dewme

If there is truly a lack of confidence across the rank and file of talent within Apple, that is not a good sign at all and points to leadership deficiencies. I say that with a grain of salt because we aren't privy to what is really happening internally at Apple. I've said it before but I will say it again, the media and political scrutiny that's being piled on Apple and its leadership team over the past year or so cannot be brushed aside out of hand.

Nobody can allocate more that 100% of their attention at any time. If Apple or Tim Cook is having to fend off another tantrum occurring in the White House or percolating in the cesspool known as X, he's not doing something proactive to advance Apple's position with its stakeholders, including customers. I suspect that a large percentage of Apple's leadership team's bandwidth is being consumed by defensive battles. That's a highly corrosive position to be in and something has to give and some things are going too break. The last thing you want to be dented, or much worse broken, is confidence.

The signs are there, at least in my mind, that the Apple "machine" is not running at full speed or in the capacity that it is capable of. I personally feel that this year's WWDC was a little "light" both in terms of what was shown and what was projected on the roadmap. Waving the white flag on some aspects of Apple Intelligence and Siri delivery expectations took a little bit of air out of internal and external developer's confidence. The UI updates to the major platforms are certainly appreciated, but kind of expected within the scope of incremental improvements and refreshes. If renaming everything around the year, i.e., "26" was considered a BF deal, that is really grasping at straws to find anything significant to show. I don't think I got a single text with "Woo hoo, the next version of iOS will be iOS 26, let's go party." 

All I'm saying is that if Apple is tripping over its own feet trying to play offense and defense at the same time they need to bring in someone to share the burden and allow the most influential leaders to stay focused on keeping the teams happy and motivated to perform at their very best, while enjoying every minute of it, of course.

Wesley_Hilliard said:

MassiveAttack said:

Crazy that the stock is up on this news, because it officially confirms that Apple ideas way behind. 

Is it (as the article says) true, that ChatGPT or Anthropic will run on device, so that they don’t get API data from Apple? 

Otherwise, it is no good news for Apple for long term. 

First point: no, this confirms nothing about Apple being "way behind"

Second: ChatGPT already runs via Siri without getting data from Apple or the user. Private Cloud Compute is server side, but independently verified to not be storing user data.

Third: How is giving users access to more private and secure models using Apple technology a bad thing for Apple?

I have to concur with Wes on this one. Apple has an incredible advantage across their product lines by having deep integration between their software, their hardware, and their services. Apple's forays into AI and their primary focus on leveraging Apple Intelligence should take advantage of those connections and play to their strengths. Another strength that plays in Apple's advantage is the trust they have established with their user base by staying true to their privacy and security promises.

I use ChatGPT every day but I do not trust ChatGPT to the same degree that I trust Apple. ChatGPT may in fact be an equal to Apple when it comes to privacy and security, but I have a history with Apple and so far they've lived up to my expectations. ChatGPT still has to prove itself to me and I have no evidence one way or the other because our relationship has only just started.

I absolutely do not need a version of Siri that is a replacement for ChatGPT or Copilot. I already have those tools in my toolbox and I know they cannot go as deep into my hardware, software, services, data, activities, preferences, etc., that Apple can. I will keep using those tools for what they do best. I want Siri, or whatever it's called, to be able to bring automation, control, insight, and most importantly general "help and assistance" in areas that affect my life, my lifestyle, my health, my awareness, my safety, my time management, my entertainment. etc. Apple's devices and services are closer to me in many more facets of my life than any other "intelligent" agent or chatbot I can think of. 

Apple needs to play to their strengths. The original Siri was never built to take on the broad scope of quality-of-life assistive tasks that can truly make a difference in our lives. The last thing I want Apple to do is to direct their efforts towards displacing the AI assistants that we now see as best-of-breed. That would be setting their sights way too low. If Apple integrates AI services like OpenAI/ChatGPT into their products it would definitely fill out the sorts of things that take place at that level, but it wouldn't complete the much larger scope of what Apple is able to do based on their intimate understanding of their customers as non-artificial individuals and what they can do to improve their customer's lives. 

Maybe Gurman can front Apple the resources it’ll take to bring the ring to market, including the essential resources like cash, people, a facility, and employees salaries for a cut of the downstream revenue? 

Stabitha_Christie said:

9secondkox2 said:

avidthinker said:

9secondkox2 said:

Mike Wuerthele said:

9secondkox2 said:

Mike Wuerthele said:

9secondkox2 said:

Interesting article. 

As we’ve seen in this admin, things are always in motion and never stuck in the mud. 

So we will see how these deals turn out for the long term benefit of America. 

