Reminders for watchOS Deserves a More Useful Complication

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As is annual tradition around here, I have a request of the Reminders team. This time, it’s about the watchOS version of the app.

Take a look at these watch faces:

GoodTask vs. Reminders

The example on the left includes the GoodTask complication; the one on the right is from Reminders itself. GoodTask’s is much more useful, as it lets me see how many more tasks I have due with a simple glance.

Basically every watchOS task app has this as an option for a complication because it’s incredibly useful. In looking through the App Store, I was hard-pressed to find a good task app that doesn’t offer this feature.

This doesn’t have to add a lot of complexity to Reminders. The number shown on the complication should inherit the user’s settings for the application’s badge. This would make Reminders even more useful on the go. For those who don’t want this, the current complication could continue to work as-is.

This has been filed with Apple as Feedback FB17221430.

That Feeling When the Makers of Your Favorite Thunderbolt Dock Publish Some LLM Nonsense in a Press Release and You Miss When Products Could Just Be Products, Without AI ⇢

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I recently linked to CalDigit’s line of new Thunderbolt 5 docks with excitement. Then, my buddy Jim Metzendorf sent me a link to this press release about the products. Just soak this in:

CalDigit’s new Element 5, is more than just a next-gen connectivity device—it’s a performance backbone built for the future of AI. With three fully-featured downstream Thunderbolt 5 ports and up to 120 Gbps of bandwidth, the Element 5 enables local developers and researchers to run large language models (LLMs) like Llama, Mistral, and Phi-2 at full speed, entirely offline.

Ehhhh…

Running quantized or full-precision models locally requires GPU horsepower—and the Element 5 delivers by enabling external GPU (eGPU) connectivity at full PCIe Gen 4 speeds. Whether you’re pairing a MacBook Pro with a high-end RTX 4090 in an enclosure, or distributing compute across multiple eGPUs, the Element 5’s three Thunderbolt 5 ports give you the freedom to scale.

This is particularly useful for local LLM inference, where token-per-second performance can double or triple with the right GPU pipeline in place. With Thunderbolt 5’s rock-solid throughput, model loading and execution remain fluid and responsive.

A couple of things here:

  1. Apple silicon Macs do not support eGPUs.
  2. Intel Macs that included this feature only supported AMD GPUs, so that RTX 4090 isn’t going to do you any good.

They go on:

Modern LLMs aren’t light. Models like Mistral-7B or fine-tuned Llama derivatives often require tens of gigabytes just to load into memory, not including embeddings, vector databases, or training datasets. The Element 5 supports Thunderbolt-connected NVMe SSDs that provide read/write speeds exceeding 3,000 MB/s, making it ideal for:

  • Storing and loading models quickly
  • Streaming large training or inference datasets
  • Running multiple AI tools without storage lag

🤷‍♂️

xAI Paying Far Less in Local Taxes Than Forecasted ⇢

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When it was announced that xAI was coming to my hometown, I knew it was just a matter of time before we learned how our local leaders were going to get bamboozled. Looks like some of those chickens have come home to roost, according to Samuel Hardiman at The Daily Memphian:

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company is expected to pay more than $30 million in combined Memphis and Shelby County property taxes, according to records obtained by The Daily Memphian.

But the final property tax bill is significantly lower than what it could be based on xAI’s reported investment in Memphis, amounting to a tax break for a company that did not formally receive one.

The company is being taxed on a total investment of $2.2 billion, well shy of the $12 billion the Greater Memphis Chamber touted throughout the past year, according to its personal property tax card obtained by The Daily Memphian.

The lower tax bill is the result of the company and government working together to downplay xAI’s equipment in its overall taxes:

The lower-than-expected bill comes after local tax officials said they worked with the company to strategically shield equipment from being taxed. The process amounted to something similar to a tax break for a company that did not seek one upon arriving in Memphis and Shelby County last year.

Perfect.

This news comes on the heels of environmental and community groups saying that xAI has increased its usage of gas turbines without permission.

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iPadOS 19 Rumored to Bring Yet More Window Dressing

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Several weeks ago we got some anonymous feedback in the Connected inbox, directed at Federico:

It’s a shame to hear that you’re going back to the Mac, because this year iPadOS is getting live window resizing and positioning, similar to macOS and visionOS 😉

We read the feedback on the show, not really knowing what to make of it. But it’s been a few years since Apple last tinkered with the iPad’s windowing system, so it’s safe to assume that is about time for more changes to arrive.

Enter Mark Gurman, who published this today:

Apple readies iPadOS 19 overhaul that will make the tablet’s software more like macOS. Besides a big effort to make the design of Apple’s operating systems more consistent, a big theme of the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference is likely to be iPad software.

I’m told that this year’s upgrade will focus on productivity, multitasking and app window management — with an eye on the device operating more like a Mac. It’s been a long time coming, with iPad power users pleading with Apple to make the tablet more powerful.

Many of them, including myself, just wanted Apple to put macOS on the iPad. They won’t get their wish, but the changes will likely go far enough to make a lot of those users happy — at least for now. 

