one of the more positive ones.
About the “now people will see I’m objective” cope: I thought he was objective before, he just has his opinions. I don’t remember him lying.
I would much more guess it was the crass and unprofessional “I wonder” post and maybe to a lesser degree his musing about the leadership.
These guys need to prioritize what they do in their time, and meeting somebody who posts that kind of thing half a town away instead of giving 6 more interviews with more reasonable people wouldn’t have been my first priority either.
Having Nilay and Joanna on the show, two people who Apple has never been able to be right by and never will, felt a little bit like getting like getting some kind of revenge. It was just as predictable as having Craig and Joz, maybe even more so, because the Apple managers have been able to share a few things that were not generally known before.
I think it would have been better if he had had one of the more critical people and one of the more positive ones.
About the “now people will see I’m objective” cope: I thought he was objective before, he just has his opinions. I don’t remember him lying.
gruber asserting his independence ? really ?
mr. gruber: you have been anything but an independent blogger for decades.
you lived off apple. it was a symbiotic relationship. and you knew your subservient place. and it worked out for you for a long time. you milked it nicely.
i and no one ever went to your site for an independent voice. nobody ever did that.
hey John, one more thing. apple has a very long memory.
three years in the wilderness, ruminating about how your "something rotten in cupertino" piece was important only because how far it was from your usual offerings, should be about enough time to give you back your "everything about apple is magical" voice. enjoy your independence.
or, in the words of kris kristofferson and janis joplin:
freedoms just another word for nothin left to lose. enjoy your freedom.
mr. gruber: you have been anything but an independent blogger for decades.
you lived off apple. it was a symbiotic relationship. and you knew your subservient place. and it worked out for you for a long time. you milked it nicely.
i and no one ever went to your site for an independent voice. nobody ever did that.
hey John, one more thing. apple has a very long memory.
three years in the wilderness, ruminating about how your "something rotten in cupertino" piece was important only because how far it was from your usual offerings, should be about enough time to give you back your "everything about apple is magical" voice. enjoy your independence.
or, in the words of kris kristofferson and janis joplin:
freedoms just another word for nothin left to lose. enjoy your freedom.
He didn’t just imply it, he outright said it, on his blog.
I Wonder
Singsong congratulations from the leaders of America’s biggest companies.daringfireball.net
“I wonder how much Cook dithered over that cheerful-looking exclamation mark. I hope he regrets it. I wonder whether the latter four knowingly made the error of addressing former president and president-elect Trump as “President Trump”. Our nation only has one president at a time, and that president remains Joe Biden. I wonder how much it stings to be reminded that all the money in the world cannot buy dignity. I wonder too, what taste Cheetos-dusted 78-year-old testicles leave in one’s mouth. Whatever the flavor, I hope it lingers.”
Anyone who thinks it was just the silly Siri delayed article that’s why Gruber’s invitation was declined, it so obviously is not.
Those bridges had sparks going up for a while, the Siri article was just a flamethrower that turned this beef full sizzle.
Holy crap. Yeah if I were Cook I would blacklist him. Unbelievable. And he's trying to pretend it was about the Apple Intelligence article... sure dude, it's not like all the other media that got interviews at Apple Park also didn't make articles about the delay.
The guile on this clown. I'm actually glad Apple pulled the plug on the special relationship now, he deserves it. Pompous pillock calling it "a loss for Apple"
I admire and respect Jon Gruber for his accomplishments, insight, journalistic talent, integrity and courage. However, I think Gruber crossed the line when his criticism went from calling out Apple Intelligence delays to insinuating that Apple leadership (Cook, Federighi and Giannandrea) were deceptive in announcing and promoting personalized Siri when they knew or should have known it couldn’t be shipped in the promised timeframe, and that that decision signaled something even worse about company leadership.
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.
Apple's response to Gruber's interview request (basically)
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
Gruber directly questioned the veracity and integrity of people who showed him tremendous grace year over year and withheld grace by insinuating bad judgment, bad intention and failed leadership when those individuals needed grace the most:
“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 was not entitled to Apple executive participation in his events — their participation year over year was a gift/privilege .. just as Apple executives are not entitled to Gruber’s benefit of the doubt — which he chose not to extend as is his right. Gruber chose to believe the worst about people who he had over two decades of data points from which to draw a conclusion. I have read Daringfireball for most of that period and recall nothing in Jon’s extensive coverage that would support taking that position.
