A Commotion Of Links (Apple) for week ending on 4.15.25
Yup, tariffs remained the unwanted gift that kept getting regifted. Also, separate reports from The New York Times and The Information indicate that Apple's failures in keeping the development of Apple Intelligence on schedule is largely due to the design of the company's spaceship campus: because the whole thing is curved glass, it's impossible to send managers and executives to the Naughty Corner after they make bad decisions.
Tariffs
Apple, Nvidia Score Relief From US Tariffs With Exemptions
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-12/trump-exempts-phones-computers-chips-from-reciprocal-tariffs
Apple regains $3 trillion market cap after Trump exempts tariffs on iPhones
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/14/apple-regains-3-trillion-market-cap-after-trump-exempts-iphone-tariff.html
Trump confirms he reduced tariffs to help Tim Cook
https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/04/14/trump-confirms-he-reduced-tariffs-to-help-tim-cook
[Trump press Q&A video clip, via bsky] “I'm looking at something to help some of the car companies. They need a little bit of time. I speak to Tim Cook…”
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lmrxvzl7x72w
Apple’s exemption from ‘reciprocal’ tariff won’t last too long, per Trump administration [Friday comments from SecCommerce - AI]
https://9to5mac.com/2025/04/13/apple-exemption-trump-reciprocal-china-tariff-temporary/
[White House Clarification of Exceptions Under Executive Order 14257 of April 2, 2025, as Amended
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/clarification-of-exceptions-under-executive-order-14257-of-april-2-2025-as-amended/
Trump Planning Semiconductor Tariffs That Will Impact Apple, No One 'Getting Off the Hook'
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/04/14/trump-semiconductor-tariffs-apple/
↑ [Trump Truth Social post]
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114332337028519855
Tech, auto shares gain as Trump floats more tariff exemptions amid confusion
https://www.reuters.com/technology/apple-shares-lead-tech-higher-after-tariff-exemptions-2025-04-14/
Trump says he'll announce new chips tariffs over the next week [Meaning, this week - AI]
https://www.axios.com/2025/04/14/trump-chip-tariffs-china
Trump: Apple Building in China is 'Unsustainable,' Could Exempt Some Companies From Tariffs
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/04/09/trump-apple-china-tariff-comments/
iPhones were already losing ground in China. Then came Trump’s tariffs
https://restofworld.org/2025/iphone-apple-sales-china-trump-tariffs/
Apple AI Management Dysfunction Goes Public
[NYT] What’s Wrong With Apple? Even before the threat of President Trump’s tariffs, there were questions about the company’s inability to make good on new ideas
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/11/technology/apple-issues-trump-tariffs.html
Tim Cook approved big AI investment in 2023, but Luca Maestri slashed it: NYT
https://9to5mac.com/2025/04/11/tim-cook-approved-ai-investment-in-2023-luca-maestri-slashed-it/
[The Information] How Apple Fumbled Siri’s AI Makeover
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/apple-fumbled-siris-ai-makeover
[via The Information] Report Reveals Internal Chaos Behind Apple's Siri Failure
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/04/10/chaos-behind-siri-revealed/
[via The Information] Behind the scenes, Siri's failed iOS 18 upgrade was a decade-long managerial car crash [throwing Siri head Robby Walker under the bus, too - AI]
https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/04/10/behind-the-scenes-siris-failed-ios-18-upgrade-was-a-decade-long-managerial-car-crash
[MG Siegler] Failure Has Many Fathers at Apple Right Now [“Honestly, reading these reports, even if just some of the details are as bad as they sound, it's hard to see how Giannandrea and Walker can stay at Apple.” - AI]
https://spyglass.org/apple-ai-fail/
Apple Intelligence
[via NYT] Apple Plans to Release Delayed Apple Intelligence Siri Features This Fall
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/04/11/apple-delayed-siri-features-this-fall/
Craig Federighi’s leadership has already resulted in this major Siri pivot, per report [Engineers now allowed to use third-party AI models - AI]
https://9to5mac.com/2025/04/10/craig-federighis-leadership-has-already-resulted-in-this-major-siri-pivot-per-report/
