Latest news with #DaringFireball
The Verge
3 days ago
- Business
- The Verge
Posted May 30, 2025 at 1:49 PM EDT
Apple execs aren't going to appear on The Talk Show Live at WWDC this year. John Gruber of Daring Fireball has been hosting a WWDC live podcast session for years, and every year since 2015, Apple senior execs have shown up. That won't be the case for the 2025 edition, and after his recent report on unmet promises of Apple Intelligence, I think I can guess why. If you missed the recent Decoder episode with John discussing Apple, its App Store, and Apple Intelligence, you can listen to it right here.
The Sun
26-05-2025
- The Sun
Apple rumoured to release top secret new gadget ‘by the end of this year' – here's everything we know so far
APPLE will reportedly release a brand new gadget later this year - and it will be the first of its kind from the iPhone maker. Rumours about the fabled device have been circulating since 2022. 1 But a new report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman suggests Apple could be releasing its long-awaited smart home hub before the end of 2025. The product was expected to rely heavily on Apple Intelligence - Apple's package of artificial intelligence (AI) powered features. However, a delay to some of the more advanced features inside Apple Intelligence - such as a smarter Siri - has pushed back the announcement of the smart home hub, Gurman previously reported. Apple has been working on making Siri understand queries based on personal context - for example, "What time does dad's train get in?' In a statement to Daring Fireball, Apple said: "We've also been working on a more personalised Siri, giving it more awareness of your personal context, as well as the ability to take action for you within and across your apps. "It's going to take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features and we anticipate rolling them out in the coming year." It's likely, therefore, that the secretive gadget could be released around the same time as the super-smart Siri later this year. While Apple has said very little about the smart home hub, here's everything we've heard so far: Apple Home Hub Apple's smart hub is expected to mirror rivals, like Amazon's Echo Hub, in style with a 7inch square display and thick bezel (the frame that goes around the screen). Rumours suggest it could be like a HomePod and iPad combined - with a starting price of $1,000 (£738). Apple shows you tips and tricks on the new Iphone 16e with Apple Intelligence It's reported to have a camera at the top, with a heavy focus on video apps like FaceTime. Other Apple apps, including Apple TV, Apple Music and Photos, may also feature. It will also adopt a new operating system, dubbed homeOS, according to reports. The Apple hub is designed to control other smart home gadgets. Consumers should be able to move it around the house as they please, with Apple expected to build in a rechargeable battery. Apple is reportedly planning a more advanced smart home display with a robotic arm for the future. This one-armed bot will apparently have a "unique AI personality," according to reports. However, that product has also been subject to delays. According to Gurman, this product will launch a "year or two later". To meet this release window, Apple will reportedly ditch some of its "bolder features". But those features could be pushed back to later models instead. APPLE TV SIRI TRICKS Apple has revealed some clever Siri commands you can try with your Apple TV... Navigation: 'Open App Store' 'Launch Paramount+' 'Play PBS KIDS Video' 'Go to Photos' Playback: 'Pause this' 'Play from the beginning' 'Skip forward 90 seconds' 'Jump back 10 minutes' 'Turn on closed captioning' 'Turn on French subtitles' 'What did she just say?' Information: 'Who stars in this?' 'Who directed this?' 'What's this rated?' 'When was this released?'
