John Gruber Says 'Something is Rotten' at Apple

[patientzerobeat]

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

It's possible that too many people at Apple fell for the AI grift that people like Sam Altman are pushing, the hyper-exaggeration of its abilities and accuracy. And part of that charade is the scare-mongering involved in "how good it will be and we have to guard against it taking over to world!" Couple that with science fiction promises (Colossus,HAL, Skynet and other fictional AI that is supposed to take place around now), and you likely have a critical mass of people who think "of course we're gonna be able to make Siri do all these wonderful things are far less advanced than what AI is potentially capable of".

But then they tried and discovered how utterly crappy it is. The silver lining might be that Apple just doesn't want to release something that has the initial veneer of "wow, cool", but the slower reveal of "when it doesn't work right, it sucks worse than a total idiot trying to do this the old fashioned way."

 

[tocatlian]

How is it that no one is being held responsible for Apple’s failed strategy and execution? Apple Car and Vision Pro cost billions, yet there’s been no meaningful return on that investment. You can’t build a car in secrecy and expect success. And no one wants a headset that costs more than a laptop, let alone a phone. Apple Intelligence remains mostly vaporware, leaving the company scrambling to catch up. Rushing through development will only lead to more mistakes and a subpar solution. There’s still no Meta smart glass competitor. CarPlay is long overdue for a major upgrade, and so is Apple TV. There’s no iPhone Flip or Fold. And without a truly functional Apple Intelligence, the entire suite of home solutions remains stalled. As a longtime Apple customer, dating back to the Apple IIe, I can’t help but feel disappointed and concerned by the lack of leadership and accountability.

 

[paradox00]

This only works so long as people continue to buy Apple hardware and services. Are you suggesting people are too lazy to go elsewhere?

I'm not suggesting anything about consumers, but I will point out that this is nothing but a deflection tactic. That or you're under the illusion that there's a free market of options available when there really isn't. I don't have time to deal with lazy arguments like buy an android or whatever you were thinking of. If you can't acknowledge the reality of what it takes to become a $3 trillion company, we're simply not going to have a fruitful discussion.

 

[TracesOfArsenic]

Oh, he mad.

Let's face it, Apple dropped the ball on AI and is a step behind the market. They've gotten so lazy that it is hard to be surprised anymore they are mailing it in. The Dynamic Island was really the last jaw dropping software moment and that is only because of the false, silly leaks about the gap.

Wait, Dynamic Island is jaw dropping? It's another gimmick forced on us due to lack of innovation anywhere else on the phone! Like the stupid action button.

 

[smulji]

I'm not suggesting anything about consumers, but I will point out that this is nothing but a deflection tactic. That or you're under the illusion that there's a free market of options available when there really isn't. I don't have time to deal with lazy arguments like buy an android or whatever you were thinking of. If you can't acknowledge the reality of what it takes to become a $3 trillion company, we're simply not going to have a fruitful discussion.

Under Tim Cook, Apple is nothing more than a financial engineering company that happens to sell products.

 

[MTWomg]

Wait, Dynamic Island is jaw dropping? It's another gimmick forced on us due to lack of innovation anywhere else on the phone! Like the stupid action button.

Hey, Dynamic Island is kinda cool for sports scores and stuff like that. It'd be even better to just not have a hole in your screen, though. The action button absolutely sucks - you nailed that one. It is substantially worse than having a physical ringer switch. Looking at that switch made it crystal clear if your ringer is muted or not. Gone now.

 

[OUsooner08]

Hey, Dynamic Island is kinda cool for sports scores and stuff like that. It'd be even better to just not have a hole in your screen, though. The action button absolutely sucks - you nailed that one. It is substantially worse than having a physical ringer switch. Looking at that switch made it crystal clear if your ringer is muted or not. Gone now.

I disagree. The action button is immensely more useful. Most people nowadays never have a ringer on. Besides it’s not hard to tell if your ringer is on or not, there’s actually several quick ways to check if you actually learn how to use your phone.

 

[OUsooner08]

Meh. I disagree, but Gruber is known to take the extreme view. Not saying Apple didn’t muck stuff up, but it’s also not as big of an issue as he’s making it.

Siri is already immensely more useful, I use Siri throughout the day without issue. People act like other AIs are perfect when they are far from it, heck Google Assistant stop recognizing the “call X person” command for quite a while for me.

 

[bluecoast]

Fireside Chat at WWDC with Tim and Phil

Hosted by iJustine

Streaming live on TikTok, X and "Truth"Social

Good one! From the parallel universe where Siri has been awesome since 2011 & Larry David is constantly impressed by how good it is.

 

[bluecoast]

Hey, Dynamic Island is kinda cool for sports scores and stuff like that. It'd be even better to just not have a hole in your screen, though. The action button absolutely sucks - you nailed that one. It is substantially worse than having a physical ringer switch. Looking at that switch made it crystal clear if your ringer is muted or not. Gone now.

The ringer switch was always a huge dust magnet though.

But yeah I wonder how many people have simply mapped the action button to mute though. A high degree I bet.