That certainly sounds like what our anonymous commenter was describing, and while it would be great for the iPad to gain a more Mac-like windowing system, I don’t think the people who want macOS on their iPads will look at iPadOS 19 and be truly satisfied.

Window management doesn’t address the core issue that has haunted the iPad since the beginning.

A year ago, as the M4 iPad Pro was rolling out, Federico Viticci took a look at the state of the iPad. Forgive the long block quote, but I think this still stands today:

The iPad is the only Apple computer that genuinely feels made for someone like me – a person who loves modularity, freedom, and the mix of touch and keyboard interactions. I share my frustrations because I care about the platform and want it to get better. But at the same time, we need to face reality: the iPad’s operating system isn’t improving at the speed the hardware deserves – that iPad owners who spent thousands of dollars on these machines deserve.

Something needs to change.

With new iPad Pros nearly upon us, it’s time to admit that iPadOS is not an operating system of the same caliber as Apple’s new hardware. iPadOS has been the victim of erratic updates over the years, with features that were meant to “reimagine” desktop computing only to get not even halfway there and be left to languish for years. Once again, I am not suggesting that the solution is to put macOS on iPad and call it a day. I’m saying that if that’s not in the cards, then Apple should consider all the ways iPadOS is still failing at basic computing tasks. I’d be okay with iPads running iPadOS forever. But if we passively accept that this is as good as an iPad can get, I strongly believe that we’ll play a role in letting Apple squander the greatest computer form factor they’ve ever created.

He goes on:

I’m tired of hearing apologies that smell of Stockholm syndrome from iPad users who want to invalidate these opinions and claim that everything is perfect. I’m tired of seeing this cycle start over every two years, with fantastic iPad hardware and the usual (justified), “But it’s the software…” line at the end. I’m tired of feeling like my computer is a second-class citizen in Apple’s ecosystem. I’m tired of being told that iPads are perfectly fine if you use Final Cut and Logic, but if you don’t use those apps and ask for more desktop-class features, you’re a weirdo, and you should just get a Mac and shut up. And I’m tired of seeing the best computer Apple ever made not live up to its potential.

I started using the iPad as my main computer when I was stuck in a hospital bed and couldn’t use a laptop. I kept using it because once you get a taste of that freedom, it’s hard to go back. I will continue using it because none of the alternatives match Apple’s hardware quality, app ecosystem, and pure delight. But loving something doesn’t mean ignoring its flaws. And iPadOS is a flawed operating system that still doesn’t get the basics right and, as a result, drags down the entire product line.

It’s been hard to argue against the iPad’s hardware for a long, long time, but as Federico points out, the “it’s the software” line is a refrain we’ve all heard over and over.

Back in 2010, it was a genius move on Apple’s part to have the iPad tie into the already-big-by-then-but-now-truly-massive iPhone app ecosystem. Despite claims of “It’s just a big iPhone!” many of us saw the potential in a computer that was a sheet of glass, able to turn into any app you wanted.

As the iPad got bigger and more capable, it was inevitable that people would demand more from it, but the iPad’s roots have held it back. Even after renaming iPhone OS to iOS, then forking iPadOS, the iPhone and iPad are very close cousins, and Apple is seemingly unwilling — or unable — to really push the iPad toward the Mac in terms of capability.

Files is a mere shadow of Finder. The audio and video routing on the iPad is a joke compared to what the Mac can do. Power users can build as many Shortcuts as they want, but the app may fail to sync them properly between devices. Need a utility running in the background all the time? Too bad. What is simple on a Mac often requires jumping through hoops on an iPad, despite the hardware being basically identical under the hood.

But Stephen, you may say, developers just need to write good, powerful software for iPadOS!

There are some shining examples of this, but more and more, the iPad is forgotten by developers. Again, we turn to Federico:

…with a few exceptions for Apple Pencil-based artistic tools like the incredible Procreate and note-taking apps like GoodNotes, when is the last time you saw a completely original iPad app for productivity that made you want to buy an iPad? Or that made you want to use the iPad version of an app instead of its macOS or web version?

Should the iPad app ecosystem really need to be reduced to the “Apple Pencil ecosystem” for it to stand out between the iPhone and the Mac?

The reality is that making groundbreaking iPad apps is a lost art and has been for a long time.

Blaming developers for the iPad’s slow progress isn’t fair, though. Yes, Apple has made creating an iPad app easier and easier over the years, but ultimately, the success of any platform lays at the feet of the platform owner. Apple’s App Store rules can be seen as stifling, and until Logic and Final Cut for iPad came along in recent years, Apple had never built a true professional app for the iPad. Files being bad is on Apple, not third-party developers. Shortcuts for the iPad not having the powerful escape hatches to AppleScript or even the shell isn’t the fault of users who are trying to speed up their work, but they pay the price for Apple’s instance that the iPad be a closed, sanitized system.

But Stephen, you may say, aren’t you glad Apple has returned its focus to the Mac with Apple silicon and solid macOS releases? Do you want to go back to the days where the laptops were bad and Apple seemed to think the iPad was the future of computing for everyone?

Despite the evidence in this case, I do think Apple can chew gum and walk at the same time. Apple could continue to keep its head down on the Mac and work to make the iPad a more capable computer. Even as a Mac guy, I wish it would.

