In this November edition of Apple Crunch, Thomas, John, and Desiree dig into a surprisingly busy month for Apple. We start with the iPhone Air’s underwhelming debut and why Apple may be rethinking its strategy after weak sales and confusing pricing. Next, we explore Apple’s ongoing talks to bring a Gemini-powered core to Siri—what that means for privacy, how it blends with Apple Intelligence, and how it may finally close the gap with today’s leading AI assistants.
We also look ahead to iOS 27, which is shaping up to be a major stability-focused update across all Apple platforms—echoing the beloved Snow Leopard era—with an emphasis on fixing long-standing issues including Braille bugs and Personal Voice quirks.
From there, we move into Apple’s evolving 2026 roadmap, including new release schedules for iPhones and Macs, the long-rumored foldable iPhone, a next-generation smart home device, and early hints of Apple smart glasses. We also discuss a promising Vision AI web app offering detailed grid-based image exploration and real-time scene updates. Finally, we wrap up with our App Pick of the Month, Ramblio, a social audio platform reminiscent of Clubhouse and Vorail.
Hosted By
- Thomas Domville (AnonyMouse)
- John Gassman
Desiree Renee
Crunchy Chapters
Air Turbulence — The iPhone Air Stalls on the Runway
We examine the disappointing performance of the iPhone Air: weak launch-day demand, pricing too close to the Pro lineup, and confusion around where the device fits. We explore whether the Air should even be a yearly release and what Apple may adjust for the next version.
The Siri Shake-Up — Gemini Steps Into the Spotlight
We unpack Apple’s potential plan to integrate a Gemini-powered model into Siri. The team discusses privacy protections, how this pairs with Apple Intelligence, and how this hybrid approach may finally bring Siri up to modern AI standards.
Stability Surge — iOS 27 Aims to Smooth Out the Rough Edges
Reports suggest iOS 27 and all major Apple OS updates next year will focus heavily on stability and bug fixes rather than new features. We discuss the need for accessibility fixes—including Braille reliability and Personal Voice issues—and why a Snow Leopard–style year is long overdue.
Future Shock — Apple’s 2026 Roadmap Promises a Wild Ride)
Apple is restructuring its entire release calendar. We highlight the new E-series iPhones coming early in the year, delayed base-model iPhones, refreshed MacBook Air and Pro models, the pricey foldable iPhone, and an upcoming smart home display. Early signs of Apple smart glasses also enter the conversation.
Eyes Forward — A New Wave of Vision AI Assistance)
We explore a powerful new Vision AI web app featuring a 6-grid photo mode, zoomable image analysis, real-time live view with two-second refreshes, and smart duplicate filtering—all designed to give blind and low-vision users richer environmental insights.
AnonyMouse App Pick of the Month — Ramblio
Ramblio is a simple, audio-based social networking app blending asynchronous rambling with real-time hangouts. Fully accessible and VoiceOver-friendly, it offers a clean, clutter-free platform reminiscent of Clubhouse and Vorail.
Resources
Air Turbulence — The iPhone Air Stalls on the Runway
iPhone Air Sales Are So Bad That Apple's Delaying the Next-Generation Version https://www.macrumors.com/2025/11/10/next-generation-iphone-air-delayed/
Apple’s Not Canceling iPhone Air 2, It’s Redesigning It to Add a Second Rear Camera https://macdailynews.com/2025/11/12/apples-not-canceling-iphone-air-2-its-redesigning-it-to-add-a-second-rear-camera/
Bloomberg: Here’s What’s Actually Going On With the iPhone Air 2 https://9to5mac.com/2025/11/16/iphone-air-to-features-release-date-latest/
Report: Apple Considers Adding Second Camera to Delayed iPhone Air 2 https://www.macrumors.com/2025/11/11/report-delayed-iphone-air-2-second-camera/
The Siri Shake-Up — Gemini Steps Into the Spotlight
New Version of Siri to 'Lean' on Google Gemini https://www.macrumors.com/2025/11/02/new-version-of-siri-to-lean-on-google-gemini/
Apple Reportedly Enlisting Google Gemini to Supercharge Siri https://www.idropnews.com/rumors/apple-reportedly-enlisting-google-gemini-to-supercharge-siri/255035/
Apple Nears $1 Billion Google Deal for Custom Gemini Model to Power Siri https://9to5mac.com/2025/11/05/google-gemini-1-billion-deal-apple-siri/
Stability Surge — iOS 27 Aims to Smooth Out the Rough Edges
iOS 27 Rumored to Be Focused on Stability, Like macOS X Snow Leopard Was https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/11/23/ios-27-rumored-to-be-focused-on-stability-like-macos-x-snow-leopard-was
Future Shock — Apple’s 2026 Roadmap Promises a Wild Ride
Apple's 2026 Roadmap Revealed: Foldable iPhone, Smart Display, and M6 MacBook Pro https://www.iclarified.com/98927/apples-2026-roadmap-revealed-foldable-iphone-smart-display-and-m6-macbook-pro-gurman
Eyes Forward — A New Wave of Vision AI Assistance
Something Different Coming: A Progressive Web App for You All https://applevis.com/forum/assistive-technology/something-different-coming-progressive-web-app-you-all
AnonyMouse App Pick of the Month — Ramblio
Ramblio on AppleVis https://www.applevis.com/apps/ios/social-networking/ramblio
Ramblio on the App Store https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ramblio/id6749940956
Listener Links
Website: https://www.AppleVis.com
Questions / Feedback: [email protected]
Transcript
Disclaimer: This transcript was generated by AI Note Taker – VoicePen, an AI-powered transcription app. It is not edited or formatted, and it may not accurately capture the speakers’ names, voices, or content.
