Newsletter Issue #1056
May 27th, 2025APPLE INTELLIGENCE IS NOT SO INTELLIGENT
I have been working on a new column for a while, but it’s not that Apple has done much to change the world. It’s not like the old days, where I had enough material to write five or six pithy columns a week. But here goes…
Today’s Apple has some problems and I’m sure you know about them. So in the fall of 2024, Apple’s TV ads appeared in heavy rotation touting the new AI features of the latest and greatest iPhones. You could see people gleefully staring at their devices, allegedly benefitting from these amazing new features.
But it was no more than an illusion. While Apple’s branded version of AI was under development for iOS 18, and even announced as a forthcoming feature, the main features continued to be passed on to an uncertain future. I thought there were laws against false advertising, but after watching a bunch of sketchy spots — including those run by an alleged credit repair firm run by someone who once served a prison term for financial fraud — I realized it doesn’t matter anymore.
Sure, Apple Intelligence has become more useful since then. Well, at least they’re being activated in many — but not all — countries on Planet Earth. But the main feature that is really useful for many users of Apple gear is Siri. But it has only had modest internal improvements since 2011. It’s still mostly brain dead, and rarely handles questions in context. Indeed, I often activate Siri with simple command on my Apple Watch only to receive a “Good Morning” response. It means I have to do it again.
The situation has become so bad that Apple recently had to perform a corporate musical chairs on the Siri team. In March of this year, they reportedly selected Mike Rockwell, the head of Vision Pro development, to replace John Giannandrea as the leader of AI and Siri. In days of old, the latter would have been “Steved.”
Unfortunately this means that Apple remains way behind the curve in delivering proper AI. But the real point is whether it matters all that much to most regular people. While AI is getting more traction in the business world, having ChatGPT edit your email may be fun for a while, but you soon have to return to the real world. A smarter Siri would have a real impact, if Apple manages to get it together, and they do have enough cash to throw at the problem and make it so.
We’ll know more at June’s WWDC event, along with relatively fulsome descriptions of the next iOS, iPad OS and, of course, MacOS. Maybe they’ll even have features that regular people can use. There is talk, for example, of more Mac-like features for the iPad, which seem destined to turn the device into a real Mac with a touchscreen. How quaint!
But it all goes to a larger issue of technology. Manufacturers continue to devise new features and up performance to entice you to buy the next great upgrade. But at what point does the technology become good enough for most of you? Consider that people keep their devices longer and longer. Smartphones are key examples. I can’t tell you how often I receive an enticing email assuring me I can sign up and get a new iPhone for chump change if I add a line or switch from a different provider. Somehow they have to make a profit, so one assumes it comes from manufacturer incentives if they sell enough units, and charge high enough service fees to make up the difference.
Of course, those insane tariffs coming to America may totally upset things, particularly if they are high enough to make gear less affordable. And, no, the countries that export products aren’t the ones to pay. A simple dictionary definition of a tariff explains the terrible reality.
In any case, I’ll report my own experiences.
In the TV market, the sets are getting a little cheaper, features are expanded but picture differences from model to model are often subtle after some basic adjustments. Reviewers will describe picture quality in exhaustive detail, but it hardly matters if you can’t see it. I have a 55-inch VIZIO Quantum 4K that the company sent me in 2020 in exchange for a review. To defend my journalistic credentials, they did not put any limits on what I’d wrote, not even by implication, so it was a good deal. The set continues to work fine, after staying on for many hours of every day. I’ve never once felt the need to upgrade, or any reason to consider it.
In the Mac universe, the arrival of Apple Silicon in 2020 was a revelation. I had been using a Late 2014 27-inch 5K iMac, which was enhanced late in life by dumping the defective Fusion drive in favor of a 2TB SSD. Nearly two years ago, I made a deal with a client that gave me an M1 Mac mini, a Thunderbolt 4 external SSD and a ViewSonic 27-inch 4K display. Performance more than doubled and I have never felt that I sacrificed anything by losing 1K on a display under normal use. Maybe if I was editing 4K video. Since then, an old friend donated an M4 Mac mini, from 2024, in exchange for the old model. Such a deal!
The new Mac mini is four times faster than my old iMac, and I expect it will deliver years of useful life.
In the old days, I bought new Macs every couple of years, and even then performance improvements were largely modest. I am, therefore, not contributing much to Apple’s bottom line. The M4 mini is cheap, $599 minus the usual discounts from some dealers, and I didn’t have to give up the external SSD and display, both of which have years of useful life left.
Unfortunately, Apple’s own customizations are little short of extortion. Upgrading the stock 256GB SSD to 2TB — to match my external drive — costs $740. My SSD, just as fast, cost less than $250.
In the scheme of things, only super power users have to worry about getting the latest and greatest Mac. Apple has to continue to invent new features to lure you in, but only a tiny portion of their users will benefit. The same is true for the iPhone and the iPad. In the automobile world, the average life of a car is 12 to 15 years or about 200,000 miles. Of course, some cars won’t last that long, but it means that a very big investment will deliver good results for a quite while. When it comes to tech gear, I’ve worked with five-year-old iPhones and iPads without feeling I was getting unacceptable performance or losing features I needed. I kept my last iMac for nine years before I replaced it.
This means that tech companies — and car makers for that matter — will have to work harder to boost sales. Other than EV and more complex infotainment systems, most of which are poorly designed, you might as well keep the old buggy going as long as you can.
After years of chasing rainbows with your devices, you’ve reached your destination. Apple, Google and Samsung struggle to add new features few care about, so there’s little reason to trade up unless your gear becomes less usable.
Then again, maybe Apple will have some can’t miss features to offer at the 2025 WWDC. And what I mean is something that’ll work on Day One, and not require waiting months or forever for the vapor to disperse.
THE FINAL WORD
Gene Steinberg’s Tech Night Owl Newsletter is a weekly information service of Making The Impossible.
Publisher/Editor: Gene Steinberg
Managing Editor: Grayson Steinberg
Marketing and Public Relations: Barbara Steinberg
Copyright 1999-2025 Making The Impossible. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that’s a promise!
Print This Issue