The Verge
12-05-2025
- Business
- The Verge
Did Apple get too big for its own good? With Daring Fireball's John Gruber
We're doing something a little different on today's episode of Decoder. I asked my friend John Gruber, of the website Daring Fireball, to come on the show and talk about the future of Apple — and, importantly, the App Store. Gruber and I have been friends for over a decade now. Daring Fireball was one of the first and most influential Apple blogs around, and he has more insight into Apple, its culture, and how it does things than anyone else. Everyone at Apple and in the Apple developer community reads Daring Fireball religiously. In 2010, Steve Jobs himself emailed Gruber's analysis of an early App Store rule change to an unhappy developer and called it 'very insightful.' Personally, I will always remember a moment early in my career when a very excited Apple PR staffer pointed Gruber out to me at an event like a celebrity sighting, which was funny and also deeply humbling. I wanted to have him on the show to talk about the most recent ruling in the Epic v. Apple legal saga. This is the lawsuit about Fortnite on the iPhone and whether developers like Epic can circumvent the App Store's payment system to avoid paying those 30 percent fees on in-app purchases. Well, late last month, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who has presided over that case for the past five years, effectively banned Apple from collecting fees on web transactions. She also harshly accused of the company of purposefully disobeying her original 2021 ruling by creating a series of restrictions and hoops to jump through that would basically make it impossible for developers to send people to the web to buy things. The judge's extreme frustration with Apple is obvious in almost every line of her ruling; she even referred an Apple executive for criminal proceedings, saying this executive had lied under oath on the stand. There's a lot of tactical stuff you might talk about in the aftermath of this ruling — about what Apple might do next, how it might impact revenue, and how developers might respond. But I really wanted Gruber to talk about Apple's big picture and how a company that so often prides itself on doing the right thing ended up so fully on the wrong side of the courts. One theme you'll hear throughout this conversation is that Apple often presents itself as small, but the company is actually huge in every way — Apple now sells nearly as many phones in a single quarter as it did in the entire first three years of the iPhone's existence combined. It now operates in a geopolitical context that binds the United States, China, and Taiwan in ways you would have never imagined 15 years ago. And perhaps most importantly, Apple has control over applications on the iPhone, which means it has control over what kinds of businesses can and cannot exist on its mobile phones. That's the context for the other major theme here that you'll pick up on in this conversation: Apple's major shift toward digital services and whether that's fundamentally changed the company's culture. You see, as Apple kept selling newer and better iPhones, it simply ran out of people to sell them to. So, in order to keep growing revenue and keep Wall Street happy, it started squeezing more money from its existing customer base, including the very developers that put apps on the App Store. That made some of the most important developers, the companies that make mobile games and stream media, very upset. But they had no other choice so they kept their apps in the App Store and continued to pay the fees — except for some major exceptions like Amazon and Spotify, which simply refused to sell you ebooks or music subscriptions on iOS at all. (After this most recent ruling, Amazon updated its Kindle app to sell ebooks via the web, while Spotify is working to update its iOS app to do the same for its subscriptions.) All of that combined with Apple's scale created a kind of hubris and, as you'll hear Gruber say, a major blind spot for Apple that has pushed it toward these high-profile and public legal defeats that could reshape its business. If all of that weren't enough to put the heat on Apple, there's also Trump's tariffs to deal with and a Google antitrust trial that could see Google barred from striking an exclusivity deal for its search engine that currently pays Apple north of $20 billion a year. Apple also has to compete in AI with Apple Intelligence and Siri, products that are currently a total mess. Gruber and I got into all that at the end here, and I wanted to know if there was a connection between the corporate culture that produced the App Store debacle and the recent news of Siri delays and dysfunction around AI inside Apple. There's a whole lot going on in this conversation, and there's really nobody better to talk about all of this than Gruber. I hope you like this one; as you'll soon hear, Gruber and I really enjoy talking to each other. If you'd like to read more on what we talked about in this episode, check out the links below:
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Yahoo
I've been testing iOS 18.4 — try these 5 features first after you upgrade
