Apple – Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3

The Not Always Serendipitous Bug When Text Messaging With Spouses

But honey, I didn’t get the text!

I enjoy driving long distances alone. One of the benefits is that it gives me time to catch up on podcasts and audio books, so there’s the bonus. Even though that doesn’t come close to making up for the current high prices of gas or driving through summer road construction.

My wife is in the final weekend of a production of Always Patsy Cline at Hope Summer Repertory about three hours away. This morning I left Chicago before the crack of dawn to avoid the current heat wave baking our glass bubble of a car and pass through the construction zones a little easier. The trip is to catch her last two performances, then pack her up and bring us back home after what will be two months of her being away and me traveling back and forth. We’re theatre folk so we’re used to that home again, away again lifestyle.

Here’s where the serendipity begins. While listening to the post-show portion of The Accidental Tech Podcast episode #698 (I subscribe to the podcast) host Casey Liss brought up an iPhone messaging bug that I’ve encountered for quite some time. One that would pop up again on this trip.

In essence the bug is this.

When his wife texts him on a solitary thread between the two of them, he will not receive a haptic tap on his Apple Watch. He does however receive the “tap-tap” as he calls it, if she is a part of a group thread. Liss’s thinking is that this has something to do with Focus modes. In those of which he runs, he has configured his wife to be able to break through with a haptic notification on his Apple Watch when she texts.

One of his other co-hosts Marco Arment also has the same issue. The third co-host John Siracusa has the problem but in reverse. He doesn’t wear an Apple Watch, but his wife does, and she claims she never gets an Apple Watch notification when he texts either.

I have the exact same problem. Like Liss I also have a specific self-designed haptic touch configured for my wife. I have seen this bug for so long that I’ve just relegated it to another that Apple will never fix. But there is a slight difference, which I’ll get to in a moment.

This morning’s serendipity wasn’t just hearing this issue discussed and getting the satisfying momentary knowledge that if these much more sophisticated tech guys than I can’t figure it out, I’m not crazy and I’m not alone. We’ve all been there in those moments of relief with our own tech frustrations. But the story continues with a bit of zemblanity. (Today’s word search was looking up the opposite of serendipity. Everyday is a good day when you learn something new, and also discover you’re not alone in your tech woes.)

While on this early morning drive, listening to this very section of the podcast, my wife texted me, asking me to stop off at the store when I hit town before heading to her company housing to pick up a few things. I never got the notification of her text on my Apple Watch, and didn’t see the one on my iPhone until after I had reached her residence, stopped the car, and began to unload.

Yup. I had to turn around and go back to the store.

During the ATP discussion of all of this much good natured back and forth was had about one spouse or the other not receiving these text message notifications and the “fun” it can cause in spousal relations when your only and honest answer is “Honey, I didn’t get your text!” Of course the logical next response that never works is “Blame Apple.”

As I mentioned earlier, Liss seems to think this has something to do with Focus modes. He may indeed be correct, but this happens to me whether I am running a Focus mode or not.

I long ago gave up on using Focus modes to any great degree. I just found them too complex to set up, and often not working as I expected. As an example, I no longer allow even the two I do use to flow through my chain of Apple Devices and none are turned on for my Macs. And yet, a Do Not Disturb mode will still launch on my iMac at odd hours on random days. Focus modes in my experience are just too fiddly and in my experience too buggy to be reliable.

The only Focus modes I currently use are the default Do Not Disturb and Sleep modes on the iPhone. I do have my wife, and several family members, set to break through those. Whether I’m running those modes or not, I do not get a “tap-tap” notification on my Apple Watch when my wife texts, unless, like Liss, my wife is part of a family group message thread, and then those come through as designed.

During her two month gig, my wife and I have resorted to “don’t text, call” as our way of reaching each other when some level of urgency or import arises. We’ve been through a few dicey family situations during her gig where I have resorted to turning off the Sleep focus at night. Breaking my wife’s habit of always texting first is a challenge in and of itself. But that’s another story.

Note that I always receive “tap-tap” notifications from all others I’ve set to break through Do Not Disturb or Sleep, or when I’m not running either Focus mode, which the majority of the time. This only happens with my wife.

I don’t know if this is the locus of the problem or not, but I would bet it floats somewhere in Apple’s iCloud. Focus modes, like Messages, flow through iCloud (assuming you have Messaging in iCloud turned on). Liss is convinced he’s configured something wrong. How notifications flow from one device or the other for those, like I, using multiple Apple devices, is also an inconsistent issue in my experience.

