John Gruber Says 'Something is Rotten' at Apple

[bondr006]

He'd be over-reacting if Apple's competitors didn't have perfectly workable AIs already deployed.

I am a programmer, and write code all day long. I can ask Microsoft's Co-pilot or their Github agent for help, and Google has an AI baked right into Android Studio that will take my project context into account, and even offer to make the changes for me. It isn't always correct, it requires a bit of hand holding, but it's like having a junior developer sitting next to me 24/7.

The tech is here.

And Apple promised it would be on my devices.

Except, Apple hasn't delivered, at all.

I upgraded to an M4 MBP in a major part due to the promised AI. We're half way through the M4 cycle, and it's nowhere to be found. If Apple releases an M5 chip before AI, I'll have basically bought a MBP a year early based on false advertising, and have every right to be pissed.

I agree with you, but you know the old adage....Never upgrade to a product that has promised future upgrades, just for those promised future updates. People get screwed over this time and again. Rarely pays off to be an early adopter.😉

 

[New Mexico Bob]

Yeah. Hence my recent switch to the S25 Ultra and loving it. Still have my iPhone 16 Max, but it gets very little use. Changed my secondary line to the iPhone now.

 

[morphineseason]

This is one of those rare instances where I think Google in particular beat Apple. Their marketing around Gemini has really been great - an AI that you can have a casual conversation with seems so futuristic and fun/playful. Even as someone who is skeptical of AI, I thought those commercials seemed pretty cool and immediately grab the attention of the casual audience.

Playground was supposed to be the fun thing that Apple introduced, but it doesn't function at all how I'd expect and it's extremely limited due to its on-device requirements. Of course, they're also scrambling to try to fix Siri which remains one of the worst assistants of the bunch. I agree with the article that they were definitely just BS'ing the whole thing when they announced Apple Intelligence and it's clear they rushed to market.

 

[AlexisV]

Jeez. It's a private company, not a political party.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Apple watched the Amazon demo last month of new Alexa capabilities and realized they had nothing to compete with them in the pipeline. Actually Siri is a joke and Apple has lost or given up on many markets like home automation. Tim did a great job navigating covid and china but if he retires there seems to be nobody teed up to replace him (my vote is Craig).

To be fair that Amazon demo comes with its own set of gotchas and “huh?” Statements, and just like Apple’s apple intelligence page, has a notice at the bottom…
“Alexa+ will start rolling out in the U.S. in the next few weeks during an early access period, and subsequently in waves over the coming months.”
Which is about as vague and unhelpful as apples “in the coming year” statements.
They also state next to nothing about privacy, other than some vague platitudes. At least Apple has published plenty of information about private cloud compute, and what they are doing to mitigate security risks.

 

[3goldens]

Ouch!

 

[OS X Dude]

Well...

Forstall was "kicked out" because of his mishandling of the Apple Maps rollout.

This was actually a pretty similar case.
Apple for years overpromised that they will have a world-class Maps app, able to take on "the other guys" - only to fall flat on their face with a really laughable rollout, lacking most key features and still full of bugs.
Everyone on that team must have seen this coming. Including Forstall.
So why roll it out? Terrible misjudgment.

Yet if he learnt his lesson from this disaster, then maybe he is the right man to get Apple software development back on track.

Apple software has been getting buggier and buggier over the years, with more and more first day software updates, which still had big bugs, and more and more features being pushed back again and again, or even scrapped.

Instead of focussing on fixing these issues, Apple deludes themselves with constant UI overhauls, turning macOS more and more into a mobile device OS - that no one asked for - except for Apple, so that people forget about the core software feature disasters...

Well aware. He was also hated by any exec that wasn't Steve himself, so when Steve passed it was only a matter of time before his number was up. Jony and Bob would even refuse to attend meetings where Forstall would also be present, without Tim to mediate.

Tim didn't like the 'chaos' and conflict that Steve felt the company did its best work with... but that is exactly what is needed at the moment in my opinion.

Tim has done truly amazing things for the company, no doubt. But no-one can ever match the energy of a founder CEO/MD, and we need a solid 'Product' person in a high level position once more on the software side. Hardware is the best it's ever been, no question.

 

[Moukee]

They also gimped out on ram as a sort of way to force you to upgrade.
Because if they put 16gb ram into their phones right now then it’s very unlikely that most would feel the need to upgrade them because Apple could not use the ram excuse as to why your phone can’t run certain software

Sure, and they always kind of did that. The difference this time is that the experience is already compromised even if you have the latest and greatest iPhone currently available.

If generating an Emoji (or running any of the other Apple Intelligence features) makes the fastest iPhone available (16 Pro) struggle, that's a problem.

There's a difference between "upgrade your phone to get these shiny new features" and "upgrade your phone because it's specced too poorly to properly support the features we originally promised, the new phone fixes that".