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. iOS 18.4 is out of beta and available as a full release for anyone to download on their iPhone. Though at this point, the update seems to be getting more attention for what's not included than the features that actually are there. This update was expected to be the last significant one ahead of this summer's iOS 19 preview. As a result, we were looking for iOS 18.4 to deliver some promised Apple Intelligence features that had yet to materialize during the rollout of Apple's AI tools. Specifically, iOS 18.4 was supposed to bring new capabilities to Siri that made the assistant more aware of context and capable of interacting with apps on your phone. That's not happening, nor will it occur any time soon. Earlier this month, Apple confirmed that the Siri revamp would be delayed, with some people speculating that we may not see the features promised to us last year until 2026. "It's going to take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features and we anticipate rolling them out in the coming year," an Apple spokesperson conceded in a statement to Daring Fireball. While Apple's AI struggles are certainly disappointing, it would be a shame if they were to overshadow the enhancements that Apple has included with iOS 18.4. While not as significant as a Siri overhaul, features included in iOS 18.4 do bring some new capabilities and quality-of-life improvements to the iPhone. Even better, with a couple noteworthy exceptions, the big changes aren't tied to Apple Intelligence. That means anyone with a compatible iPhone — i.e., an iPhone XR, iPhone XS/XS Max or later — can enjoy the benefits that iOS 18.4 delivers. I've been trying out iOS 18.4 across multiple iPhones since the initial betas came out. And I've found a few features that are definitely worth trying out if you're only now upgrading to the latest version of Apple's iPhone software. Let's start with an Apple Intelligence feature if only because this is one of the better instances of Apple's AI efforts. Visual Intelligence lets you use the camera on your iPhone as a search tool. You can point your iPhone camera at signs in another language to get a translation, or you can use it to capture times and dates of upcoming events you see on a flyer. And yes, you can turn to Apple Intelligence to look up information about what your camera captures similar to Google Lens. Previously, that functionality was limited to iPhone 16 models, largely because they came with a camera capture button that had been necessary for accessing Visual Intelligence. iOS 18.4 adds a shortcut to launch Visual Intelligence that you can tie to your phone's Action button, making the feature available to the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. Am I flagging this up because I have an iPhone 15 Pro on hand, and this immediately makes my own phone more useful? I will not pretend otherwise. But the occasional hiccup aside, Visual Intelligence performs well, and it's nice to see feature parity restored to all iPhones capable of support Apple Intelligence. An iOS 18.4 addition that everyone can enjoy — and one that's probably my favorite new feature in the update — is the arrival of ambient music in Apple's Control Center. If music playing in the background helps you concentrate on work or wind down before bed, you should definitely check this out. Just swipe down from the upper right right corner of your iPhone screen to access the Control Center, and then press and hold on the screen to edit it. If you tap Add a Control, you'll find four new ambient music options as you scroll through the list of various Control Center shortcuts. You can even add an ambient music control to your phone's lock screen for quicker access. If I have a criticism about the feature, it's that I wish there were a way to toggle between various ambient music modes like Productivity and Chill without having to dedicate different spots on the Control Center for those specific shortcuts. But still, as a person who needs music in the background to focus sometimes, I find the addition of ambient music to be a welcome one. Apple includes some minor changes in each iOS update that aren't exactly headline-grabbers, but still make the iPhone any easier device to use. iOS 18.4 includes a couple of these changes that are worth noting. When using Safari, you may notice that a list of your recent searches now appears when you open a new tab and tap the search bar. Maybe that doesn't bug you, but it's not the most secure way to go through life. The shipping version of iOS 18.4 adds a toggle in Settings to hide your recent Safari searches from anyone who happens to glance at your iPhone screen at an inopportune moment. The other minor change in iOS 18.4 that's caught my eye is the ability to pause app downloads rather than stopping them completely. That way, you don't lose any progress when you resume downloading app when your network connection is stronger or you're back on Wi-Fi — or really whatever reason you have for mashing that pause button. Switch back to Apple Intelligence-specific improvements, iOS 18.4 sees the arrival of priority notifications. These are alerts that are deemed to be time-sensitive by the on-board AI within your phone, which then floats them to the top of your notification stack. Here's an example: My wife texted me in Messages about an upcoming dentist appointment. The priority notifications feature figures that's a more pressing concern than the goofy meme my daughter texted to me, so my wife's alert appears first, regardless of the order in which those texts were sent. When I was testing the iOS 18.4 beta, I didn't alway appreciate how another Apple Intelligence feature — notification summaries — would truncate the texts into an alert I couldn't easily parse. But as someone who's not always paying attention to messages as they come into my iPhone, I do like the fact that the most important ones will be displayed more prominently. To take advantage of priority notifications, you've got to go into the Notifications menu of the Settings and turn the feature on. If you've got a phone that supports Apple Intelligence, I suggest that you do, if only to