438: ‘2025 Year in Review’, With Rene Ritchie

Rene, it’s been a minute. You’ve been shipping at YouTube scale, and we dive right into what that actually means—an ocean of uploads, micro‑fandoms everywhere, and no single shared moment the way TV once gave us.

I riff on YouTube’s durability too: old links mostly survive, the archive is massive, and it’s become the place you go to fix a 2007 scanner or a washing machine without hunting the whole web.

January felt quiet on paper—iOS 18.3 and macOS 15.3 shipped—but Siri with ChatGPT still stumbled, and my skepticism about Apple Intelligence started hardening even then.

It was jarring that Apple leaned on Apple Intelligence in iPhone marketing all year without pulling it when delays hit, because Apple’s product marketing usually sits inside the product from day one, not bolted on at the end.

I loved the iPhone 16E; it’s the right shift from the old SE formula to a modern, annual low‑end that keeps the platform current and ready for whatever needs memory or neural horsepower next.

We talk RAM trade‑offs and power draw, why large language models are memory‑hungry, and why a single good camera can be a blessing—sometimes you just want the Heinz on the shelf, not forty mustards.

Carrier trade‑ins feel back in force, which nudges a lot of folks to 17 Pro, while the 16E is the handset I’d tell someone paying outright to buy, or to wait and grab the 17E if timing allows.

March was stacked: M4 MacBook Air, M4 Max Studio, the surprise M3 Ultra—and the big Siri delay. My March critique aged well; pre‑announcing Apple Intelligence before it was demo‑ready was a bet that didn’t land.

If the Gemini white‑label rumor holds, that’s a different plan than the one pitched at WWDC, which only underlines how risky that early promise was.

On Macs, I couldn’t feel a real‑world speed gain jumping from my M1 Max back from an M4 loaner, though I still pine for the matte screen; I’m holding for tandem OLED and I’m not convinced I want a touch Mac.

The EU fines landed, but the bigger cost is goodwill. Services pressure hardened App Store stances, and I still think a lower cut could grow the pie while making the UX less of a maze in different regions.

May brought Patrick McGee’s standout Apple‑in‑China book, and CarPlay Ultra finally got a name while creeping into market; automakers want data and brand control, which is why Rivian says no and Tesla might test only CarPlay.

So that’s the arc so far—scale reshaping culture, a low‑end iPhone that finally feels right, a misfired AI reveal, solid Mac year, and car dashboards still in flux. We’ll keep pushing through the year from here.

I kick off wondering why Apple still insists on full CarPlay integration when a simple sideways phone mode could work, then jump to WWDC 2025 and the OS renaming shift where every platform shares one yearly number.

Calling it 26 makes marketing sense even if it shipped in late 2025, because most people live with it through 2026 and most releases land then.

Apple’s annual rhythm is a feature, not a bug; it keeps the bread fresh, even if I’ll likely skip macOS 26 on my main Mac for nerdy reasons.

Apple’s F1 movie hit while the OS was pushing promo a bit hard with systemwide nudges, which ties neatly to Apple locking up real F1 streaming.

Jeff Williams retiring as COO marks a clean handoff and a true post‑Ive design era; he was never the planned Cook successor, and the low‑profile COO role now isn’t being groomed for the top job the way Craig, Ternus, or Joz are.

Jobs could keep rivals rowing in the same direction, but post‑Jobs the Ive–Forstall clash became untenable; Cook prefers quiet exits and continuity over public drama, which has its virtues.

September brought iPhone 17, 17 Pro Max, and the numberless iPhone Air, which is odd branding; I chose the 17 Pro for the narrower feel and extra cameras, and eSIM made device hopping painless.

The Air’s single camera focuses closer and is great for documents, but I still want the full camera set; the new telephoto is better yet wants a lot of light.

Apple Watch Ultra battery life feels wildly better than Apple admits, and I see Ultras everywhere; the gap with Series is real even if Apple downplays it.

No‑event M5 launches signal that Apple still saves stage time for genuinely new stories; the chips look strong, but they didn’t need a show.

The F1 deal fits Apple’s bias to own an entire sport, and it begs for a Vision Pro cockpit view when live immersive video finally arrives.

Apple Silicon’s huge 2020 lead was bound to compress as the industry embraces ARM, especially with ex‑Apple talent fueling competitors.

EU DMA versus Japan’s MSCA shows two paths: the EU loses iPhone Mirroring and automatic Watch Wi‑Fi inheritance due to privacy and API constraints, while Japan gets alternative stores and payments without those collateral losses.

Apple TV’s new fanfare was shot for real, looks premium, and earns its few seconds before a show.

John Giannandrea’s exit was handled in Cook’s low‑key style, a contrast to Papermaster’s swift iPhone 4 antenna fallout under Jobs; Siri’s years of bouncing ownership didn’t help.

Mike Rockwell now owns Siri and Apple Intelligence under Craig, which is exactly where it belongs; betting against large language models was the wrong call, but this is fixable.

Alan Dye heading to Meta is a net positive for Human Interface; Apple still shipped the best interfaces, but taste drifted and politics filled gaps—Stephen Lemay brings the craft and delight back.

Liquid glass is fine visually, but the deeper issue is usability—the thousand tiny cuts like immovable lock screens and lost proxy icons; design has to be how it works, not just how it shimmers.

That’s the year; thanks for hanging in, and Happy New Year.