 

[bluespark]

Couldn't agree more. Apple continues to produce extremely good hardware, but those products are largely highly-refined derivatives of products introduced many years ago. Even on the hardware front, the company's biggest initiative since (Apple Car, Vision Pro) have either failed completely or resulted in a product that looked like it was focus-grouped to death and then released in beta form.

On the software front, Apple's recent failure is almost monumental. Apple Intelligence is not remotely what Apple promised or what most people expected. Siri, which is the most visible part of any "Intelligence" effort, remains dumb as a post. Compare HomePods with Amazon's Alexa devices -- even without the new AI-enabled Alexa that is reportedly ready to go -- and Siri's performance is a frustrating embarrassment. The trust issue that Gruber identifies is huge: Who should believe *anything* Apple says at this year's WWDC? And the software for products such as the Apple Watch have made those devices far more frustrating to use than they once were.

Tim Cook was always a supply-chain bean counter. He might be the best in the world at doing that, and that skill set served Apple very well in terms of corporate growth. But the crash is coming because Apple's stuff is becoming less interesting and more frustrating to use, and no one can believe anything Apple says. It's time for the Board to initiate their succession plan.

 

[Neil J. Squillante]

Scott Forstall saw the greatness attended a showing conference of Siri and pushed to have it purchased wholelly and thus the race to ai assistance began. Incredible vision and tenacity by Forstall got that happening. Nobody can take that away from him nor EVER erase that, 1 of many great things he's brought and done for Apple.

Craig despite years of ignorance jumps on the world stage seemingly stating it was HIM that brought modern Ai awareness at Apple. He's been in hiding ever since aying NOTHING!!! Protected medicine ball jingles hasn't done anything. The team under his guidance and direction has sincerely gotten LAZY focusing far too much on ridiculous emoji and the like 'which actually dumbs the human vocabulary.

I agree that parting ways with Forstall was unfortunate but wasn’t it a trade off to keep Jony Ive? Now Apple has neither person. See my 2011 essay, The NeXT Steve Jobs Exists and He's Already Working at Apple.

 

[Wx_Man]

Daring Fireball's John Gruber today shared some strongly-worded comments about Apple's delayed personalized Siri features. Gruber is a well-known Apple pundit who has been writing about the company for more than two decades.

In a blog post titled "Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino," Gruber said Apple's credibility has been "damaged" by the delay:This obviously isn't the first time that Apple has failed to deliver. However, Gruber said other examples like the canceled AirPower charging mat "tended to be around the edges," whereas he believes that generative AI is going to be "big" and "important."

It's not the delay by itself that bothers Gruber. He said the true "fiasco" here is that Apple "pitched a story" last year "that wasn't true":Gruber said the personalized Siri features announced during the WWDC keynote last year were merely conceptual, and therefore "********":He was even more explicit here:Gruber said Apple's repeated unwillingness or inability to demo the personalized Siri features in action since WWDC last year "should have set off blinding red flashing lights and deafening klaxon alarms" in his head that something was wrong.

Gruber went as far as saying that Apple's culture of excellence could be at risk if this situation is not handled correctly within the company:The full post is worth a read.

Article Link: John Gruber Says 'Something is Rotten' at Apple

Well, whether or not Daring Fireball is correct about Apple being full of bull excrement, what is undeniable is that Apple fell hook, line and sinker into Sam Altman’s OpenAI reality distortion field once Apple researchers saw the genuine breakthrough of Transformers in the late 20-teens but then almost simultaneously bought fully into OpenAI’s hype while realizing they were behind, way behind a possible game changing tech trend.

Thus the mad scramble to catch up only to realize what is now slowly but ever more surely being revealed is that AI, and particularly Generative AI is bull excrement not to mention “AGI” which will never be achieved. Hence Apple’s sudden hitting the brakes because they’ve now realized to their horror that the best Generative AI like OpenAI, DeepSeek, Grok, and Gemini are all universally slop and give out weird and sometime dangerous hallucinations nearly 40% of the time in the case of OpenAI’s latest model. And these models are trained in the largest data centers with the largest datasets using the most energy of any compute platform in the world.

Just look at the blowback that Apple got with their news summary fiasco. And that’s small potatoes to what a lot of Gen AI outputs. Apple has a multi-trillion dollar, multi-decade built reputation for making technology work better, holistically, even magically for the mass consumer. Generative AI at this point destroys all of what Apple has built of its reputation for the last 40 years. So yeah….Apple is in a bind…a really bad one. They got scared. And that triggered them to move forward and make promises they could not keep. Steve Jobs would not have done this. He would have seen through the Sam Altman AI distortion field. Who better to have done so other than Steve Jobs…the creator of the “Reality Distortion Field”? A player knows a player. But in Steve’s defense he would have done AI in house sooner and more iterative all the while touting each iteration as the next coming of technology evolution for Apple users….with this one exception. Steve would have NOT made AI and certainly not Gen AI a complete blanket to throw over everything in the OS. It would have basically been in smarter algorithms for existing tech, built in software and services but touted as huge revolutions as only Steve could. But he would have steered clear of Sam Altman’s messianic fever dream of AGI and particularly would have steered Apple away from it after seeing the slop and hallucinations Gen AI produces at this point.