see if the feature fits into your workflow. Apple Intelligence has been rolling out slowly to different parts of the world, debuting in the U.S. last October before arriving in the U.K., Australia, Canada and New Zealand late last year. iOS 18.4 lets the EU join the part, and there support for more languages. Specifically, iOS 18.4 now supports simplified Chinese, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish. Localized English is also available in Singapore and India. If you speak those languages or live in those countries and have an Apple Intelligence-capable iPhone, that's a big deal. And it's an even bigger deal with Apple, which has said that its new iPhones sell better in places where Apple Intelligence is available. Those aren't the only iOS 18.4 additions. Apple has added other things that I either haven't had a chance to try or that I'm a bit more dubious about. But I'll highlight them here in case they're capabilities that matter to you. I have not now nor ever been someone who cares about emojis, though I recognize that puts me in a very small minority. If you're someone who does find emojis to be the ultimate form of human expression, you've got eight new ones courtesy of iOS 18.4. Study them well, and use them as you will. On the Apple Intelligence front, the Image Playground app adds a third drawing style — Sketch joins Animation and Illustration. That certainly starts to tackle one complaint I've had about Apple's image generation feature — not enough styles. But my overall observation that images generated in Image Playground really don't have practical uses remains. One iOS 18.4 addition that I haven't tried but would like to centers around the addition of food-related content to the News Plus subscription service. Specifically, Apple is bringing recipes to its News app. Most of the "tens of thousands" of recipes Apple is introducing will be for News Plus subscribers, but a few will be available to everyone — think of it as your free taste. I'm a bit of a foodie myself, and I'm always looking for new ideas of what to whip up for dinner. So that might just tempt me to part with the $12.99/month that Apple charges for News Plus. That service's growth beyond just a collection of magazine articles and news stories to include games and now recipes is one of the more interesting developments among Apple's various subscription packages. I'm a long-time iPhone owner, but I rarely use Apple Intelligence — here's why Why Apple's WWDC 2025 keynote will be its biggest in years iPhone 16e review: The right trade-offs?
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Yahoo
Something is ‘rotten' about Apple and it could ‘collapse upon itself', says longtime positive commentator after AI problems
Something is 'rotten' about Apple and its recent rollout of long-promised AI features for the iPhone, according to a longtime positive commentator. The company is in 'disarray if not crisis', its credibility is 'now damaged' and it has 'squandered' its reputation for shipping good updates and products, claimed John Gruber. Mr Gruber, who runs the blog Daring Fireball, has long been among one of Apple's most supportive reviewers and commentators. Mr Gruber's unexpected attack came after Apple announced last week that it would not be able to ship some of its most hyped and widely-promoted updates on time. In June, Apple had introduced Apple Intelligence, a wide range of AI-powered features that were intended to improve the iPhone and other products. While they covered a host of updates – some of which have shipped, such as an app to generate AI images – the most prominent was updates to Siri that would allow it to undertake a vast array of tasks on its owner's behalf. Apple suggested that those features would be out this year. But on Friday it said that they would not be ready, and that they were instead expected in the 'coming year', which could mean late 2026. 'Siri helps our users find what they need and get things done quickly, and in just the past six months, we've made Siri more conversational, introduced new features like type to Siri and product knowledge, and added an integration with ChatGPT,' Apple said in a statement then 'We've also been working on a more personalized Siri, giving it more awareness of your personal context, as well as the ability to take action for you within and across your apps. It's going to take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features and we anticipate rolling them out in the coming year.' Mr Gruber said that the decision to promote features that were clearly not ready were a sign that the company was promoting 'bullshit', and that it was 'a sign of a company in disarray, if not crisis'. Apple should have known that the features would not be ready and time and should not have promised them if they were not likely to be available, he said. That failure had already damaged Apple's reputation for announcing and then successfully launching products, he said. But he suggested that it could do dramatic damage to the company as a whole. He noted that after previous Apple failures, founder and former chief executive Steve Jobs had held a meeting to hold staff accountable and force them to fix the company. He said that Tim Cook should already have held a meeting to 'rectify this Siri and Apple Intelligence debacle'. 'If such a meeting hasn't yet occurred or doesn't happen soon, then, I fear, that's all she wrote. The ride is over,' he wrote. When mediocrity, excuses, and bullshit take root, they take over. 'A culture of excellence, accountability, and integrity cannot abide the acceptance of any of those things, and will quickly collapse upon itself with the acceptance of all three.'