My guess, is anyone experiencing this at some point may have flipped a switch in an earlier generation of the software that has since changed, but there’s a flag set somewhere in that user’s iCloud account that’s hanging around causing the problem.

I’ve experienced several issues with my specific iCloud account that required things to be reset on Apple’s end in the past to suspect this is the case. As a little birdie told me during all my iCloud adventures, keep in mind every time Apple updates the operating system for your device, updates are happening on the backend as well.

Perhaps this is one of the many bugs Apple may be cleaning up on the backend preparing for the release of iOS 27. If not, it should be. It certainly would make for happier households that use Apple’s products.

(Image from Andrej Lišakoy on Unsplash)

Thanks for reading. You can subscribe to this blog if you care to. You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. This site does not use affilate links.

Everything Is Changing Under The Fingers On Our Keyboards and Screens

Operating release cycles headed for a change

This week Apple released updates for iPhones, iPads and Macs with the version numbers all ending in 26.5.2. Mostly targeted at security fixes. That’s nothing new. Apple periodically does that. What’s new is how the timing of “periodically” looks like it’s going to change.

The security updates in 26.5.2 were scheduled to roll out with 26.6.6, which is still in beta (Beta 3 if I”m not mistaken.) But these fixes were deemed crucial enough that Apple jumped ahead of the official release of that version and cut in line with the just released version.

This post on Six Colors targets what’s happening. Here’s a quote:

In other words, the security fixes in 26.5.2 are based on the security fixes that were rolled into the 26.6 betas, the first of which was released publicly on May 26. That means that everyone in the security world, including bad actors, has had more than a month to analyze all of Apple’s forthcoming fixes…

Thanks to AI that changes how we, and software makers need to be aware that the traditional release cycle of betas is going to affect security concerns going forward. If a beta release contains code to patch a security hole, then the bad guys, as well as the good guys, have access to that code from the betas.

It’s a good news, be aware kind of story. With AI able to identify and catch and fix bugs and problems faster than humans, it’s only a matter of time before the software testing and release cycle changes. Because if there’s a bug to be fixed or a hole to be patched, there’s a bad guy eager to exploit it.

(Image from Florian Olivo on Unsplash)

Sunday Morning Reading

Comings and goings as life goes on.

It’s a Sunday, so it’s time for a little Sunday Morning Reading. As usual, I’m sharing a collection of links and once again they somehow touch one upon another. Funny how that happens. Some point to big issues. Some about the comings and goings of life. Some about its shifts. Take a look. Take a read. Happiness is a choice.

a bronze statue depicting a young boy sitting on a stone ledge and reading a book. He sits cross-legged, leaning slightly forward, with a large open book resting on his lap. Perched on the open page of the book is a small, detailed bronze bird looking back toward him. The boy's right arm rests on a stack of four large bronze books piled beside him on the stone ledge.

David Todd McCarty’s On Being Good At Life talks about abandoning the quest of success, fame, fortune, and just being better at life. Deciding how one defines life is always the first obstacle.

If you read one piece among those shared this week, read Josh Marshall’s Google, AI, Oligarchy and the End of the ‘Open Web’. I’ve been writing about Google’s recent moves and how they will change the web as we know it. Josh nails it better than I ever did. Some think we’re ready for this. I’m not one of those.

We lost a one of the good ones this week when Om Malik died. By all accounts a great human being and a giant in tech for so many years in so many spheres. Om’s writing has been featured in this column many times. As a human he was so much more than just his achievements. Two great pieces about Om that you should take the time to read. John Gruber’s simply titled Om, and Mathew Ingram’s Om Malik 1966-2026. Sail on, good sir.

Tom Wellborn takes a look at The Art of the Fail. You can guess his target. You should read his piece.

JA Westenberg takes on the pursuit of optimization and the cult of the extreme in The Extreme Is The Easy Way Out. Choosing a middle path is also not necessarily easy.

Mike Masnick tells us How The Internet Became A Tool For Domination and Control Instead of Liberation. Joke’s on us. I’m not laughing.

Ken White’s not laughing either. Or maybe he is. There’s always some kind of fracas happening in social media, regardless of the platform. When you step back, it’s weird that we designed something to explode and exploit that kind of chaos. Weirder still that we think we can control what people say or social media or anywhere else by banning them. Ken White of PopeHat fame was recently suspended from Bluesky and writes about his thoughts in A Bit of Tedious Drama At Bluesky. The piece is much more than just about those circumstances and worth your time. You are what you think and say. Ken defines it well.