But one thing is for certain: something msjor had to be done. Constantly losing ground to other nations was not sustainable. Sure, you might get a cheaper iPhone today, but you may not even be able to get an iPhone tomorrow. 

I’ll take long term over short term any day. 

Except, there's no long-term gain to be had, and just more wealth shifting up away from the middle class to the upper on this path.

If he really wanted to restore manufacturing to the US, he'd fund education to the maximum extent possible. We do not have the manufacturing manpower base or educated populace needed to do this!

He and his party are doing the opposite.

"Things are always in motion" is not a good thing for international trade relations or US businesses that don't know what to expect, or budget for, on a day-to-day basis.

It’s been 5 months. And the tarriffs less than that. And deals still in motion. Can hardly conclude what you’re saying from that. 

Is it possible it doesn’t work as hoped? Sure. We live in an uncertain and imperfect world full of people acting in bad faith, etc. but is it worth a shot? 100%. The alternative is to continue to decline. One way it’s much closer to certainty of success is if one group of people stop attacking the guy every time he breathes, and gets behind what’s obviously a noble goal, things would go much smoother and have a better outcome. 

Manpower is fully available. Have you looked at the unemployment rates? Education is a matter of training. Unfortunately, much of what passes for education today has little to do with reading, writing, and arithmetic. That’s thanks to a partisan led federal education department. The states do a better job. Almost anyone can learn how to do repetitive things, no matter how detailed. The key is starting. Sure it takes time. But it never happens unless you start. A lot of unemployed people today would love to have these jobs. 

Things being in motion refers to the agility of the current admin and their near unprecedented ability to pivot in an instant, constantly evaluating and executing. Not just rolling with something bevause they already were heading in that direction. If it’s not advancing favorably, the smart thing to do is pivot. And keeping things in motion also helps guard against letting bad faith heads of state pin them down to bad deals. 

China is tough. Bevause of the usa pressing the “easy button” decades ago, we have built up an enemy into being a major force on the world stage. It will not be easy to wean off of the “cheap” Chinese manufacturing, but it will be the wise thing to get started on. If not, the ISA will just keep declining until it’s no longer the superpower it has been. If the answer is not what the President is doing, it’s certainly not also the status quo - or worse, pouring even more money into our adversaries - or even other economies in general. 

Bold and italics mine. This is a ridiculous assessment of what this administration does. Fire, Ready, Fire, with no "aim" step and a "ready, fire" sequence out of order is no way to run a global trade program, much less a lemonade stand. There's no plan. There's just a hope that this will work, and design to shift money up and out of the middle class.

I'm with you on "China is tough." But, that's about all in this few paragraphs that I agree with. High tech US manufacturing that the CHIPS act started is not going well, and that's been years. The US has been cutting funding to education in a bipartisan effort for half a century. No education effort. No "Almost anyone can learn how to do repetitive things, no matter how detailed" effort.

Look up "No child left behind" and where we are now, and which administration started the requirement to educate for tests, not for learning, and tell me it's a partisan-led federal education department. The states do not do a better job, and there's no realistic way you can say that.

Penalizing US businesses and therefore US consumers to do this isn't the way to do it. Not funding education and further cutting for the umpteenth time with the big beautiful bill is not the way to do it.

Could it work? Maybe. Is it likely to? No.

It's more likely to crush small businesses in favor of the big ones, and drive the middle class deeper into debt.

While I tend to agree on msny of your other topics, It’s obvious we disagree fundamentally on most of not all things related to the current administration. 

I’ll agree to disagree. As far as who turns out to be right? We shall see. 

The tariffs are a complete and total disaster, bruh.

But I gotta say that I really enjoy seeing you twist your brain into a mental pretzel trying to rationalize the decisions of someone who "doesn't know what the fuck they're doing." (TacoMan's words, not mine)

The only mental acrobatics are coming from the side pretending this didn’t need to be done. No ine said it would be easy or quick. Just that it is a much needed beginning to strengthen our standing. 

When you have to lie and make false statements the. You are most certainly the person doing mental acrobatics. That you can’t make your case without falsehoods only understanding how weak your argument is. You would get a lot further if  engaged in an intellectually honest discussion. 

The more commenters who react to a poster’s nonsense, the more attention the poster receives, which is exactly what he/she wants. 

In my opinion “productivity” is highly contextual so it always comes down to whether or not a particular “productivity” enhancement is going to help you perform the things you do easier, with less friction, and in a way that’s intuitive for you. I’ve tried various clipboard managers and have yet to find one that is essential to my workflow. When it’s nonessential I tend to forget it’s there so it becomes dormant ballast on my workstation. There are also other tools and utilities that get baked into my brain and I’d struggle without them.