Thomas: Hello, and welcome to Apple Crunch for November of 2025. My name is Thomas Domville, also known as AnonyMouse. Along here with me, I have John Gassman to my left. How are you, John?
John: I'm doing fine, Thomas. You know, you like that, that I just throw you to the left. I just randomly just picked a side.
Thomas: Right. I always tell my wife she's always right, so she's on the right. So I'm always on the left. So I don't know if that really works. She probably rolls her eyes, those things I can't see. But nonetheless, it's good to have you on the left. And then we have over here to my right, well, she's always right.
Desiree: Oh, yeah, sure.
Thomas: Desiree, how are you, Desiree?
Desiree: I'm good. I was thinking you had your spatial audio turned on or something, and so it was in your left ear. So I was actually giving you more credit than that.
Thomas: Oh, I see. Yeah, I'm just doing tricks over here.
Desiree: Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I'm good. It's winter. It's definitely cold. But, yeah.
Thomas: Yeah, it's been – I was just telling John right before our show, I am reporting to you in the 30s, and it is snow on the ground here.
Desiree: So it is – oh, we don't have snow, yeah, but it's cold. Well, I'm a baby. I'm from Texas. What do you know?
Thomas: You probably do miss Texas winter for the warm.
Desiree: Yeah. Yeah, but they get the ice stuff too. And the problem with them is they're not used to it. And so they don't have anything in place. Like the house is already been built for cold weather. So when it does get cold, like my brand new house, every time it got below freezing, my tankless water heater in the garage would freeze up. All the motorized components would freeze. So I didn't have hot water for like three days.
Thomas: Oh, man.
Desiree: Yeah, yeah.
Thomas: Well, that's a weird place to put it in the garage. It's not even heated or cooled in the garage, right?
Desiree: Yeah, no. I mean, but it's tankless, so it just goes into the – but all the components, all the stuff to control it are in the garage. So, yeah, it's kind of crazy.
Thomas: Oh, I love tankless. And that's good. John was telling me he was just, you know, 60s and 70s. I said, oh. Thank you. It makes me feel warm when I think of that. Well, you know, this is a great month to discuss about. You don't believe everything that you read, right? You hear that all the time, and this is no exception. So what am I talking about? Let's talk about this iPhone 17 Air debacle this month and discussion that's going around with the 17 Air. At first, you know, there were a lot of reports coming in saying, hey, 17 Air is doing so bad, they're going to skip a version or it's going to be discontinued because what we can say for sure, and it does not surprise me, guys, and I will get your take on this, but the 17 Air just didn't sell well. Go figures. You know, I predicted that it would be the case, and so be it. So it's not selling very well. So, I mean, the good sign to tell you that it's not doing well is that it was the only device on opening day that did not sell out. Every device, the Mac, the Pro, and the regular iPhone 17 all sold out except for the Air. So that gives you an idea, but I can see the numbers are really way low. Now, I've got to ask you guys, are you surprised by this, Desiree?
Desiree: No, no. I mean, you know, when you talk about the Air versus, you know, the Pro, yeah, it's a little thinner, but you get less battery. I mean, I might get an Air for my kids because they don't need all the, you know, but your battery's dead — you got to stop being on your phone. But even that, you know, for the money, it's just not worth it. So I'm not, no, I'm not surprised.
Thomas: What about you, John? You have the same thoughts?
John: Pretty much the same thoughts. You know, there comes a time, I think, when a company does more than they should and I guess they figure they have an audience that never ends, and it can support and take everything. But I mean, there comes a time when not everybody is going to go ahead and purchase each item. And luckily everything else sold out, but I don't know. Maybe they just need to reassess.
Thomas: You know, John, they definitely need to reassess. Now, there are several things. So there are some articles that came after that to say, no, that's not true. It's not being discontinued, whatever not. And no, it's not going to come back this year as an iPhone 18, which I'll explain in a moment. But you have to think that the price point is the biggest concern. I think that's what killed them. And I think that was my biggest concern from the get-go with the iPhone 17 Air was simply because it was only $100 cheaper than the Pro. And I think that's where that hurts them. And plus, it's a $1,000 phone. Had they kept the price of $899, I think they would have sold more. And I personally think that's where it failed them. I think they were trying to get away with $100 more. I don't know if that's to make more profit. It probably is. But maybe you're thinking because it's fancy, it's thin, and it's new, it's different, we can get away with that cost. And it's like, mm-mm. But I will say that Dave Nason received a demo unit from Apple, and he looked at it, and he was actually impressed by the Air. A lot of points that he was concerned about — like only having one speaker — he says in his case, he rarely ever uses a speaker. And I'm with him. I either have my headphones on or I have my phone connected directly to my hearing aid. So I rarely use a speaker. So with that, he says even without those, the speakers sound decent. And the battery life was decent. So with that, it's cool, but apparently what they're talking about is that, you know, they kind of discussed this earlier, was that the iPhone Air — meaning that it wasn't really an iPhone 17 Air per se. I know I said iPhone 17 Air, but it's really an iPhone Air. So that kind of gives you an indicator that maybe it wasn't meant to be coming out every year. And that's what it seems like it's going to do. So it's not like it's going to be the iPhone Air 2 next year. And that is not going to be coming out until, gosh, either next year, I think it says. So that just kind of shows that they are going to reevaluate and make some changes like adding new cameras because it was limited on the camera, etc. So I always thought that was an issue too. So even with the new camera, even with the iPhone Air 2, I don't know, guys. I just don't think it's going to be any better. I really don't.
Desiree: The only thing — I mean, it's going to replace the SE, I guess, right? So they're not going to do the SEs anymore.
Thomas: Well, they are.