A tip of the hat to Dwight Silverman who’s retiring (again) after a terrfic career writing about tech. I have always enjoyed Dwight’s work because he kept the focus of his tech adventures on the user, while having a firm grasp of the bigger picture. Check out The Grand Finale (for real this time): My 30+ year column ends, It’s exit heralded by AI, and also his thoughts about his retiring on his personal blog. I’m guessing (and hoping) we haven’t seen the last of what Dwight has to say.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to subscribe if you want. It’s free. If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. If you’d like more click on the Sunday Morning Reading link in the category column to check out what’s been shared on Sunday’s past. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. This site does not use affilate links.

More Thoughts On Apple’s Price Increases: The AI Tax

The AI Tax is about more than the cost of a computer

Now that the dust is settling a bit after Apple unsurprisingly announced price increases across its hardware lineup, I have to say that I’m quite bemused to see the pocket book hit being called the AI Tax.

I wasn’t clever enough to use that descriptor when I posted about the news shortly after the announcement, but I had been paying enough attention to immediately point the finger of blame at the costs associated with Artificial Intelligence. I think Jonny Evans was the first to coin the phrase AI Tax. For what it’s worth, I hope the phrase AI Tax sticks. Sticks hard and deep. And twists the knife. Because it’s going to affect much more than just the cost of MacBooks, iPads, Apple TVs, and other gear designed in California.

While other tech companies had already started raising prices due to the AI Tax, (talk to anyone in the gaming market) Apple’s announcement is one that brought real shivers and shakes to consumers, the stock market, and boardrooms around the globe. Whether mostly myth or prescient business practices, Apple’s reputation for being ahead of the curve when it comes to purchasing large supplies of chips to withstand market pressures is and was such that tech companies in other sectors often found themselves facing sold out inventories or higher prices when it came time to make their orders. The “Apple Tax” extended far beyond the high cost of Apple products.

That rep and Apple’s stock took a dive on the news. Apple recorded its second biggest market drop in its history, dragging the NASDAQ down with it. Heading into the weekend there’s consternation brewing about all of the chip releated businesses going forward. (Hint: that’s most businesses these days.) But then again, the stock market is not much more than a wild ride in an aging prediction market, so who knows how that will unfold as a holiday week begins on Monday.

Word came via The Financial Times Friday night that Tim Cook was calling in some chits on chips with the Trump administration, attempting to circumvent chip bans balled up in the trade war to and fro with China. If successful, that would allow Apple to buy banned chips that the Pentagon is hesitant about, given that they are built by state controlled Chinese companies. According to the report this lobbying had been going on for a month or so prior to Cook’s first warning a week before the price hike announcement on Thursday.

The timing hints at a bit of public hardball lobbying from Apple. (Note that the price increase announcement wasn’t a Friday news dump after the market closed. However, The Financial Times article came after no known action from the administration post Apple’s announcement.) Shake the markets and try to wrest the attention of the administration fighting losing battles of its own making with bodies of water in the Middle East and in its own backyard. I’m almost surprised Apple hasn’t been called a vandal yet.

As I said earlier, this is going to have far reaching implications beyond the consumer gadget markets. Chip capacity has to increase, or the demand for higher bandwidth memory has to decrease before any of the predictions that this will subside in a few years. (There’s a good read on this from Imran Valiani here.) On the current trajectory, fueled by still increasing hype to combat building blowback, I don’t see that timeline materializing. This news might bobble the bubble, but I don’t think it’s ready to pop.

Costs are going to rise across the board. It’s not just consumers that purchase computers who will take the hit. And it’s not just the purchase of computers that will drive an inflationary spiral. Yep, that’s the I-word that no one likes to hear, especially politicians. Everything is a computer these days, or at least has some form of chip in it. And, in my opinion, too many companies have jumped on the AI bandwagon far too soon to understand the long term ramificatinos. All of those costs will be passed down the line to consumer pocket books.

I also don’t think we’re going to see these price pressures subside to pre-AI Tax levels. I’m old enough to remember when new cars used to have price ranges well below $5,000. That obviously makes me prehistoric, but I can remember watching The Price is Right featuring cars as the grand prize with contestants guaranteeing at least their first guess was accurate by chosing the number two for cars that would be priced at $2995. That’s a memory that doesn’t require a chip. Although streaming those old shows does.