Tim Cook, or as Donny T. likes to call him, “Tim Apple”, got scared and began to chase a trend before fully vetting its viability, usefulness and safety, and, more importantly, how to make it viable, useful and safe for Apple consumers. It’s as if Tim put Apple in a corporate sized Tesla on full “autopilot” and it drove Apple right onto the train tracks into a locomotive called “Reality”.

And there was no “Distortion Field” to protect it.

 

[Stuwil]

Sure, and they always kind of did that. The difference this time is that the experience is already compromised even if you have the latest and greatest iPhone currently available.

If generating an Emoji (or running any of the other Apple Intelligence features) makes the fastest iPhone available (16 Pro) struggle, that's a problem.

There's a difference between "upgrade your phone to get these shiny new features" and "upgrade your phone because it's specced too poorly to properly support the features we originally promised, the new phone fixes that".

I totally take on board with what you’re saying but as a company all there are interested in is making as much money out of you as possible
They couldn’t give a stuff if Apple intelligence can’t run properly on a iPhone 16 PM when in a few years they will come out with some excuse as to why it’s not getting certain things because they know people will upgrade anyway

 

[jbellanca]

You must think this is sustainable:

Not sure what you're getting at with those stock graphs, but their Earnings per Share started rising significantly in mid-2020. Since then, their Price/Earnings Ratio has also been going up, and the average since then is about 27.5. Average/good should be 20-25, which they're historically under. 27.5's higher than average, but not crazy so, and not anywhere near a range I'd be worried about. Ideally, sure, it should be lower, but it's certainly not bad or in the worrisome stage.

 

[I7guy]

I totally take on board with what you’re saying but as a company all there are interested in is making as much money out of you as possible

100%. Every for profit company that sells consumer based discretionary products is interested in making the maximum amount over you. Saying otherwise would be out of touch with reality.

They couldn’t give a stuff if Apple intelligence can’t run properly on a iPhone 16 PM when in a few years they will come out with some excuse as to why it’s not getting certain things because they know people will upgrade anyway

Correct and imo most people wont care and Apple will go merrily on its way.

 

[applevisionpro]

He'd be over-reacting if Apple's competitors didn't have perfectly workable AIs already deployed.

I am a programmer, and write code all day long. I can ask Microsoft's Co-pilot or their Github agent for help, and Google has an AI baked right into Android Studio that will take my project context into account, and even offer to make the changes for me. It isn't always correct, it requires a bit of hand holding, but it's like having a junior developer sitting next to me 24/7.

The tech is here.

And Apple promised it would be on my devices.

Except, Apple hasn't delivered, at all.

I upgraded to an M4 MBP in a major part due to the promised AI. We're half way through the M4 cycle, and it's nowhere to be found. If Apple releases an M5 chip before AI, I'll have basically bought a MBP a year early based on false advertising, and have every right to be pissed.

EDIT: If Tim Apple had got on stage and said "We've been experimenting with this new 'AI' thing, and it seems pretty cool. Over the course of the next two years, we are going to start rolling out AI features for the iPhone 15 Pro, and all 16 series iPhones. By Fall 2026 when we've completed our internal AI roadmap we estimate 80% of active iPhone users will have access to some form of the AI features, and we think you're gonna love it", that would have gone over really well, without over promising. It's called setting expectations, and Apple really dropped the ball this time.

I mean its even more alarming, if you look at the visual side:

https://www.tiktok.com/video/7473241754674695466

Have you guys even looked outside of Apple? I'm the biggest apple fan boi you can find but it's clear the rot is now deep. (NOT because they are behind in features, as they always do, but because they pitched something first and then fail to deliver)

 

[I7guy]

I mean its even more alarming, if you look at the visual side:

https://www.tiktok.com/video/7473241754674695466

Have you guys even looked outside of Apple? I'm the biggest apple fan boi you can find but it's clear the rot is now deep. (NOT because they are behind in features, as they always do, but because they pitched something first and then fail to deliver)

Parlor tricks. Genmoji and image playground are the same. I’m looking for use cases where it saves me time and money.

 

[madebybela]

The AI industry is rotten and full of people promising bullsh*t all the time, I feel like Apple was right to initially avoid it like they did with Crypto/NFTs/Metaverse but given that shareholders seem to have the company by the balls now, they're forced to flop into it and are of course, unable to do it as fast as they wanted.

 

[sunapple]

Parlor tricks. Genmoji and image playground are the same. I’m looking for use cases where it saves me time and money.