Desiree: Or like the Minis, like the 12 Mini. I had a 12 Mini. I liked it a lot until it almost blew up. It got really hot one day, and the battery was swelling inside of it. But I really liked the size of it for me because I don't need the screen to be big. And, you know, it was okay. The battery was a little bit lacking. But, you know, if you're just going to use it as a phone and not all the stuff that we use it for — I mean, we use it for so many things now, right? That I just… it's not enough. But if you're like, if for an older person that's just maybe needing something just to be able to get into the smartphone world and they're older, maybe it would be practical for them to have that. I don't know.
Thomas: Well, to answer your first question — does this replace the SE? No. What replaces the SE are the 16E. If you remember, the E was for economy, I think is what it's called. And so, yeah, we'll be talking about the 17Es. It definitely will be coming. So this kind of replaces the SE. iPhone 16 Plus. So we had the iPhone 16 base model, and then we had the iPhone 16 Plus, which the Plus kind of took over from the Mini. So the Mini was first. It failed. Plus came out. It failed.
Desiree: What about the Max? The Max, I thought, replaced the Plus. No?
Thomas: Nope. We had the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and the iPhone 16 Max.
Desiree: Oh, really? I did not know about the Plus model. Hmm.
Thomas: Interesting. It was identical to the iPhone 16, but a bigger sibling of it without the Pro stuff.
Desiree: Oh, okay. So it's like the Max without… okay. I see.
Thomas: Yeah. It's the Max without the Pro.
Desiree: Right. Okay. That makes sense.
Thomas: Right. But you're doing good. No, it follows the trend. Just like I said, the Mini failed, the Plus failed, now the Air seems to be faltering as well. It's like they're trying… I don't know. I feel like they have to replace that, and I'm thinking, why? I think if you stuck with the base model, the Pro, and the Pro Max like you used to, you're going to have no problems. Trying to stick anything in between that, I don't think you're going to do well.
John: Like any company today, they’re trying to be everything to everybody, and I don’t think you can do that. Just settle for what’s working and get rid of the rest and make it affordable to people. And don’t worry about the 50,000 different lines. Well, maybe it’s quite an exaggeration there, but maybe not by much with Apple.
Desiree: It’s kind of like… are they discontinuing the MacBook Air? Or is that still… is the MacBook Air still going to be a thing?
Thomas: It’s still going to be a thing. We will talk about it in the roadmap for 2026. And the MacBook Air is coming.
Desiree: Okay.
Thomas: To make it confusing is that this year coming up — 2026 — is the year they’re going to start scheduling things out and around. And what I mean is that what we used to know when the MacBook Air came out, what we know when the iPhone came out — it’s all going to be changing. And that’s going to confuse the living heck out of everybody.
Desiree: Yeah.
Thomas: So that is that. The other bit of news that’s been going around, and it’s pretty, you know, on one hand it's exciting. On the other hand, I'm kind of like, hmm, this is very un-Apple-like. But they were put in a pinch because we have been talking about the Apple Intelligence and how lackluster this has been for the past few years. And Apple has been trying everything they can to try to catch up with the AI business. And we’ve talked about this quite a few times. And one of my concerns was: is Apple going to be able to even catch up? So I think Apple saw this, and so there’s discussion — now, I’m not sure this is going to be legit and like this is going to be the final — but there are discussions that Apple is going to team up or partner with Google with this Gemini AI. So let me explain that before people go bonkers, because people went bonkers when they heard that because it’s, “Oh my gosh, I do not want Google taking over everything.” And so rest assured, this is what it’s supposed to be. So they’re going to pay Google a billion dollars a month to be able to license out the engine or the core of the Gemini. Meaning that you get the Gemini model with the Apple protection. So in other words, it’s just using these innards. It’s not connecting to Google in any way. It still runs on Apple and Apple servers only. It’s just borrowing what we call the LLM — that’s the model that the AI learns from. And that was the core that Apple was lacking big time because they could not get this.
Desiree: Are they going to keep offering ChatGPT then, like as part of Siri?
Thomas: You know, so think of this: it’s still going to be Apple Intelligence, everything you’ve ever known to love, including the ChatGPT. So all that is going to remain the same. So that is the good news. So throwing this Gemini in, I knew it’s going to confuse people. And I can’t think of how to explain it. It’s kind of like having… let’s just do this. So we all know Honda cars. The engine in the car is fantastic. You know, you hear people — you can go hundreds of thousands of miles on those engines. And it works great, right? But not every car will be able to live that long. So let’s think of this as a Honda engine inside of your Siri. So it’s a Gemini engine but it’s an Apple car frame on the outside. Weird, right?
Desiree: Yeah, yeah, that is interesting. But we won’t really know — it’s not going to like say, “Okay, Gemini is working on this answer,” like it’s not going to be easy to tell. It’s kind of like, you know, you’re offering something, and then when you go into it, you go into the main product, and then there’s other things driving different parts of it.
Thomas: So you’ll never hear anything Gemini of any kind. So what you hear on what we have now on Apple Intelligence — that’s what it’s going to do. Everything you have known about Siri and everything will still have Apple on it. So it’s not going to be like ChatGPT where it says “Answer from ChatGPT.”
Desiree: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, and I like that because it does save it to my history, and I subscribe to ChatGPT. So if I’m out and I search for something with Siri using ChatGPT, I can come home and go on my computer and find the stuff in my history, which I really like that.
Thomas: Yeah, the history is fantastic when it comes to GPT, and I like that. And I like that it has a temporary mode, which is very cool. So if you don’t want it to learn from what you’re asking or given — to use it to teach its AI — you can opt out on each chat that you do. So thankfully, that’ll be there. Just Siri will have a new brain, per se. It’ll have a Gemini brain.
