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.

Popular Stories

iOS 26

iOS 26.1 Coming Soon: New Features for Your iPhone and Release Date

Monday October 27, 2025 7:55 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a handful of new features and changes for iPhones, including a toggle for changing the appearance of the Liquid Glass design, "slide to stop" for alarms in the Clock app, and more. Below, we outline key details about iOS 26.1. Release Date Given that Apple has yet to seed an iOS 26.1 Release Candidate, which is typically the final beta version, the...
maxresdefault

Apple TV 4K Could Still Launch Before 2025 Ends: All the Rumored Features

Monday October 27, 2025 4:51 pm PDT by
Apple is designing an updated version of the Apple TV 4K, and rumors suggest that it could come out sometime in the next couple of months. We're not expecting a major overhaul with design changes, but even a simple chip upgrade will bring major improvements to Apple's set-top box. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. We've rounded up all the latest Apple TV rumors. ...
iOS 26 Maps Glass

Apple Reportedly Moving Ahead With Ads in Maps App

Sunday October 26, 2025 6:22 am PDT by
Apple Maps could feature integrated ads as soon as next year, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. In his latest "Power On" newsletter, Gurman said that Apple's plan to bring more ads to iOS is moving "gaining traction," with the Maps app being next in line. The project will apparently give restaurants and other businesses the option to pay to have their details featured more prominently in...
iOS 26 Battery Glass Feature

iOS 26.1 Beta Liquid Glass Battery Drain Test: Tinted vs Clear Mode

Friday October 24, 2025 2:30 pm PDT by
In the fourth iOS 26.1 beta, Apple added a "Tinted" option that reduces the translucency of Liquid Glass for those who prefer a more opaque look. I saw some comments wondering whether the setting might preserve battery life, so I thought I'd do some testing. Test Settings I did four separate tests using the iPhone 17 Pro Max, and I kept the parameters as similar as possible. Here are the...
iOS 26

6 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 26.1

Wednesday October 29, 2025 4:22 am PDT by
Apple is about to drop iOS 26.1, the first major point release since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least six notable changes and improvements to look forward to. We've rounded them up below. Apple has already provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 26.1, which means Apple will likely roll out the update to all compatible...
M6 MacBook Pro Feature 1

M6 MacBook Pro: Release Date, Pricing, and What to Expect

Monday October 27, 2025 9:15 am PDT by
Apple this month refreshed the 14-inch MacBook Pro base model with its new M5 chip, and higher-end 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips are expected to follow in early 2026. However, these machines will represent the final update to the current design, with Apple reportedly developing a completely new version of the MacBook Pro packed with next-generation hardware...
iOS 26

Apple Seeds iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, and macOS Tahoe 26.1 Release Candidates

Tuesday October 28, 2025 1:07 pm PDT by
Apple today provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate versions of upcoming iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, macOS Tahoe 26.1, tvOS 26.1, watchOS 26.1, and visionOS 26.1 updates for testing purposes. The RCs betas come a week after Apple released the fourth betas. The new betas can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software...
iOS 26

iOS 26.1 Coming Soon With These 8 New Features for Your iPhone

Wednesday October 22, 2025 6:15 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a handful of new features and changes for iPhones, including a toggle for changing the appearance of the Liquid Glass design, "slide to stop" for alarms in the Clock app, and more. iOS 26.1 is currently in beta testing. The update will likely be released in the first half of November, and it is compatible with the iPhone 11 series and newer, but some...
swift for android

Developers Can Now Make Android Apps With Apple's Swift

Sunday October 26, 2025 4:23 am PDT by
The first preview release of the Swift SDK for Android was published this week, allowing developers to build Android apps in Swift with official tooling and making it easier to share code across iOS and Android. The SDK enables Android apps to be built in Swift using officially supported tooling rather than community workarounds. In June, it was announced that Apple's Swift programming...

Top Rated Comments

ThailandToo Avatar
7 months ago

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.
Edit: delete my post as it was edited by someone who is not me. Thanks!
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
coolfactor Avatar
7 months ago
Apple and Apple Intelligence are going to be just fine.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
klasma Avatar
7 months ago

Apple not jumping onto the generative “AI” bandwagon like some uncritical lemming only makes them more esteemed.
How are they not jumping on that bandwagon with Genmoji, Smart Reply, Image Wand, notification/email/transcript summaries, memory movies, Writing Tools, and ChatGPT integration?
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Chungry Avatar
7 months ago

Calm down John. You didn’t expose Apple. You just summarized Reddit with better punctuation.

Main character syndrome much. ?‍?
Absolutely. He thinks so highly of himself. I had a casual email exchange with him back in 2003 and he came off as a condescending, uh, blue origin rocket
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Dark_Omen Avatar
7 months ago

Apple and Apple Intelligence are going to be just fine.
We said the same thing about Siri in 2011.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
blairh Avatar
7 months ago
Really disappointed with the way John has been treating Gurman lately. Just really disrespectful and unnecessary.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)