eXtensions - Monday 17 March 2025
By Graham K. Rogers
After the Netflix Formula 1 series, I had a look at a new drama, Adolescence. This is some of the best TV I have seen for years and has a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score. John Gruber upset the status quo with an attack on what he saw as AI vaporware and a questionable approach on its development. MacDaily News weighed in with another anti-Cook message. Who would want an incomplete and faulty release? With the latest hardware now in the hands of users, there were some positive comments on the new products from technical writers.
I ran through the Netflix series Formula 1: Drive to Survive, Season 7, last week and found that it was, overall, less of a draw than previous seasons. There was plenty of excitement about background events, particularly the dirty politics being played (perhaps this was the problem) but some of the major players in those events were hardly visible, including Max and Jos Verstappen and the Red Bull advisor, Helmut Marko. He appears to have been a major player in the controversy, although other team bosses may have played some part. The Austrian operation of Red Bull seems less favored towards Horner, but the major shareholder, the Thai Chalerm Yoovidhya has supported him. Also missing were the Strolls and the Aston Martin team: there in the background but barely participating in the series.
Although these were absent (apart from appearing in shots of other people) and were not interviewed, not all of those who did take part were happy about the presentation. It is reported by Giles Richards (Guardian) that Lando Norris was critical of some of the editing, that suggested a frayed relationship between him and Mac Verstappen, when they have been (and remain) friends. With Norris leading the wet Australian GP as I write this, might that relationship change over the next few races? One hopes not.
Following the F1 program, I switched to a 4-part drama which already had some good critical comments for the acting and the techniques used, particularly the single-shot scenes. I was not happy with the opening scene, with regard to the police procedures during the initial arrest of the juvenile suspect (13 years old). While the live shooter events in the USA and recently in Thailand (at Siam Paragon) do need armed response teams - this was expertly done in the Thai situation - breaking into a house to make an arrest of a teenager as depicted in Adolescence seemed overkill to me. I would just knock on the door and ask questions, although murder is a little different. I just felt uncomfortable with the way - exciting television for sure - this was done. The processing at the police station later was a model of calm in comparison and this was far better portrayed.
Two of the main characters are the father of the suspect, played by the well-known Stephen Graham, and newcomer Owen Cooper whose performances, in episodes 1 and 3, are exemplary. Lucy Mangan (Guardian) calls it "the closest thing to TV perfection in decades. I am inclined to agree. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a score of 100%
I watched the final episode at the weekend and, despite a major outburst of anger by Jamie (Owen Cooper) in Episode 3 I am still unsure if he did it, despite the CCTV evidence the police have and despite a major decision in Episode 4. Was this mistaken identity, schizophrenia, was something not shown as Episode 4 ends, 13 months after the murder, but before the trial?
That final episode was one of sad introspection, with elements of pathos. It has lessons for all parents, not the least that no matter how hard you try you cannot protect your children from who or what they are. A line from September 1, 1939 by W. H. Auden came to mind: What huge imago made a psychopathic god? Other lines (I checked the accuracy of the previous quote) also seem appropriate:
Some of the technical and development background are shown in a video available on YouTube. Of particular interest is the way the camera is passed from operator to operator during the scene, and even attached to a drone at one time. Several more videos have now appeared on YouTube, including one with Robert de Niro on The One Show. The writing and direction, with minor points, is good; the technical approach has worked really well, and the acting, particularly by Owen Cooper is noteworthy. This is some of the best television I have seen this year.
Despite pressure from groups in the UK, and from politicians in the USA, concerning Apple's legal challenge to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, the proceedings were held in camera. Even though there was considerable public interest in this case, that no one is supposed to talk about, including Apple, the proceedings and decision will be carried out behind closed doors. Bill Goodwin (Computer Weekly) reports that "10 media organisations, including the BBC, the Financial Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Times, Reuters and Computer Weekly", plus the Press Association, made submissions calling for the case to be heard in public."
The article focuses mainly on opinions and effects in the UK, touching only slightly on the other users who will be caught up in this if the UK government wins the case on its need for a back door. I suspect that, as it is a US company and US users would be affected, there will be much pressure on the UK government to back off.
We are fairly used to pundits declaring that Apple is doomed, with my favorites being Chowdhury over the iWatch (as he called it) and Martin Peers at the Intelligence, who admits to being an Apple bear (or was that bore?). There is also MacDaily News which appears to be a stalwart supporter, although there is an exception for Tim Cook who has often been blamed by this source for not being Steve Jobs, a fact that Steve Jobs acknowledged when he chose Cook to replace him. By the extension of logic here, according to MacDaily News, Steve Jobs was wrong.Then there is John Gruber. One of the more reliable commentators on Apple over the years: generally supportive, with the occasional criticism when needed. This week he has gone to an unusual extreme (and that is not meant as a criticism of Gruber) by calling out Apple over its approach to Siri and AI. The announcement that Apple was delaying certain features, caught him on the back foot and he is angry with himself and Apple. After looking at some of the background, he writes, that it "was clear to me from the WWDC keynote onward that some of the features and aspects of Apple Intelligence were more ambitious than others." Fair enough.