Desiree: I hope it gets smarter than Alexa.
Thomas: Well, if you have never played with Gemini, Gemini is very impressive, guys. I mean, Gemini just rolled out a new model, I think last week of this recording. And it just blew the doors off of GPT, believe it or not. It absolutely blew the doors. Yeah, you know, this is like the tortoise and the hare. And the tortoise is Google. They were slow, but man, they are coming up fast. They got money to burn like crazy, whereas GPT does not have the money like Google does.
Desiree: Have you tried the iPhone app for it? Or is there one?
Thomas: There is. I have the Gemini. I do have the Gemini Pro. It does a very decent job. It does an amazing job on photos. For example, I threw a photo at it from my last Christmas, and it was able to tell me that the tree was artificial. It did not tell me it was artificial — interesting — whoa, that’s something new. And then it started doing something new: it says along the left side of the tree, along the middle side of the tree, and on the right side of the tree. I was like, oh, nice. It was nice. Now, is it that much better? No. But when it comes to the actual GPT usage, but I am still a heavy GPT user myself.
Desiree: I don’t like the GPT app for the phone. So if it’s any better — I just don’t like it. It’s so clunky. Like I can’t get to, “Okay, now I want to ask another question.” And if I’m using a Braille display, like I just really struggle with reading it and then going back in and typing again. I mean, it’s kind of a pain.
John: I wish it was as fast as the computer because the computer is quick and easy.
Desiree: Right, right, yeah.
Thomas: Unfortunately, both of those apps are basically the same. It’s got the same general concept, general layout. So, John, knowing that Siri is going to have a Gemini brain, I mean, you’ve got to be like myself — I’m really excited. I’m pumped. If this is true, this is massive news.
John: I hope it lives up to the hype because Siri for so long has just been awful.
Desiree: Well, and Apple Intelligence just, you know, flopped.
John: Yeah, it has so far. And I think that Siri and Alexa should be living together because only they could understand each other.
Desiree: Well, mine do live together, and they still fight. But, you know, it’s funny because my Lady A — I can’t say it again because she’ll… — has not been working well because I don’t want to do Plus. I don’t want to subscribe to this. So a bunch of the stuff that she used to do, she won’t, and now I have to ask Siri to do it. And even with Siri’s limited capabilities, sometimes it does better. And even just playing music — like Siri does better than she does anymore.
Thomas: Isn’t that something. Now see, I have the complete opposite experience. So I do have the A-Lady Plus because we’re Prime members and it’s free with Prime members — right? That’s why I have it.
Desiree: Oh, it is? Yeah, because mine keeps saying, “Do you want to upgrade?” But I already have Prime, and then I say, “No, I don’t want to pay any more.” So it’s free?
John: Unless it was a time frame when that was true and maybe the time has run out. I don’t know. Interesting.
Thomas: Okay, that’s a good question. Why don’t you ask ChatGPT? Or Gemini.
Desiree: I have awesome response from the A-Plus. She answers some really tough questions. Well, I didn’t upgrade her, so that’s why.
Thomas: That’s right. We like it when you’re dumb and small.
Desiree: I’m like, no, I don’t want Plus because I don’t want to pay any more than I already pay freaking Amazon. They already take enough of my money.
Thomas: Right. You know, in the end, it’s great to see Apple is thinking that they can go outside for help. I’m thinking this may be short-term. This may be kind of like a two- or three-year roadmap. They want to use the Gemini for now until they get a better model instead of trying to hurry, hurry, hurry. And I think this is going to solve a lot of answers for them in the short-term. And in the meantime, long-term, then they can come out with their own. It’s kind of like — you know, they used Intel chips for so long in their MacBook. And then they decided to, hey, let’s go with our own chip. And they had all the time they needed. And so they were ready. They came out with the M chip. So I think this is a good decision. We will find out in March. March is the date or the month that all this stuff is supposed to come out. So the new Siri 2.0, along with Gemini, is supposed to come out in March. So hopefully when in the beta, I will find out exactly, but I’ll keep you guys posted on that too.
John: Wouldn’t it be interesting if it comes out during the CSUN conference with some of those people in attendance?
Thomas: Wouldn’t that be cool? Yeah, it would. I would really love to see people take advantage of that.
Desiree: Yeah.
Thomas: Now, some other news. I thought I’d put this up above, and you guys probably didn’t get this in the show notes, and that’s okay. You’ll follow along. OS 27. Let’s talk about OS 27. Why in the world am I talking about OS 27? So what is that? iOS 27, macOS 27, Apple Watch OS 27, right? The reason I’m bringing this up is because They had some major news about OS 27 coming up next year. And I know it’s early, but the cool thing about this is that they are going to take a breather this year — meaning that it is time for that performance and stable year. Remember a couple of years ago, they were going to do this on and off, on and off — like one year stable and performance, next year all new stuff — and the next year stable again. I don’t know why they got out of that cycle. And so we’re going to go back to that. So this is great news. I think this is definitely what they need. They need to take a breather. No more big stuff coming out. So I’m very excited to hear that this year, or the next iOS, it’s going to be all about bug fixes. Yay.
Desiree: Is that going to go for the iPad and macOS too?
Thomas: Yep. Everybody all across. They say for the Mac, it will be the biggest bug pause since Snow Leopard. I mean, Snow Leopard was a huge year, right? I mean, I was thinking, my gosh, how many years ago was that? Many, many years ago. So this is a big deal. So I was excited to bring this up and discuss it with you guys. I mean, my gosh, as much as they do fix things, there are still a lot of things broken, unfortunately. So that would mean everybody across will get a new OS stable.