Being able to to rearrange iPhone-class applications at will won’t make the iPad more useful in my workflow as a professional.

NYT: Budget Constraints Blamed for Apple’s AI Woes ⇢

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The hits keep coming when it comes to what’s going on with Apple, Siri, and AI. For this round, we go to Tripp Mickle writing for The New York Times:

The A.I. stumble was set in motion in early 2023. Mr. Giannandrea, who was overseeing the effort, sought approval from the company’s chief executive, Tim Cook, to buy more A.I. chips, known as graphics processing units, or GPUs, five people with knowledge of the request said. The chips, which can perform hundreds of computations at the same time, are critical to building the neural networks of A.I. systems, like chatbots, that can answer questions or write software code.

At the time, Apple’s data centers had about 50,000 GPUs that were more than five years old — far fewer than the hundreds of thousands of chips being bought at the time by A.I. leaders like Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Meta, these people said.

Mr. Cook approved a plan to double the team’s chip budget, but Apple’s finance chief, Luca Maestri, reduced the increase to less than half that, the people said. Mr. Maestri encouraged the team to make the chips they had more efficient.

For a company that says it doesn’t like looking back at its own history, very often, Apple makes decisions like it’s the late 1990s and the company is on the verge of failure. That drives it to make incredible products, but it also means Apple can be incredibly stingy. To play in the AI race, you’ve got to be willing to spend piles and piles of cash.

Jason Snell likes to say that when reading a report like this, it’s important to consider possible sources. Clearly, if Apple was stuck training AI models on 50,000 GPUs from 2018, it could lead to the underwhelming AI features we have today. Maestri may have plenty of blame at his feet, but he’s not alone.

This story is just one piece of the overall picture that is coming into focus. Apple was late to AI. It was unwilling to spend the money required, and the team working on these features was poorly run and fell into infighting as the rest of the company watched and rolled its eyes. Lots of people inside the company are to blame for this mess, not just Luca Maestri and John Giannandrea.1

  1. Of note, both Maestri and Giannandrea have recently seen their responsibilities change. Some might say those changes are related to Apple Intelligence and Siri. ↩

Siri Seems Like a Real Mess ⇢

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For years, tons of people have wondered why Siri has seemed so stuck in the mud, seemingly impossible for Apple to improve in meaningful ways. Now, thanks to a new report in The Information, we know a lot more about the mess behind the scenes. Hartley Charlton at MacRumors has a recap:

In addition to Apple’s deeply ingrained stance on privacy, conflicting personalities within Apple contributed to the problems. More than half a dozen former employees who worked in Apple’s AI and machine-learning group told The Information that poor leadership is to blame for its problems with execution, citing an overly relaxed culture, as well as a lack of ambition and appetite for taking risks when designing future versions of Siri .

Apple’s AI/ML group has been dubbed “AIMLess” internally, while employees are said to refer to Siri as a “hot potato” that is continually passed between different teams with no significant improvements. There were also conflicts about higher pay, faster promotions, longer vacations, and shorter days for colleagues in the AI group.

Apple AI chief John Giannandrea was apparently confident he could fix Siri with the right training data and better web-scraping for answers to general knowledge questions. Senior leaders didn’t respond with a sense of urgency to the debut of ChatGPT in 2022; Giannandrea told employees that he didn’t believe chatbots like ChatGPT added much value for users.

The whole thing is worth a read. Hopefully Siri’s new leadership can get things moving in the right direction.

The Fantasy of a US-Made iPhone ⇢

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Jason Koebler at 404 Media:

This weekend, U.S. secretary of commerce Howard Lutnick went on CBS’s Face the Nation and pitched a fantasy world where iPhones are manufactured in the United States:  “The army of millions and millions of people screwing in little, little screws to make iPhones, that kind of thing is going to come to America, it’s going to be automated, and the tradecraft of America is going to fix them, is going to work on them, there’s going to be mechanics, HVAC specialists, electricians,” Lutnick said. “The tradecraft of America, the high school educated Americans, the core to our workforce is going to have the greatest resurgence of jobs in the history of America to work on these high tech factories which are all coming to America.”

The idea of a Made-in-the-USA iPhone has been an obsession for politicians for years, a kind of shorthand goalpost that would signal “American manufacturing is back” that is nonetheless nowhere close to being a reality and would require a nearly impossible-to-fathom restructuring of the global supply chains that make the iPhone possible in the first place. Over the years, economists and manufacturing experts have attempted to calculate how much an American-made iPhone would cost. In recent days a Quora answer from 2018 that suggests an American iPhone would cost $30,000 has gone repeatedly viral. A Reuters story that claims a tariffed iPhone would cost $2,300 has also gone viral.

How Apple Could Deal with Tariffs ⇢

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Jason Snell:

There are a lot of suggestions that the prices of Apple products are headed up. Apple Stores are crowded with buyers who are trying to beat the anticipated price increases. But while prices are probably going up, that’s only one of the many levers Apple can pull in order to deal with the tariff situation. Here’s a look at what the company might do to mitigate the tariff issue as much as possible.