 

[bluecoast]

It's been since the iPhone 4s. How much longer are you prepared to wait? Licensing is the only way out. Licensing gets you Siri that actually works, AI powered dictation that is  so much better than what ships on iOS, the AI features that people download third party apps to get, etc. It's a short term fix, yes, but it's so much better than the alternative.

It’s truly time to bury the name ‘Siri’. Apple persists in using Siri in marketing even though it’s a tarnished brand because everyone who uses it knows it sucks.

And yes, apple does need to license a solution whilst they develop their own non Siri named solution or they are in serious trouble. Just look at the advances that google are making each month.

 

[Sptzz]

oh I am happy to hear your take on my comment. Go ahead. Who can offer LLM-capable hardware with 512GB RAM fully addressable for the price Apple is?

You didn't even specify your claim. You just blankly stated: Apple is ahead of the game by a mile in AI, not even close.

If you mean so that users can run local LLMs? Then yes, for the 1% of the computer using population, then yes. Absolutely.

If you mean with actual AI research, not even worth a discussion.

 

[MTWomg]

You didn't even specify your claim. You just blankly stated: Apple is ahead of the game by a mile in AI, not even close.

If you mean so that users can run local LLMs? Then yes, for the 1% of the computer using population, then yes. Absolutely.

If you mean with actual AI research, not even worth a discussion.

And even that whole 'local LLM' thing is misguided. Macs are great for running local LLMs, but everyone other than Apple trains on Nvidia hardware and there is a very good reason for that.

 

[Jackbequickly]

Apple
Needs to turn this around before September or they will be losing sales. We were promised so much that is now never to be delivered.

 

[throAU]

He's right.

Maybe they need a "strong character" (like Steve, read between the lines) to lead the services/software team.

The hardware team seem to be doing just fine.

 

[Wanted797]

“The only good thing about Apple Intelligence has been the bump to 16GB of RAM.” - MKBHD

 

[Camerondonal]

I believe this is a reference to Kim Vorrath, see this story:

Apple Brings in New Exec to 'Fix' Siri and Apple Intelligence

Apple is making an internal staffing change that it hopes will improve Siri and its artificial intelligence offerings, reports Bloomberg. Kim...

www.macrumors.com

So it’s possible the meeting Gruber says Apple needs to have has already taken place, ~ two months ago.

I think his stance here is largely just trying to warn Apple that a lot is at stake at WWDC 2025. Whatever they do, at this stage it should be a true demo and not a concept. I think he’s saying that they will need show progress, if they can, on the privacy-driven features, and perhaps even explain why it’s going to take longer than expected. To show that the features touted in the ad and at WWDC 2024 are not vaporware.

Thanks friend, that's interesting and brings some welcome perspective to this odd situation

 

[Delivered]

Yes, quite misleading. They seem so far behind everyone else. They tried too hard with smoke and mirrors to convince everyone they were catching up, but now it seems they’re falling flat on their face.

What does android provide in AI that Apple is behind in? This phrase is repeated everywhere but I’m not sure of the meaning of it? What can’t you do on an iPhone that you can on an android with AI?

 

[Delivered]

it's almost like you have blinders on and couldn't bring yourself to actually read what was written. Yes, go off your stock chart.

I feel like this was facetious. As in Tim Cook printed money for Apple?

 

[MTWomg]

By all means, please explain a method to see the state of the ringer on an action button iPhone without waking the device up/using the screen. It's impossible, and that stinks.

 

[MTWomg]

What does android provide in AI that Apple is behind in? This phrase is repeated everywhere but I’m not sure of the meaning of it? What can’t you do on an iPhone that you can on an android with AI?

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/john-gruber-says-something-is-rotten-at-apple.2452961/post-33800147

 

[OUsooner08]

By all means, please explain a method to see the state of the ringer on an action button iPhone without waking the device up/using the screen. It's impossible, and that stinks.

I never said there was a way to check it without waking the device if you actually read what I wrote.

If mute is mapped to the action button a quick press will show the status in the Dynamic Island. Also a partial swipe from the top right corner will show the ring icon and status if you have it in the control center.

My action button is dynamically set, so I just do the quick swipe for control center. Again it's a method that works for me.

 

[JCCL]

What does android provide in AI that Apple is behind in? This phrase is repeated everywhere but I’m not sure of the meaning of it? What can’t you do on an iPhone that you can on an android with AI?

A simple google search can enlighten you. But one simple. You can just ask apps to do stuff and automate tasks. Their photo cleanup tool is miles ahead and doesn’t generate weird artifacts like Apple’s as often. You can describe a photo for example and the system will find it for you based on your description, etc.

 

[MTWomg]

Agree. They should leave it as it was and make it clickable if they wanted to make action button. Easy and logical thing to do.

It really feels like changing something solely to change it, to create a difference between the old iPhones and the new one.

 

[jmpage2]

The sad truth is that we continue to buy Apple's products because we view the alternatives (MS Windows, Android, etc.) as slightly worse.

We shell out premium prices for iPhones that are nearly identical to models being sold five years ago. Meanwhile other manufacturers like Samsung produce the actual innovation.

If I were to summarize it, Apple is no longer a company willing to take big gambles, and when they do take gambles, like with Vision, it's a flop.