Desiree: I hope they fix some of the Braille issues with the display. And, you know, people are kind of having trouble sometimes with the Braille access, which is great that they added it, but it does need some refinement, I think. So that would be good if they would, you know, make that a little bit better. And then, you know, they changed the personal voice thing, so you only have to answer 10 questions or whatever — or read 10 sentences if you want to create your personal voice and then use it for VoiceOver. So we tried it one day, and it, you know, let us create the voice. And my husband — it made him somehow speak Spanish, and we did not — and it said it was in English, United States, but for some reason, he has no accent at all, but like it gave him a Spanish accent. And then when you lock your phone, it started speaking in Chinese and weird things. So they definitely need to — because I liked the old personal voice, the minute-long 150 sentences. It took forever. But I actually use my personal voice I created with that a lot for VoiceOver. And this new one just doesn’t seem to be quite as stable. It asks fewer questions and has you read fewer things, which is good, but it’s just not very stable or reliable. It doesn’t seem to be as stable and reliable as the other ones were.
Thomas: You are not the first I’ve heard that from. I’ve heard other people had issues like that. So did you try redoing your personal voice on the new one?
Desiree: I did, and I didn’t like how it turned out. And mine did okay, but then every time I locked my phone, if I wanted to check the time or whatever — like with the one I have now — it goes back to Samantha sometimes until I unlock my phone, and then it has my voice. But this one was like Chinese, and so I couldn’t even check the time. Even though I had it set, and as soon as it unlocked, it would go to my new personal voice. But as long as I had that set, for some reason, it just… I don’t know. It created — it pulled from some weird things. And I don’t know, because it creates it in minutes, whereas the old way, you know, it took a day for it to process all of the stuff you recorded. And this one, like, takes a few minutes. So it’s faster, but I think you get what you wait for. It’s not very good, you know, because they don’t take their time and make it. And it doesn’t sound right. Like, my other one sounds more like me. I went back to that one, and I’m glad I kept it. But because I don’t think there’s a way — I think there’s no other way to go back. I think that the only way to create personal voice now is the new way. But I could be wrong. I would be up for information about that if anybody knows.
Thomas: Right. Have you done personal voice yourself, Mr. John?
John: No. I know a couple of people who have, and I think it started… was this a couple of years ago when it started?
Desiree: Yeah, but where you could use it for VoiceOver — that was just like earlier this year.
John: I mean, I just didn’t feel like I had the time to waste to have it set up. And it might have been while I was still working and not retired. So now that I’m retired, I would be more likely to give it a chance if it was something that really worked. But, you know, I’m not one that needs to hear my own voice. I hear enough of it in my head.
Desiree: Well, you know, it’s just kind of fun, I guess. And like, I would love to — if it was reliable — like, I’d love to record other people on my phone. You know, “Hey, I want this book read to me in my husband’s voice,” or “I want my child to read this email because it’s like… crazy.”
Thomas: You just like to hear yourself, Desiree. That’s what you’re trying to say.
Desiree: No, actually. And it does some weird things. Like when it says “heading,” it’s like HED-ing!
Thomas: You get so excited when you say anything.
Desiree: Yay! Heading!
Thomas: Now, you’re right. So how this works is if you have an Apple Intelligence–capable device, you get the shortened version — you only have to do 10 words and whatnot. If you have the older technology, it takes about 45 minutes. You’ve got to go through a process of 100 words…
Desiree: 150 sentences.
Thomas: Something like that.
Desiree: Yeah, it’s a sentence you have to read and repeat and record.
Thomas: I’m not aware that you can turn that off and on. I’m curious if I turn off Apple Intelligence, if that goes back to the default settings. But that’s a good question.
Desiree: I will try that.
Thomas: Interesting. If it doesn’t, then it’s baked in and we can’t change it. But I’m like you.
Desiree: It would be cool if you could share it. Like, it says you can because you can export the recordings. But it doesn’t let — like, if I wanted to, I created one and okay, I want to share it with someone else. You know, then… because I’ve had people — I use it on my podcast — “What voice is that?” I’m like, it’s mine. “I’ve never heard that one before!” Oh my God. It doesn’t quite sound like me, but it’s, you know…
John: It would really be neat if — and I don’t know how you would do this — but all the emails that you get every day. Wouldn’t it be cool if that email could be read to you in the voice of the person who sent it to you?
Desiree: Ooooh.
John: Okay Apple, get on the ball. I don’t know how they would do that. That would be a big order, but it would be fun.
Desiree: You would customize it. Like you could have the voices and then, you know, when — and they would have to actually create — they have to be somebody that creates one. And then they would share it, and then you’d say, okay, whenever something from this email address reads, use this voice.
Thomas: Right, right.
Desiree: That’d be cool.
Thomas: That is a marvelous idea. I love that. Now, I will say the personal voice I’ve done sounds like poop. It does not sound like me. I don’t know what poop sounds like, Thomas.
Thomas: It’s like this: poop. So it’s horrible. It’s like, that doesn’t sound like me at all. So before anybody asks me — no, I’m not going to share my voice with you. “I want to have the mouse’s voice.” No, you’re not.
Desiree: That’s funny.
Desiree: Well, you know, it’s that voice cloning thing. Like apparently, there are other programs that can take bits of your voice from different places and clone it. And so in some ways that scares me. Like I don’t — you know, I have a lot of stuff with my voice out there, you know, on the internet. And for somebody to be able to take my voice and — “Well, you said that.” I’m like, my kids already tell me I say things I don’t.
Thomas: No, I never said that.
Desiree: “But you did! It was your voice, I promise!”
Thomas: You’re right. ElevenLabs does that.
Desiree: Yeah, ElevenLabs. That’s what I was thinking of.