Like it or not, Apple’s success since the launch of the iPhone, has been a key piece of U.S and global economic growth with much of the tech sector following along and prospering in its wake. Apple’s recent announcements are probably one day going to be viewed as just as big a marker going forward as the release of that first iPhone.

It feels to me that we’re entering into a price curve trajectory for computing on all levels that will follow a similar trajectory as the automobile market. The financial markets will find ways to love it as financing will become a key driver to cover costs while the markets get used to price points for signature hardware starting much higher than the $1000 price point today. There’s got to be a way for the bankers to cover all of the borrowing associated with the build out of data centers.

Over the years the myths of Apple being doomed have largely been just that. Myths. Apple always found a way. This turbulence probably won’t change that. But the AI Tax will change things for all of us in ways that we’re just beginning to understand. Inept global political and corporate leadership easily taken advantage of by hype-masters and hucksters have paved the way to this moment.

And all of this for a still largely unproven technology.

No Surprise. Apple Raises Prices Due To Memory Woes

No hallucination. AI puts the squeeze on memory prices.

Don’t be surprised. Don’t be shocked. Apple is raising prices. Outgoing CEO Tim Cook said a week ago that Apple couldn’t withstand the price pressure brought on by memory chip shortages, likening it a 100 year flood. Put on your waders John Ternus.

Translating that a bit, what Cook was saying is that Apple doesn’t want to cut into its historic profit margins.

Bloomberg has the report. As does everybody else. You’ll see lots of screaming, hair pulling, and much gnashing of teeth about this in the next few days. But again, this shouldn’t come as a surprise given all we’ve heard for so long about the pressures AI is putting on the chip business.

Just remember, every time you’ve talked to that chatbot, you’ve helped make this happen.

Here’s a statement from Apple to the Wall Street Journal.

“We have now reached a point where we need to begin raising prices,” [Apple] said in the statement. “We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly.”

Note that there’s no mention of AI is the root cause. Rationalizations and spin will replace AI hallucinations and eventually absorbed into the corpus of knowledge about this.

So what costs more?

Even Apple’s latest big hardware success story, the MacBook Neo, originally priced at $599 is going up to $699. That has to sting. But so too will the sting for price increases for iPads and Macs.

Here’s a list of some of what’s more expensive.

MacBook Neo entry $599 increasing to $699
MacBook Air 512GB $1099 increasing to $1299
MacBook Pro 1T $1699 increasing to $1999
iPad Air 128GB $599 increasing to $749
iPad Pro Wifi 256GB $999 increasing to $1199
iPad mini $499 increasing to $599
iMac $1299 increasing to $1499
Apple TV 4K $129 increasing to $199
HomePod mini $99 increasing to $129
Vision Pro $3499 increasing to $3699

At the moment iPhone prices remain the same. Expect that to change come this fall. You’d be a fool not to.

I think this is the beginning of a cycle that is going to see most consumer hardware become more costly, eventually reducing the number of units sold. Somebody thinks that will even out. I’m not so sure.

All because of an overhyped technology that is being forced into consumer hardware and the much hated data centers that are required to run it. Less units will be sold. But if your eye is on the price per unit margin, you’re missing the larger point. Math is hard. But it’s not that hard. Sell less, make less.

Simply put, we’re at the beginning of a nasty cycle. Ask your chatbot therapist how you should handle it.

iMessages Bug in macOS 26.5.1

Affects sending messages via RCS or SMS

Discovered a frustrating macOS 26.5.1 in iMessages. While I can send and receive SMS and RCS messages to Android users on my iPhone, I can only receive them on a Mac or iPad.

I’m not alone in this as I’ve seen several reports. Most point to the same timing of the bug appearing after macOS 26.5.1 was released, although some as early as 26.5. There is talk of it being possibly corrected in 26.6.

Given all the attention and focus on the OS 27 releases, here’s hoping that’s correct and 26.6 rolls out soon. Because I’ve tried all of the usual and recommended steps to try and correct the issue to no avail. The issue also seems to fall in that small minority of users circle of hell.

I’ll write more as I discover more on this. But I guess since I only discovered this today, it tells me how few messages I’ve exchanged with Android users of late.

More Thoughts On The Economics Of AI Not Adding Up

Math is hard. Harder still when you ignore the math.

I wrote a piece last month expressing some thoughts on how and why I think the economics of Artificial Intelligence don’t add up. I’m expanding on a couple of those thoughts.