I don’t blame Apple executives for withholding the privilege of an 11th year of executive WWDC Talk Show interviews because Gruber did not attack the veracity and integrity of a faceless corporation, his attack was personal and conscious. Expecting individuals who are attacked this way to continue to show grace is expecting way too much, and their decision to withdraw a privilege is a sign of self-esteem — not pettiness.
Contrast Gruber’s personalized Siri attack to Federico Vitticci’s often searing criticism of Apple’s iPad Pro decisions and failings over the years. Vitticci didn’t pull punches, even going so far as to bring his Frankenstein “Mac pad” project to an official Apple iPad event — but Vitticci’s criticism never crossed the line to becoming personal attacks. Guess who scored the privilege of an Apple executive interview at WWDC — we already know who, rightfully, did not.
Last edited:
Gruber crossed the line accusing Apple of lying in his article. Gurman confirmed, they didn’t lie at the time of WWDC 24.
No. Gruber accused Apple execs of outright lying:
“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.”
That is something completely different than criticizing Apple for advertising and not delivering. I really like Jon, but I think he crossed the line.
I’m not sure where you get your information, but Jon was at the WWDC Keynote, as well as in multiple subsequent briefings with the rest of us. He is absolutely not banned from events.
I think Apple had to push back because Gruber didn’t really give them a choice here.
It’s one thing to have terrible project management so that you can’t deliver a project anywhere near the public deadline you’ve set yourself. That’s sloppy.
It’s another thing to imply that you completely lied about the whole thing and made a video demo with no working code being shown to make customers buy your product. Thats like shady startup vibes.
Apple are pushing back on that accusation. Because if they don’t and endorsed Gruber further how would that make them look going forward?
This is business at the end of the day and Apple will protect their brand. Because their brand is their business. Gruber knows that.
This is the type of stuff that ends up in lawsuits down the line “Apple have form for vapourware your honour, in 2025 john Gruber wrote the article etc”
He just over egged his critique. He was right about the over promising and not showing product before it’s ready. Definitely. But if you accuse people of actually lying, you better have proof.
It’s one thing to have terrible project management so that you can’t deliver a project anywhere near the public deadline you’ve set yourself. That’s sloppy.
It’s another thing to imply that you completely lied about the whole thing and made a video demo with no working code being shown to make customers buy your product. Thats like shady startup vibes.
Apple are pushing back on that accusation. Because if they don’t and endorsed Gruber further how would that make them look going forward?
This is business at the end of the day and Apple will protect their brand. Because their brand is their business. Gruber knows that.
This is the type of stuff that ends up in lawsuits down the line “Apple have form for vapourware your honour, in 2025 john Gruber wrote the article etc”
He just over egged his critique. He was right about the over promising and not showing product before it’s ready. Definitely. But if you accuse people of actually lying, you better have proof.
At the end of the day, however you spin it or feel about it, I’m left with this question, Is something rotten in Cupertino? Yes or no? You decide. For me it’s hell yes. Seeing the likes of Gruber and John Siracusa criticize in their respective blogs in the manner they have is pretty telling.
“Great artists ship.” - Steve Jobs
needs to do some soul searching from the top to bottom. The Cook era culture is choking out what makes ’s DNA special.
“Great artists ship.” - Steve Jobs
needs to do some soul searching from the top to bottom. The Cook era culture is choking out what makes ’s DNA special.
He literally claimed that Apple showed off demoware and what was demonstrated was not a working version.
That was blatant acquisition of fraud, which Apple has said was not true. He used Apple's delay it releasing something to write an article that claimed fraud, and became the face of a massive media narrative against Apple. The impact of that article is still felt by Apple and he clearly benefitted from it.
Apple should ideally sue him for this. They are being extremely kind in simply declining to meet with him.
That was blatant acquisition of fraud, which Apple has said was not true. He used Apple's delay it releasing something to write an article that claimed fraud, and became the face of a massive media narrative against Apple. The impact of that article is still felt by Apple and he clearly benefitted from it.