Thomas: Yeah, you just feed it a file, and all I did was I fed it an existing podcast of mine, and it did a decent job. So, yeah, you’re right. That’s scary.
Thomas: So that is about the OS 27. So we’re excited. So next year, don’t plan for anything major new. The only thing you’re going to get out of OS 27, other than the stability and performance — which is huge — is that you’re going to get a bunch of AI stuff. So Apple is going to be pushing AI along with it. But that is great news. Now let’s talk about roadmaps. I always like to talk about roadmaps. What can you expect? What is Apple going to produce and put out next year for 2026? So they came out with a roadmap, and this will answer some of your questions, Desiree. But the first half of the year is the 17E. So the 17E is supposed to come out in the first half of next year. So those that like the E models, rest assured that you’ll get the E models during that time. So I don’t expect a whole lot of new stuff with it other than it’s just a new chip, da-da-da-da, but nothing major. But this is starting the schedule change I was telling you about. So you’re going to see the Es come out in the first half of the year, and you’re going to see the basic model iPhone going to come out in this time of the year too, next year. What does that mean? Let’s just pretend it’s 2026, and iPhone 18 is out, right? So this fall, you’re only going to get the iPhone 18 Pro and the iPhone 18 Pro Max — not the base model 18, because now it’s going to be shipped to the first half of the following year along with the E models. So this year we’ll get the 17E. Next year we’ll get the 18E and the 18 base model. I know this is going to confuse people, but this is the new… this is the way, as they say in the Mandalorian Star Wars world. This is the way. The MacBook Air and Pro — where does that go? They’re going to be out in the first half as well. So this is going to be the new norm. We’re going to see these models come out during the first half. So this is the new N5 chips for those two models, and they will be coming out during this time as well. And this will be the same for the regular base model iPad and the iPad Air. And those are the only iPads that are going to be coming out this year. The Pros and the Mini won’t be coming out until the following year — 2027. I know, you’ve got to get a calendar to get this all straight, right guys?
Desiree: Yep, absolutely.
Thomas: Right? It’s going to be confusing. Now, March — because Siri with the so-called Gemini core is going to be coming out in March — March is going to be an exciting month because we have been talking about this, and you may not be aware of this, Desiree, but the Smart Home is supposed to come out during this time. This is kind of a new device, and we’ve been talking about it, gosh, I’d say for the past year. And this is a new model that is kind of like an Apple TV linked with the HomePod Mini. So it’s going to be combined, right?
Desiree: Right.
Thomas: I think it does have a display. I could be wrong. I think there’s a speaker model, and there’s going to be a wall-mountable version. Now, I think there is going to be a display. So can you say Amazon Echo or Show?
Desiree: Echo Show. Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. Yeah. I wonder if it will have a camera on it too because the Echo Show has that. And you could actually use it, like, if you’re in your kitchen and somebody FaceTimes you, you could… I bet it does. I bet it does.
Thomas: It’ll be very interesting. I’m excited to see where that goes. I’m kind of — because that’s going to be their new kind of smart home environment. There’s going to be a whole new product line of smart home. We’ve been discussing about, you know, how you’ve got the Ring doorbell, the security camera doorbells and things like that. That is supposed to come out late next year to go with the smart home. So you’ll have new smart security devices to go with your smart home device. So I’m kind of anxious to see that. Now, here’s my issue, guys. I love my Amazon Show, okay? Not just because I can’t see it or anything, but… it’s a nice device. My wife can see it. We can put pictures on it. The kids can see it. And we get pictures. You know, the one thing I love about the Amazon stuff — it’s got skills. And skills are marvelous. I love using skills. My problem with the HomePod Mini — it sounds beautiful, it sounds great — that’s all it does. It does nothing else. The Amazon Show does a lot more. And so I don’t think they’re going to be adding any skills or apps to it. So I’m just thinking, I wonder how that’s going to work and if that’s going to be really worth the price, because I know the price is not going to be cheap. Can you imagine a HomePod with a display on it? I bet you it’s going to be a couple hundred bucks minimum. We’ll see.
Desiree: Do they have battery packs for the Minis? I don’t think they do, do they?
Thomas: Kind of, sort of.
Desiree: Because I would love to be able to take… because they’re so little and they sound good…
Thomas: Right. You can power them by your power bank if your power bank is strong enough.
Desiree: Right, but you know how those things — they have the batteries you can get that you charge it, and then you can take it. And I do it all the time with her. It’d be really cool if they had something like that, because when you have something as small as the Mini, the whole thing is portability. Like, let me take it somewhere, because it’s little. But right now it’s like, then I’ve got to unplug it, and I’ve got to find another plug, and, you know, so they don’t move.
Thomas: Well, it works with my power bank. It works with my battery pack. I have a 50,000 mAh big hunker chunking thing, and it does really powerful. And I think I got it for like $38 or something like that. And it works with that. So if it’s powerful enough and it’s big enough, it will work just fine.
Desiree: Interesting.
Thomas: Right?
Desiree: And then if you want stereo, you’ve got to take two of them.
Thomas: Oh, man. You don’t have a HomePod, do you, Mr. John?
John: No, I just never got one. I know a lot of people have, but no, I don’t have one.
Thomas: Do you have a speaker system at home of any kind?
John: I do. Yeah, it’s not really — it’s not specific to Sonos or any of those. It’s just speaker systems that came with the television, and I’ve got a pair of nice speakers with the computer. So — but it’s not home speakers or anything like that.
Thomas: You don’t listen to music around the house?
John: Oh, a little bit here and there, yeah. Mainly sports and news, but occasionally music.
Thomas: Oh, you’ve got to have your manly cave. You’ve got your sports on speakers to make it like you’re in a stadium?