First, the cold feet of the bean counters are getting colder when it comes to the cost of token usage. Tokens, being the measure of how the cost of computing all of those requests to whatever AI engine is waiting to invoice for hallucinating, are proving to still be expensive and probably will be for some time to come. Unless the costs have been vastly overvalued to increase margins, those costs aren’t going to come down any time soon.

Second, in order to keep the pumps primed the race seems to be shifting from cloud servers to on device use. That sounds smart. It certainly is as a possible security measure and selling point. But at the moment, and probably in the end, already rising costs of hardware will continue to inflate as the memory demands needed to turn those on device dreams into hallucinations escalate. Segmentation of the market will continue.

Already we’re seeing strong hints that more and more memory is required to run the latest and supposedly greatest. That means newer devices with more memory, already becoming too expensive a proposition for many. As an example, only the newest Apple devices will be able to run all of the new features of Siri AI. Frankly, I don’t think that will turn into big new hardware upgrade cycles.

Third, for those already turned off and pushing back on the AI curve I don’t think any of this matters at the moment. Will it matter down the road? Most likely, yes. It’s not about more expensive devices or service prices, it will all be about how the costs are spread around in other ways that we’ll never really see outlined in any price or feature comparison.

The bottom line is still the bottom line. Costs are going to continue to rise one way or the other, whether bubbles pop or not. And then the advertising will kick in.

(Image from Viktoria_P on Shutterstock)

Siri AI and The Spam Call Problem

Put AI to work banishing spam

Listening to podcasts after each WWDC is always a bit of information overload, but occasionally you catch a bit of analysis that seems perhaps pertinent.

One of the podcasts I listen to his John Gruber’s Talk Show Live event that he’s been hosting for a few years now. After his infamous Something Is Wrong In The State of Cupertino post last year, Apple execs stayed away after having been guests in years previous. They stayed away this year as well.

This year, like last, Gruber put together a panel that featured The Verge’s Nilay Patel and Joanna Stern, formerly of The Wall Street Journal, now with her own gig, New Things With Joanna Stern. This year and last offered excellent commentary by both, and given the wait and see cynical posture I’ve adopted for all of Apple’s upcoming offerings, worth a listen.

One interesting tidbit stood out that I want to highlight in the context of my ongoing complaints and requests to Apple about making the handling of spam and unwanted phone calls easier.

Joanna seemed to be quite impressed with what she’s seen of Siri AI in the early going, citing a number of examples that she tried out during the event. The one that stood out to me is this:

I said, “What could I do that’s fun near the California Theater? I have some time to to kill,” and I don’t know if… I don’t know exactly what was the prompt or what was the thing, but it started suggesting things I could do locally. But also, it had access to my voicemail, so it knew that I had just gotten a message from my uncle who asked me to speak at his book club, and it said, “You… you could get back to my your uncle about his book club engagement, you would have some time to do that.” Okay, that’s crazy. It really is, right? And but what if that was sensitive information, right?

The key is Siri AI having access to voice mail. Regardless of however you feel about what data and info Siri AI needs to have about you to develop “Personal Context,” if Siri AI has access to your voice mail it seems it should be a relatively easy technological hop, skip, and jump to just automatically delete the flood of spam calls that have already figured out ways around any of the current wack-a-mole tricks that are being used.

Obviously the larger point Joanna makes about “Personal Context” and a new level of trust is spot on. It is one many iPhone users will have to reckon with. But I’ll tell you this. For my own personal context, if Siri AI can automatically banish to digital hell all of the fake calls that now use names to try and circumvent current spam call prevention I’ll be grateful.

The only reasons I can think of for Siri AI (or Google’s Gemini on Android phones) are business reasons and relationships with the mobile carriers. Apple’s “Personal Context” or Google’s “Personal Intelligence” are the names of the game, or so they claim. It seems logical to me that the technology exists to eradicate more of this curse that same technology makes possible and we all are prey to, whether it be phone calls, emails, or texts.

Why Can’t We Fix These Nags?

We’re not loyal customers. We’re data points.

There are so many things we become numb to. See something often enough and you almost ignore it’s there. Constant reminders and notifications about things to buy are certainly in that category. You get used to them, know they won’t really go away, and yet every now and then, one of them just jumps off the screen and hits you wrong and pisses you off.

The ones that really grate are the ones that encourage me to buy something that I already own or subscribe to, or deals I’m ineligible for. Like the “Don’t Miss 3 Free Months of Music” one pictured above. I’ve been an Apple Music subscriber for longer than I can remember, yet I keep getting this offer that’s obviously aimed at new customers. I find it insulting.