After discussing more of the interim involvement, particularly concerning Apple PR involvement with journalists, he adds, that all this was vaporware. "They were features Apple said existed, which they claimed would be shipping in the next year". . .", but "Apple was either unwilling or unable to demonstrate those features in action." All we had seen was a concept video: smoke and mirrors. Apple missed several opportunities to show these features off, if they existed, and did not do so. "If these features exist in any sort of working state at all, no one outside Apple has vouched for their existence, let alone for their quality."
His lengthy essay ends with a warning: "When mediocrity, excuses, and bullshit take root, they take over. A culture of excellence, accountability, and integrity cannot abide the acceptance of any of those things, and will quickly collapse upon itself with the acceptance of all three." Other sites are noting the significance of his comments. I immediately wrote, If Apple has lost Gruber, is the game now over (I think not)?
Gruber later added (as reported below) that there was a demo of Swift Assist last year under a non-disclosure agreement, so it may not have been vaporware as was earlier suggested.
Of all the comments I was expecting to see, I anticipated that MacDaily News would go full on anti-Tim Cook and I was not surprised at what I read. Whoever writes for this outlet (anonymously) has never accepted Tim Cook as CEO, despite him being chosen for the position by Steve Jobs, who knew Cook's abilities. Most of the output here is copied from other sources, or recycled MDN comments from years back, but this also includes criticism of John Giannandrea (SenVP for Machine Learning and AI Strategy). Gruber did not mention him in his comments, even though he has interviewed him in the past, so this is MDN adding to the original criticisms. It is right to comment on the performance of any CEO, but this has always contained direct comparisons to Jobs and the inference that Cook should go: more obvious this time.Despite the wide reporting on Gruber's criticism, and taking into account the update from Gruber on the NDA, Tim Gallagher steps back a little and has a more measured look at the situation, noting that Apple does not usually ship products that are not ready to stay ahead (or with some Korean manufacturers) to play catchup. Others are also not so quick to condemn outright. Jason Cross (MacWorld), for example, reports that senior management at Apple are embarrassed by the delays and a post mortem is being held; and Ryan Christoffel (9to5Mac) is right to suggest that rushing things to push them out before they were ready would have been worse. Whether any heads will roll, as happened with Scott Forestall over Apple Maps, is still unknown.
There is more as Joe Rossignol (MacRumors) explains. These features that Gruber and MDN are so cross about are not vaporware, although they are, as yet, far from ready and (as Gruber posted later) were shown by Apple's Robby Walker under an NDA recently. Although Gruber has conceded this, I have seen no comments on this by MDN. Another note from Gruber comments that the sole source for the all-hands meeting, led by Robby Walker, was once again, Mark Gurman; adding that while the reporter is often right, he is often wrong but does not retract those erroneous reports. There is no corroboration here (so far).
These comments came in a week in which Apple should have been celebrating, particularly with the positive reports from writers as reviews on the new Macs and iPads appear. In the USA and other significant markets some of these devices are now in the hands of users, so the review embargoes have been lifted. I rather liked the comments on the new Mac Studio by Jason Snell (MacWorld) as, like me, he admits to having been confused when the M4 Max-M3 Ultra chips were announced, with the latter being the new top of the range. He has had a look and now "come to grips with the fact that Apple's chip strategy isn't quite as straightforward as it would like us to believe". He looks at this new M3 and the other chips that have recently been announced and notes that the M3 Ultra is not quite two M3 Max chips fitted together because this chip offers other features that were not on the M3 Max, including memory and the Thunderbolt 5 capabilities. Then he adds a bit of a stinger.
I had presumed that this Mac Studio would see the end of the Mac Pro, but Jason notes that he expects Apple to use its "high-end chip design bandwidth in the M4 or M5 generation for something a little larger, designed just for the Mac Pro" and adds "A chip that huge would almost certainly need to be inside the Mac Pro, because I doubt the Mac Studio enclosure and its cooling system would be capable of handling a chip that large and hot." What appears to be unused space in the Mac Pro with Apple Silicon, would be needed if such powerful (and hot) chips were to be used. This may be speculation by Snell, but it is based on considerable experience, including knowledge of Apple and some sound physics.
Also commenting on the Mac Studio, Ryan Christoffel (9to5Mac) notes that it appears to be missing a feature. Although the device has a Low Power Mode, there is no High Power Mode, that might be advantageous in some situations. In the article that describes the features of Low Power Mode and its advantages, Ryan speculates that perhaps High Power Mode is to come later when Apple has done some work the enable the feature. Also looking at how Apple has redesigned the chips to work under different power loads, Patently Apple notes that the "M4 MacBook Air takes advantage of only the six efficiency cores while the performance cores were barely being touched". The article adds that this is good for battery life and for temperatures. As CPU cores are heavily used by some applications, this behavior seems counter-intuitive at first look.
Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs. After 3 years writing a column in the Life supplement, he is now no longer associated with the Bangkok Post. He can be followed on X (@extensions_th). The RSS feed for the articles is http://www.extensions.in.th/ext_link.xml - copy and paste into your feed reader.
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