John: You know, if I had my own house, I probably would. But with me being in an apartment, that sound carries.
Desiree: Yeah.
John: I tend not to.
Desiree: And if I ever do it again — when I was in one of my houses, we put speakers up on the wall and everything, and people… they’re ugly. Oh my God. They’re, you know, eyesores. I would, you know, put them in the ceiling and, you know, wire it. But I really miss my surround sound sometimes. I really enjoy that sound — just being immersed in the sound. And I can get that a little bit through… I used to have an Echo Studio, and it decided to stop working. I don’t know what happened, but I can’t even get it to connect anymore to my network. And so… but I liked that, and I wanted another one, and then I could have stereo. I like the stereo spatial… you know… sound. But I do miss having it behind me, and I liked that a lot.
Thomas: I love that too. Yeah, apartment is a killjoy, isn’t it, when it comes to like really cranking it out and whatnot… but that’s okay, that’s okay. So that’s going to be the first half of the year. Now the second half — let’s talk about the second half of the year. Now, this is what I was telling you about — the iPhone 18 is going to be coming out. And this is what I was telling you about: expect the iPhone 18 Pro and the Pro Max to be coming out during this time. That’s it. You won’t get the base model 18. You’re not going to get the 18E. You’re not going to get the iPhone Air 2. That is not going to come until the spring of 2027. So I hope this makes sense how this new routine is going to be doing. So that’s when the iPhone — we knew that it was going to be coming out. Now, what’s new this year, and I think that’s why they’re pushing everything — because just like John said, “Sure, let’s just add another phone to the pile to get us all messed up and confused.” Well, this is going to be the year of the iPhone foldable, folks. You know… I don’t know about this, guys. You know, I know that John and I talk about this foldable. So this is a new iPhone foldable. So you’re going to get one size. And if you open it up — my gosh, you’re going to have like this little iPad mini–size phone that folds out. But the cost. You remember when we talked about this, John — I said it’s going to be about $2,000. Remember that?
John: I do.
Thomas: I just read recently that the new number is going to be about $2,400.
Desiree: Wow! Wow! Okay… why? I’m not going to spend that much on a phone. And, okay, so when somebody calls you, do you have to unfold it to talk on it, or would you keep it folded up?
Thomas: No, you can do it either way. You can fold it up, and it’ll be a display. Right when you fold it up, it’ll just be a smaller size, and you’ll have all the display as normal. And then when you unfold it, it becomes a bigger size of the phone. But you can answer from either side of it.
John: How exciting.
Thomas: I don’t know. I was just waiting to see what you guys think.
Desiree: No. No way. $2,400? No. And why? I just don’t understand. Like why? You know, you either use an iPad or use a phone. Like, why do you need… I…
Thomas: I’m having a hard time just being able to buy a phone that’s now $1,100 for the Pro. That’s hard enough for me to swallow. And I used to do that every year. And it’s like, you know what, this is wasteful. I can’t do this anymore. And now you’re telling me that you’re going to come out with a $2,400 phone? I could probably live with the phone two years or so before I get into one. But if it’s something that you use every day, I suppose it’s worth it. But that $2,400 price tag… it makes me feel like — can we say the Vision Pro — how ridiculously priced it was. Sure, it’s fancy. It’s nice. But nobody can afford it. Nobody wants to spend that kind of money. And I just can’t help to think that you’re going to get to a small niche group of people again that you did with the Vision Pro with the foldable. So no takers?
John: No way.
Thomas: What a bummer. So no Christmas stocking stuffer for Larry?
John: Nope, absolutely not. He’s not worth it.
Thomas: What about you, Desiree? No Christmas stocking stuffer for your girls?
Desiree: Oh, the girls? We have to. My little one wants a drone. Oh my gosh. But actually, well, I shouldn’t say that because he might listen to this. A good stocking stuffer would be something like a little Orbit Reader or one of the little things you can pair with your phone that are tiny. That’s what I would want for a stocking stuffer — let me put it that way. No foldable. I enjoy that too.
John: No. That’s what I was trying to hint at. Is it foldable? So if people want to send Desiree a stocking stuffer, can they send it to AppleVis?
Thomas: And yeah, of course, I will personally send it to them.
John: Yeah, yeah. I don’t have any of their addresses. They might stay here.
Thomas: And the last thing on the roadmap, guys — and this is the one I’ve been waiting for eons — I think everybody is — is that we knew it's going to be sometime next year, and I really do believe this one is going to be true. I’ll bet some coffee beans on this one — is that we’ll see a sneak preview of the smart glasses next fall. I bet they'll kind of show us the dog and pony show of the smart glasses soon to come out in 2027. I bet you.
Desiree: They're going to have to keep up with all of the other stuff that's out there now.
Thomas: Right.
Desiree: You know, that’s a market that they really have to get in on if they're going to.
Thomas: Right. So I… Let’s hope that holds true. And if that comes true, then you’re going to see one really big happy mouse, because that is the one I've been waiting for. I love all these new technology with the Meta Ray-Bans, the Echo Vision, the Allied Soul, or the Adventure Solo. I love them all, but I'm waiting for this one. That's the one I'm banking my money on. That one’s going to take off. I think it’s going to be great.
Desiree: Well, if it uses Gemini as its brain… then yeah. I mean, that would be good, right? That's like better than — yeah.
Thomas: Exactly. If the Gemini with the Siri comes true, like they said, it's going to be… it's going to be beautiful. I think it's going to be right on par with the ChatGPT. That's how good it's going to be, but you’ve got to wait for a bit.
Desiree: How do you think the Vision Pros have sold? Like, what do you think about that? Is it — because I mean, I saw them and, for what they are, I guess, for people that really want to have that close-up view of their screen or a movie or whatever. But like, I wonder if they sold as well as they thought they might.