Apple details how it plans to improve its AI models by privately analyzing user data [Apple will shift from synthetic training data to user data, including your emails, etc. They won’t pay you, but it’s opt-in and private - AI]
https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/15/apple-details-how-it-plans-to-improve-its-ai-models-by-privately-analyzing-user-data/
↑ [Apple Machine Learning Research blog] Understanding Aggregate Trends for Apple Intelligence Using Differential Privacy
https://machinelearning.apple.com/research/differential-privacy-aggregate-trends
The Future, Soon
[Gurman] Apple Readies Pair of Headsets While Still Looking Ahead to Glasses
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-04-13/apple-vision-pro-2-details-low-latency-headset-ar-glasses-ipados-19-details-m9flf1fd
[via Gurman] Tim Cook “Cares About Nothing Else” Than Beating Meta In “Industry-Leading” Smart Glasses, But True AR Glasses Will Require Time And Technologies To “Be Perfected”
https://wccftech.com/tim-cook-set-to-beat-meta-in-ar-glasses-race/
[via Gurman] Apple reportedly planning ‘lighter and cheaper’ refresh for Vision Pro, more
https://9to5mac.com/2025/04/13/apple-vision-pro-refresh-details-cheaper-lighter/
[Via Gurman] Apple Watch to get small hardware changes, big software updates
https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/04/13/apple-watch-to-get-small-hardware-changes-big-software-updates
[via Gurman] Report: iPadOS 19 to be ‘more like macOS’ in major overhaul
https://9to5mac.com/2025/04/13/ipados-19-be-more-like-macos-overhaul/
[via Gurman] Apple's 20th Anniversary iPhone May Finally Go All Screen
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/04/15/20th-anniversary-iphone-truly-all-screen-model/
[via Jeff Pu] Apple's 18.8-Inch Foldable Device to Enter Mass Production in Late 2026
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/04/10/apple-larger-foldable-mass-production-2026/
Foldable iPhone Set to Use Exclusively Samsung OLED Panels
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/04/15/foldable-iphone-samsung-oled-panels/
Company
iPhone 16e Helps Apple Take Q1 Top Spot in Global Smartphone Market
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/04/14/apple-q1-smartphone-market-top-spot/
Apple rebrands Search Ads business as ‘Apple Ads’
https://9to5mac.com/2025/04/14/apple-rebrands-search-ads-business-as-apple-ads/
Opera says Apple’s DMA changes are not enough to truly open up iOS
https://9to5mac.com/2025/04/14/opera-apple-dma-ios/
Apple Park has regained its rainbow ahead of WWDC 2025
https://9to5mac.com/2025/04/11/apple-park-has-regained-its-rainbow-ahead-of-wwdc-2025/
Showbiz
Fans rage as Apple TV+ cancels Mythic Quest (with new season 4 ending) [NERRRD FIIIIGHT!!! - AI]
https://www.cultofmac.com/news/apple-tv-canceled-mythic-quest
Misc
[Apple Newsroom] Get active with Apple Watch [April 24: Global Close Your Rings Day, with limited edition awards - AI]
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/04/get-active-with-apple-watch/
Apple Watch SOS saves desperate swimmer swept out to sea [Update: Video]
https://www.cultofmac.com/news/apple-watch-emergency-sos
^ShortUpArrow; [Apple Australia YouTube channel] Emergency SOS on Apple Watch | Rick’s Rescue | Apple [Swimmer swept a mile out to sea, calls for emergency rescue through Apple Watch. Video is DRAMATIC and well-made…cinematic - AI]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=aWu-LKHqC3w
Here’s proof that a 256GB SSD is too small for a Mac in 2025
https://www.macworld.com/article/2658846/256gb-ssd-mac-macbook-too-small.html
[via The Information] Instagram is finally working on an iPad app
https://9to5mac.com/2025/04/08/instagram-ipad-app-in-development/
Apple Allegedly Showing iPhone 16 Ads Through Apple Store Notifications [Reddit user surprised when gets an Apple Store App notification ad for iPhone 16; you can disable ads, but they’re on by default - AI
https://www.macobserver.com/news/apple-allegedly-showing-iphone-16-ads-through-apple-store-notifications/
Steve Jobs didn't tolerate yes-men, understood his influence at Pixar [Cool new interview with Pixar alums who worked with Steve - AI]
https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/04/11/steve-jobs-didnt-tolerate-yes-men-understood-his-influence-at-pixar
Apple Maps on the web leaves beta, now works on mobile devices [ie, Android - AI]
https://9to5mac.com/2025/04/11/apple-maps-web-mobile/