AI saves me a ton of money because it clearly labels products I don't want to buy.

 

[ericinboston]

This would explain why AT&T gave me $1000 for my "any condition" iPhone 13 Pro towards a trade-in of an iPhone 16 Pro...Apple just wants/wanted to get more and more people acquiring the iPhone 16 for some possible AI enhancements sometime down the road. My guess is nobody is/was buying the 16 after December so Apple offered a massive discount to AT&T. I traded for the 16 Pro simply for a better camera. But now Carplay has issues, the Camera has a 3-second delay to snap a photo when using it from the Lock Screen, and who knows what other issues I will bump into as I use it.

I don't want or care for AI at all on my iPhone. And Siri has stunk for years. And Autocorrect has been abysmal for a long time. How in the world will Apple AI be any good if Autocorrect can't properly fix 99% of my words/phrases/typos in the year 2025?

 

[Mercury7]

Daring Fireball's John Gruber today shared some strongly-worded comments about Apple's delayed personalized Siri features. Gruber is a well-known Apple pundit who has been writing about the company for more than two decades.

In a blog post titled "Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino," Gruber said Apple's credibility has been "damaged" by the delay:This obviously isn't the first time that Apple has failed to deliver. However, Gruber said other examples like the canceled AirPower charging mat "tended to be around the edges," whereas he believes that generative AI is going to be "big" and "important."

It's not the delay by itself that bothers Gruber. He said the true "fiasco" here is that Apple "pitched a story" last year "that wasn't true":Gruber said the personalized Siri features announced during the WWDC keynote last year were merely conceptual, and therefore "********":He was even more explicit here:Gruber said Apple's repeated unwillingness or inability to demo the personalized Siri features in action since WWDC last year "should have set off blinding red flashing lights and deafening klaxon alarms" in his head that something was wrong.

Gruber went as far as saying that Apple's culture of excellence could be at risk if this situation is not handled correctly within the company:The full post is worth a read.

Article Link: John Gruber Says 'Something is Rotten' at Apple

The reality distortion field has been weak since Jobs passed, I ignore it and just judge apple on existing products I own, and for the most part am happy with them…. Also a.i. is 90% hype anyway so far

 

[Camerondonal]

They put that PM person in charge of Siri a month or 2 ago. What has been transpiring over the past couple weeks is the outcome of the work of that person, they have known about it for a while, hence the change back then.
Grubers “PhD knowledge of Apple” (that is his claim) should have highlighted this months ago, he’s just riding the wave now.

I am curious to know who you mean...?

 

[GlamCheese666]

I'm sorry what?! Steve didn't do that. It was total secrecy. Look at the iPod or original iPhone. He didn't make crazy promises he showed up and showed off what they had. Demos being hugely important to his method.

Actually he did. The OG iPhone demo. You might want to look into it cuz it’s pretty awesome how he pulled it off. Not by using video mockups of concepts, but by being a good magician. Every time they showed the iPhone and showed a different feature, they switched to a different device that had that feature ready to show. They couldn’t do it all on one device because the software was so unstable, but watching that keynote, you wouldn’t know the difference.

 

[I7guy]

AI saves me a ton of money because it clearly labels products I don't want to buy.

I never thought of that, but yeah it’s true.🤘

 

[I7guy]

They put that PM person in charge of Siri a month or 2 ago. What has been transpiring over the past couple weeks is the outcome of the work of that person, they have known about it for a while, hence the change back then.
Grubers “PhD knowledge of Apple” (that is his claim) should have highlighted this months ago, he’s just riding the wave now.

He makes his earnings through clicks, and his opinion has no influence on me.

 

[Tozovac]

Apple has proven to be MIA since they shipped the black HomePod mini and cable with a white wall charging brick. When I opened the box I couldn’t believe it. Every year they continue the downward trend of making decisions that don’t make sense. Completely ignoring the smaller phone now, they have told a significant amount of people - nope. You have to get a bigger phone for AI AI AI! AI I don’t want or care about. I rarely use Siri. Rarely. I just want a good device that is well designed, aesthetically beautiful, and thinks differently.

Those days are over.

Not only that, but continually selling only the Rolex jewelry version of an iPhone.

99% of us carry (and drop) our phones around more often than the thoughts in our head.

That there's no "Sony Sports Walkman" version of an iPod is downright narrow-minded and focused solely on revenue and shareholder value, and not customer satisfaction.

Nobody adds bumpers and bras to our cars.

We should not be forced to buy a heavier bulkier case just to protect our "mobile" purchase that NEVER stays non-mobile, and sitting safely atop a desk the majority of its life.

Ridiculous.

And nobody can say that Samsung or Android or others don't offer a Sony Sports Walkman version of their phone.

Those lemmings don't because Apple doesn't.

If Apple did, everyone else would within 9 months.