Why did Apple ice out the most famous Apple blogger?

Channels with Peter Kafka

Vox Media Podcast Network

Technology, Tv & Film, Business News, News

4.4 • 585 Ratings

🗓️ 18 June 2025

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

If you want smart, nuanced insight into Apple’s products and would-be products, you turn to John Gruber, who’s been blogging about this stuff for more than two decades at his Daring Fireball site. So in March, when Gruber announced that Something is Rotten in the State of Cupertino — focusing on Apple’s botched plans to imbue its ailing Siri service with state-of-the-art AI — lots of people paid attention. Including, apparently, folks at the very top of the Apple org chart. I talked to Gruber about the fallout from that post. Which is pretty interesting! But there’s a lot more going on in this conversation. It’s partly about the friction Apple has been generating lately — not just about its AI efforts, but the way it runs its App Store, and the way it interacts with developers — and why all of that does and doesn’t matter. And it’s also about the delightfully retro practice of running an ad-supported blog in 2025. That works very well for Gruber, but it seems like the new Grubers of the world are doing their work on YouTube or Substack. He’s got some thoughts about that, too. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	In today's fast-changing digital world, proving your company is trustworthy isn't just important for growth, it's essential.
0:08.8	That's why Vanta is here. Vanta helps companies of all sizes get compliant fast and stay that way, with industry-leading AI, automation and continuous monitoring.
0:20.3	So whether you're a startup tackling your first
0:22.8	SOC 2 or ISO-27-001 or an enterprise managing vendor risk, Vanta's trust management platform makes it
0:31.8	quicker, easier and more scalable. The results? According to a recent IDC study, Vanta customers slash over
0:40.4	$500,000 a year in costs and are three times more productive. Establishing trust isn't optional.
0:48.7	Vanta makes it automatic. Visit vanta.com slash Voxpod to sign up for a free demo today that's v a mta.com
0:59.2	slash voxpod this episode is brought to you by vanta security and compliance done wrong is a headache
1:09.8	done right you build trust and grow faster.
1:12.2	That's Vanta. For startups, Vanta acts as your first security hire, using AI to get you
1:18.1	compliant fast. For enterprises, it's your AI-powered hub for compliance, risk and automating workflows.
1:24.2	From startups like Cursor to enterprises like Snowflake, top companies choose Vantor.
1:29.2	Do security and compliance right. Get started today at Vantor.com.
1:37.5	From the Vox Media Podcast Network, this is Channels with Peter Kafka.
1:44.3	That is me.
1:45.2	I'm also the chief correspondent at Business Insider.
1:48.9	And today we're talking about tech and the business of writing about tech with John Gruber,
1:53.6	who makes a living writing about Apple at his daring fireball blog.
1:58.2	That description of John writing about Apple doesn't really do it justice. He's one of the
2:02.3	earliest bloggers. He's been at it for a couple decades. But more important, he is enormously
2:07.5	influential when it comes to all things Apple. So today we're going to do two things at once.
2:12.8	We're going to get insight from John about Apple's newest software, its approach to AI, the way it works or doesn't
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Vox Media Podcast Network, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Vox Media Podcast Network and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.