Apple should ideally sue him for this. They are being extremely kind in simply declining to meet with him.
It seems that a lot of the gen x commentators who grew up with apple are becoming more critical in their relationship with Apple, Gruber being one of them.
Apple has gone from its idealistic days in the late 90s and 00s to a company that seems to see privacy as a business advantage first and ‘doing the right thing by privacy’ as second (good luck with privacy on your iPhone if you live in china).
Was he right to call out Siri apple intelligence as vapourware?
Yes. Having it ‘working’ in the lab, is not even close to it being a shippable product.
Is he right to say that something doesn’t feel right in Cupertino?
Yes. If a company of apple’s huge resources can consistently mess up Siri since launch and then seemingly fail to see the significance of ChatGPT and then fail to execute correctly on their AI strategy - then yes, something is the matter.
Remember how Google was routed when ChatGPT launched and responded with ummm bard?
But now look at what they are producing and contrast that with what apple is producing - or not producing.
So Gruber was right to say that something is dysfunctional at apple re Siri and AI. It does seem to be.
Great that the WSJ asked apple hard questions & I suspect that they felt that they couldn’t dodge that one as it’s the WSJ.
It’s a worrying trend where politicians and companies are only appearing with friendly commentators, bloggers and ‘conversationalists’.
You know, like Gruber used to be.
(I won’t comment on Gruber’s political stuff as I’m not American so I lack the context).
Apple has gone from its idealistic days in the late 90s and 00s to a company that seems to see privacy as a business advantage first and ‘doing the right thing by privacy’ as second (good luck with privacy on your iPhone if you live in china).
Was he right to call out Siri apple intelligence as vapourware?
Yes. Having it ‘working’ in the lab, is not even close to it being a shippable product.
Is he right to say that something doesn’t feel right in Cupertino?
Yes. If a company of apple’s huge resources can consistently mess up Siri since launch and then seemingly fail to see the significance of ChatGPT and then fail to execute correctly on their AI strategy - then yes, something is the matter.
Remember how Google was routed when ChatGPT launched and responded with ummm bard?
But now look at what they are producing and contrast that with what apple is producing - or not producing.
So Gruber was right to say that something is dysfunctional at apple re Siri and AI. It does seem to be.
Great that the WSJ asked apple hard questions & I suspect that they felt that they couldn’t dodge that one as it’s the WSJ.
It’s a worrying trend where politicians and companies are only appearing with friendly commentators, bloggers and ‘conversationalists’.
You know, like Gruber used to be.
(I won’t comment on Gruber’s political stuff as I’m not American so I lack the context).
This is blinkered—both these people routinely write fine positive pieces about Apple.
He claimed they never demonstrated a working version outside Apple, which was, and continues to be, true. You can’t sue somebody for telling the truth. That we were all left speculating as to why they never showed a working demo yet still advertised the feature is Apple’s fault, not John’s. Craig after-the-fact saying “trust me bro” is ultimately meaningless and changes nothing about the situation. Apple is literally being sued for what they pulled, John will not be and would win if they were stupid enough to do it.
Sure…except Jon is right.
And it’s clear he is bc Apple has nothing to say beyond, no really it was real except the dog ate my homework.
Apple is so utterly incapable of taking any criticism is truly pathetic. Instead of just running away and cowering in the corner, Apple should be out front and centre apologising and explaining what went wrong! That is the true sign of strength.
Apple only have themselves to blame and behaving like this does not do their image any favours.
Apple only have themselves to blame and behaving like this does not do their image any favours.
Last edited:
You're asking two questions, but missing the third about whether he was right to write the "I wonder" post. That's a major point in our context.
Something is always the matter with companies this big. You can't scale perfection up infinitely. Plus, once you reach a certain size, knives will come out no matter what.
Yes, things have been suboptimal with Siri for a long time and AI for a little while, but they're being addressed and differently from the kind of
Business Insider, for one. The ones who reached out to interview him and caused him to talk about himself because, you know, that’s how interviews work.
Last edited:
You didn't read anything in this thread, did you?
They've been giving interviews left and right about this, and they haven't shut out people who criticized them. Only that those people didn't write things like the "I wonder" post.
Yes how dare he accurately describe Tim Cook’s totally desperate and unsuccessful ass kissing.