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elfbargptyesterday at 10:17 PM10 repliesview on HN

I think one of Apple's strengths since Tim Cook took over is their ability to avoid "gimmicks". As much criticism as people have of apple for not innovating on the iPhone, I appreciate their ability to not screw products up.

I'm not saying AI is a gimmick, but the caution they show is a good quality I think


Replies

ewoodrichyesterday at 10:35 PM

They're being sued over an Apple Intelligence gimmick in an ad campaign that turned out to be vaporware at this very moment!

https://www.axios.com/2025/03/20/apple-suit-false-advertisin...

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culiyesterday at 10:19 PM

Their latest OS design shows they are quite capable of falling for gimmicks

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adrryesterday at 11:55 PM

If its a gimmick to have a functioning Siri, please give me gimmicks. Siri is a generation behind Alexa and Hey Google. Siri is next to worthless.

blcknightyesterday at 11:02 PM

Gemini, grok, etc all have 100x better experiences with voice. Apple is bad at this.

I’m an hour from Cambridge, MA. Ask the weather? I always get Cambridge, UK. Siri is terrible.

They can’t even make a functional keyboard anymore. The text prediction and autocorrect is worse now than it was in 2010!

These are all solved problems in 2025.

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aurareturntoday at 6:10 AM

ChatGPT or Gemini or Claude are gimmicks?

Having to license Gemini from Google and Qwen from Alibaba for Siri isn’t Apple falling severely behind?

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g-morkyesterday at 10:33 PM

I was going to link you the Apple Vision Pro as a counterpoint, but after clicking the link and being reminded of what that product actually looks like, I really don't know what to say any more. I'm literally dumbfounded anyone could make your comment at all

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the_gastropodyesterday at 11:33 PM

The AI "features" Apple advertise are largely gimmicky. The Apple Vision Pro is a gimmicky product. The MacBook touchbar was gimmicky.

Cook might be less susceptible to gimmickery than some of his peers. But he's definitely got an imperfect batting average, here.

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platevoltageyesterday at 10:38 PM

AI isn't a gimmick, but a huge portion of the way it's presented to consumers is, especially given the fact that it never really was meant for consumers. As an Apple user, I'm thrilled at how "behind" they are.

But also, their tendency to "not fall from gimmicks" sometimes makes it so we didn't get a 2nd mouse button for decades. Ultimately, the way they implemented this was super cool, but still.

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w-lltoday at 4:12 AM

gimmicks like a sock for your phone?

thenaturalistyesterday at 11:19 PM

Coincidentally, in macOS and iOS design and functionality - especially since Tahoe and 26 - it rather feels like the slop has taken over.

quality sacrificed for speed, resulting in mediocre, buggy software.

The classic AI business manager formula.

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