The Talk Show With John Gruber

Serenity Caldwell returns to the show. Topics include the Best Picture fiasco at last week’s Academy Awards, Tim Cook speaking vaguely of “the pro area” at Apple’s shareholders meeting, the conflict between Apple’s culture of secrecy and the glaring embarrassment that is the 1,100-day-old Mac Pro lineup, new iPad Pro rumors and our ruminations on tablet vs. notebook hardware form factors, The Wall Street Journal’s seemingly goofy report on new iPhones replacing Lightning with USB-C ports, and the garbage fire that is Uber’s corporate culture.

Special guest Marco Arment returns to the show. Topics include WWDC moving back to San Jose, the latest rumors about this year’s new iPads and iPhones, and the thinking behind the design changes in the just-released Overcast 3.0.

John Moltz returns to the show. Topics include:

Matthew Panzarino returns to the show. Topics include Apple’s Q1 2017 financial results (including record iPhone sales and continuing cooling iPad sales), issues with LG’s new 5K UltraFine display (not so fine if you use it near a Wi-Fi router), the tech industry’s response to Trump’s immigration ban, and the highlights at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Ben Thompson returns to the show. Topics include the state of the Mac (and our shared belief that its death has been greatly exaggerated), the NFL playoffs, Chris Lattner leaving Apple for Tesla (and the general problem of talent retention), ruminating on the origins of the word “podcast”, and more.

Jim Dalrymple returns to the show for the first episode of 2017. Topics include New Year’s Eve, Siri/Alexa/Google Assistant, Apple’s aging AirPort and Mac Pro lineups, the future of desktop Macs, Apple Watch battery life, and rumors of upcoming new iPads.

Rene Ritchie returns to the show. Topics include Siri vs. Alexa, and whether Wynn Las Vegas’s announcement that they’re putting Amazon Echos into their 4,700+ guest rooms is a sign that Amazon is building a meaningful long-term lead in the nascent voice assistant market; Mark Gurman’s week-ago piece for Bloomberg, “How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists”; Consumer Reports’s bizarre but widely-publicized battery test results for the new MacBook Pros; and a brief year in review look at our favorite new Apple products from 2016.

Craig Hockenberry returns to the show with his gigantic fleshy palms. Topics include Donald Trump's highly publicized meeting with a handful of U.S. tech company leaders (including Tim Cook), the release of Nintendo's Super Mario Run for iPhone, Uber's autonomous car that was caught cruising straight through a red light in San Francisco, and Craig's excellent new book, *[Making Sense of Color Management](https://abookapart.com/products/making-sense-of-color-management)*.

Glenn Fleishman returns to the show. Topics include indoor plumbing, a spoiler-free discussion about HBO’s excellent “Westworld”, our favorite beverages, Apple’s AirPods launch debacle, Apple TV single sign-on, and more.

Joanna Stern returns to the show to talk about the new MacBook Pros (and their keyboards), stockpiling old MacBook Airs, dongles, Touch ID, SnapChat Spectacles, and more.

Jason Snell returns to the show to talk about the new MacBook Pros and the Touch Bar, and Apple’s new book chronicling the last 20 years of their industrial design, “Designed by Apple in California”.

Merlin Mann returns to the show to discuss the election, by which I mean we mostly talk *around* the election. I hope we never do another show again with such heavy hearts, but whatever you think about this election, I think you'll like this show.

Special guest John Moltz returns to the show. Topics include what we expect from this week's Apple Event for new Mac hardware, and my impressions of the Google Pixel phone after a week using one.

Special guest Ben Thompson returns to the show. Topics include voice control with AirPods, how to get your entire music library onto an iPhone while using iCloud Music Library, Apple Watch durability, the Dash/App Store controversy, the disappointing and frustrating state of Siri and voice-driven AI assistants, Google's new Pixel phones and the strategy behind them, Snap's (née Snapchat) Spectacles (and why they're nothing like Google's ill-fated Glass), and more.

Matthew Panzarino returns to the show. Topics include Google’s “Made by Google” hardware announcements (the Pixel phones, Google Wi-Fi routers, their Amazon Echo competitor Google Home), mobile photography, Samsung’s acquisition of Viv, and more.

Serenity Caldwell returns to the show to discuss Apple’s new stuff: the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, Apple Watch Series 2 (and the semi-new Series 1), iOS 10, MacOS Sierra, and more.

Jim Dalrymple returns to the show, to discuss last week's Apple event in San Francisco, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, Apple Watch Series 2, and more.

Rene Ritchie returns to the show to discuss what we expect to see at Apple’s upcoming event in San Francisco: new iPhones (without headphone jacks, and with a radical new two-lens camera on the Plus-sized model), Apple Watch 2 (and a new fall lineup of watch bands). We also discuss Samsung’s recall of the Galaxy Note 7 (because of exploding batteries), when we’ll see new Mac hardware and new iPads, and more.

Special guest Guy English returns to the show. Topics include Tim Cook’s five year anniversary as Apple CEO, Steven Levy’s behind-the-scenes look at Apple’s AI and machine learning efforts, Apple’s decision to change the pistol emoji from a realistic revolver to a toy squirt gun, and the demise of Vesper. Also: our favorite Looney Tunes characters.

Jason Snell returns to the show. Topics include the latest rumors regarding the upcoming new iPhones and MacBook Pros, Rick Tetzeli’s cover story for Fast Company on Tim Cook’s Apple, and the connection between baseball and mechanical keyboards.