Look I get it. Companies want and need new customers. Older customers drop off as the prices inevitability rise. Discounts and free trials always entice. But to insult existing and long term companies with offers that essentially undercut the established relationship is just that. Insulting.

With all of the latest and greatest tech innovations, why can’t companies find a way to know that we’re already a customer and keep from sending us these offers that insult loyal users for already supporting them? Based on the blizzard of emails, text spam, and notifications you almost instantly receive after buying a product from other companies selling the same thing that tech obviously exists. Maybe all of these moves into “personnel context” will solve that. I doubt it. In fact, I will bet that it will only make the situation worse.

Customer loyalty hasn’t been what it used to be for quite a long time. That’s old school, corner store thinking. Today we’re not viewed as customers. Just another data point.

The Siri AI Demo Apple Should Have Done

One day perhaps we’ll move beyond AI cliché demos.

My nephew occasionally takes a look at this blog and gives me feedback on what I think and write. Actually, he mostly gives me shit. He certainly does when I write about Artificial Intelligence. He often asks why I’m so “down” on AI. At least we agree on politics.

Apple Executive Mike Rockwell demos Siri AI at WWDC 2026

I keep reminding him that I’m not “down” on the technology per se. I’d love to see the press release announcing AI led to a a cure for cancer. Who wouldn’t? I’m down on the way it continues to be sold to us and the ramifications that brings on so many levels, while still feeling like it’s not what the sellers keep promising. (I also remind him to read what I write more carefully, but he’s probably using some AI to summarize what I write.)

In truth, that’s the essence of my skeptical reaction to what we know as AI at the moment. There’s a lot going on, but how it’s being sold to most consumers still feels like it will ultimately be no more, no less than just another tool we use on a computer, after exacting high costs to do so, and dumbing down the general learning curve in the bargain.

Take for example the demos we constantly see about what AI can do when each company rolls out its latest version. As demos they all look slick as far as party and trip planning go.

(Coding is another case entirely. I’m not talking about that here, simply because I don’t have the expertise to do so. I’m strictly speaking of the sell to consumers.)

Even Apple fell back on these examples that have become clichés in this year’s WWDC 2026 announcement. Those clichés define the market companies think are ripe for the come on and then the plucking. I’m guessing they also define the current limitations of the technology. Or at least the limitations companies don’t want to risk pushing beyond in a live demo.

Here’s the AI Siri demo I wish Apple had shown us yesterday.

If you watched Apple’s keynote presentation you might remember this slide.

Maybe not. It flew by pretty quickly. It’s a word cloud of all of the other non Siri AI improvements Apple is bringing to its various operating systems this year.

Yes, the print is that tiny and crammed together. To call it unreadable is accurate. For those who didn’t watch the demo, the length of time it was on our screens was equally tiny, certainly compared to all the travel time each presenter took to walk on and hit their mark prior to speaking. To be honest, the slide’s quick and unreadable inclusion felt insulting given the long list of improvements it’s touting.

(To my knowledge no such list appears yet in Apple’s Newsroom or on its website heralding the other announcements. If I’m wrong, point me to it and I’ll link to it here. I’m sure it won’t be long before one of the sites that covers Apple distills it down and publishes it. Probably using AI.)

(UPDATE: Right after hitting publish, I noticed that John Gruber linked to this post on the Oneberri Blog listing all of those improvements.)

What if Mike Rockwell, the Apple Executive who did the Siri AI demos, had asked Siri AI to take that slide, and present the info into a bulleted list in Apple Notes, and then prepare a PDF for distribution? In the post keynote tech talk he and other Apple execs participated in, he could have followed that up by asking Siri AI to distribute the PDF to the other Apple execs on stage. Essentially it would have demonstrated the same Siri AI capability to gather info across native Apple apps, using context, in the same way the clichéd party planning demos do.

It certainly would have been more impressive than the usual clichés.

Perhaps AI Siri and the apps needed to do that work aren’t ready for such a challenge just yet. Things are still in beta after all. Perhaps it’s just too risky to stray outside of what’s made these kinds of demos a laughable cliché. Perhaps we’ll get there someday. Who knows?

Meanwhile I’ll remain “down” on AI the way my nephew likes to give me shit about my AI skepticism. I hope one day this technology might indeed lead to a cure for cancer. I also hope my nephew keeps reading this blog. It might help him learn to think for himself more often. 😉