The MacRumors Show: John Gruber Talks Apple Intelligence and the Future of the Company

Daring Fireball's John Gruber joins us on this week's episode of The MacRumors Show to discuss Apple Intelligence and the future of the company.


We talk through the reaction to John's influential "Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino" piece on Daring Fireball, which pointed out that Apple's credibility has been "damaged" by the delay in releasing key ‌Apple Intelligence‌ features such as personalized Siri. Subsequent reports revealed that Vision Pro chief Mike Rockwell has taken over the Siri team at Apple, which until recently was led by artificial intelligence chief John Giannandrea. Software chief Craig Federighi is also believed to have taken on more responsibility to turn ‌Apple Intelligence‌ around.

The company has altered its marketing strategy away from the "Hello, ‌Apple Intelligence‌" tagline and the features are finally expected to launch sometime within the next year. With this recent context, we get John's thoughts on how the situation has evolved since he wrote his article, including on the proposed class-action lawsuits against Apple over false advertising. We also look at how Apple may present its suite of AI features at WWDC later this year.

Moreover, we reflect on the Vision Pro almost two years after its announcement, and John explains why he believes that the headset avoided the mismanagement that has mired apple Intelligence. We also talk through rumors about the second-generation Vision Pro headset that is expected to launch between fall 2025 and spring 2026 as a minor spec bump, simply upgrading from the M2 to the M5 chip. We also explore the highly anticipated lower-cost Vision headset, dubbed "Vision Air," and how this could be positioned when it launches.

We look at the state of Apple's smart home proposition and the HomePod amid rumors that the company's first smart home hub product has been delayed to 2026. The device is believed to be finished and was originally scheduled to launch in March 2025, but due to its reliance on ‌Apple Intelligence‌ its release has reportedly been shelved until next year.

Finally, we discuss the long-rumored foldable iPhone, pondering on what Apple is likely to do differently when it launches the device next year. The MacRumors Show also has its own YouTube channel, so make sure you're subscribed to keep up with new episodes and clips. See more of John's work over on Daring Fireball and on his podcast, "The Talk Show."

You can also listen to ‌The MacRumors Show‌ on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, or your preferred podcasts app. You can also copy our RSS feed directly into your podcast player.


If you haven't already listened to the previous episode of The MacRumors Show, catch up to hear our discussion about the latest iOS 19 and watchOS 12 rumors, upcoming devices, and more.

Subscribe to ‌The MacRumors Show‌ for new episodes every week, where we discuss some of the topical news breaking here on MacRumors, often joined by interesting guests such as Mark Gurman, Kevin Nether, Jon Prosser, Luke Miani, Matthew Cassinelli, Brian Tong, Quinn Nelson, Jared Nelson, Eli Hodapp, Mike Bell, Sara Dietschy, iJustine, Jon Rettinger, Andru Edwards, Arnold Kim, Ben Sullins, Marcus Kane, Christopher Lawley, Frank McShan, David Lewis, Tyler Stalman, Sam Kohl, Federico Viticci, Thomas Frank, Jonathan Morrison, Ross Young, Ian Zelbo, and Rene Ritchie.

‌The MacRumors Show‌ is on X @MacRumorsShow, so be sure to give us a follow to keep up with the podcast. You can also head over to The MacRumors Show forum thread to engage with us directly. Remember to rate and review the podcast, and let us know what subjects and guests you would like to see in the future.

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Top Rated Comments

coolfactor Avatar
19 hours ago at 08:50 am
Apple and Apple Intelligence are going to be just fine.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Siliconguy Avatar
17 hours ago at 10:56 am

John explains why he believes that the headset avoided the mismanagement that has mired apple Intelligence.
That's easy. The headset was the result of years of intentional R&D and project planning. The initial release may have missed the mark, but the team knows where they are going and now they have feedback on where they missed.

Apple Intelligence was a rush job based on Marketing panic about being left behind in "the AI Revolution" and therefore suffered from the "We have to put something out to still seen as relevant" panic. And so the team slapped together whatever they had on hand and shipped. Traditionally Apple lets others bleed on the cutting edge (iPod, iPhone) and shipped something that was well thought out and better than the competition.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Plutonius Avatar
19 hours ago at 08:54 am
I sometimes think that "Apple Intelligence" and "Future of the Company" are a contradiction in terms :).
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TechnoMonk Avatar
13 hours ago at 02:57 pm

Really disappointed with the way John has been treating Gurman lately. Just really disrespectful and unnecessary.
Dude lost it 6-7 years ago, a bitter reflection of his former self. I haven’t been to his blog or followed him for over 5 years.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Dark_Omen Avatar
19 hours ago at 09:32 am

Apple and Apple Intelligence are going to be just fine.
We said the same thing about Siri in 2011.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ThailandToo Avatar
8 hours ago at 08:25 pm

See my above post. 2+ Billion active/repeat customers continue to open their wallets and purchase the Apple products they love.

The good news, for you, is there are plenty of Apple competitor companies waiting to win you over.
I love Apple. I hate the direction they have gone in for years. Tim Cook has ruined a great company by overvaluing it now and destroying its long term goodwill with customers. There are 2B devices not users. I have 14 devices in total but that’s not 14 unique users. That’s for business and personal. Have a new $14k Mac Studio. Also have millions in Nvidia GPUs and PC/Linux servers. Personally a Pixel phone, ThinkPad and Razer laptop. I love some things about all of it.

I don’t like how anticompetitive AAPL acts. I don’t like the greed from the top down. And the growing sentiment with everyone except young users is disappointment or frustration.

And this is all with labor that’s badly underpaid and treated without dignity in other countries. Labor underpaid in America. Only the executives win this game because yes the shareholders are winning under Cook. But this is the problem with greed making a company valuable now but burning bridges with customers by taking advantage and acting anticompetitively. The long run doesn’t look good. Apple has maybe ten years before it sees serious decline. The best case scenario is to hire an innovator at the top to restore the future of Apple. Yes shareholders will suffer short term but that’s how all stakeholders will win.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)