Thomas: No. They mentioned it — it’s way under what the expectation of it was. They really thought it's going to explode, and I don't know how in the world — what planet did they live on — that’s going to explode? And so it didn't take off as much as they thought. And that’s why when the Vision Pro 2 came out this year, there was no fanfare. It was just a press release — they didn't boast on it — nothing. It’s just… it's for that reason. And so it's really going to be for professional use and stuff like that. But I think for consumer, general users, that smart glasses is where it's going to be. And I think they know that. And I think they missed it. And that's why they stopped the production of the Vision Pro Lite. They were going to come out with a lighter version. But they put that on hold because they know that smart glasses is going to be the better bet. And so that’s where their focus is now. Yeah. Let’s start wrapping things up here. A couple of things on AppleVis I want to tell you guys about. If you guys have been to AppleViz recently, there is an awesome forum going on about this guy, Stephen, has created this fascinating web app. I'll explain what web app in a minute, called the Vision AI Assistant. And it is amazing, guys. So have you, by any chance, been following this Vision AI Assistant? Yes.
John: I haven't. No. But now I want to look at it now. So what it is, it's a web app.
Thomas: That means it runs on any platform that you can access via the Internet. So a web browser. So it's a web app. But because it's a web app and it will recognize that it's an iPhone, you can put it on your home screen like a, any other app so you just double tap it and it just opens up and it feels like an app but it's not a real app it runs from the internet so it's not on your phone if that makes sense so it's a short it's a bookmark or a shortcut to a website yeah anyway you can do a bunch of stuff but my most favorite thing is the um the photo x um portion of it it reminds me of the cna i the initially And you put your finger around the screen, it'll tell you doors over there, tables over here, blah, blah, blah, blah. My favorite is that it will go a step beyond that. So meaning, let's just take, I will, see, my mom collects Christmas villages, right? So she has a village of, you know, if you've ever seen one, there's hundreds of them. There's like, she has dozens of them. So she sent me this year's village set that she has set up. And typically, if I threw that to your Be My AI or ChatGPT, whatever you want or PixieBox to have it described, you just get a description of what it sees, right? So it'll say, it appears to be a Christmas village. And it's very mono. I kind of like to call it mono. Now, think of it going to the stereo, spatial audio. So now what I can do with the picture is, I can bring it up, so it brings it up in a six-grid style on your screen. So think of six-grid. And so if I go into a certain grid, so if I go into bottom left-hand grid of the photo, it'll tell me what is in that bottom left section of the photo. So it'll say, oh, I see these three Cryptus Village homes or stores. where the mono picture didn't pick that up because the whole picture was too much for it because they were trying to describe the whole thing, you can have it describe just that section. And if I wanted to go even more, you double-tap that grid, and you'll zoom in, and it'll do a description of that again, and you can double-tap that again to go even further in and get another description of just that portion of the screen. So think of it... Let's just say I've got five people on a picture, right? And it describes a picture of five people. It's a very brief scenario. But now think if you've got six grid, I could probably go hone in to the two people on the left, double-tap that, and it'll describe both of those people. Double-tap that again, and I get description on the one person, much more detailed description.
John: Hmm.
Thomas: Is that not, I think that's really fascinating.
Desiree: But you can do that on the computer too? Yes. How would you, if you don't have a touch screen, like how would you navigate the picture?
Thomas: The grid will be accessible by keys, by your arrow keys.
Desiree: Interesting. Yeah. So it is fascinating. I'll have to play with that. I might be doing a bite on it pretty soon. But there's...
Thomas: But that's just one thing. It has everything. And the other thing that's really cool is that it has the live AI.
Desiree: I was going to just ask that if it had live AI, because I like that. I've been playing with ScribeMe. ScribeMe? ScribeMe, yeah. They added the live AI assistant, and the only problem with it is I have to mute my speech because you know i'm like i'm not i just want you to describe it i'll ask you questions later but it hears everything so um if you're not in a really quiet environment which i very rarely am um right i get that what that's just different than anybody else including the all the glasses out there now you don't have to keep prompting
Thomas: What am I seeing now? What am I seeing now? What this does, it refreshes every two seconds. So if you're walking or you move something into your vision and it sees it, it'll describe it. And check this. It will remove duplicate announcements. In other words, if I am... In my kitchen, I'm looking at something. It already described that to me. It will remember that it described to me. So it will not repeat it. So you know how when you have some time, it says, doors on the left, doors on the left, doors on the left. It says, I know the doors on the left. It will stop saying it. It will just say, there's a door on the left. And then it will, whenever she sees something new, it will describe it to you.
Desiree: Could you take it into an exhibit hall and walk up and down the length of the booths?
Thomas: It's every two seconds.
Desiree: ah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Can you change that? Two seconds?
Thomas: Nope. Two seconds.
John: But if you're just wanting to know what booths there are, but then you could go into the photo thing if you wanted to actually examine things in a booth, but it would help you, like, find this booth or that one if you're walking through trying to find it. Maybe.
Thomas: Maybe. I don't know either. And, of course, it would be all on the bandwidth. Do you have the proper Internet connection? That's where the magic lives.
Desiree: That's the problem with the grocery stores and stuff is a lot of them don't have good Internet. And even, like, I lose my cell signal, and I can't use Be My Eyes or Aira or anything. And even when I connect to the store Wi-Fi, it's awful, the guest Wi-Fi or whatever. I can't. I can't do it at all inside of the store, which is where I really kind of need it.
Thomas: So this guy, check the article out. It's in the show notes. Go give it a whirl. It is amazing, and it does a lot of different things. It does a lot of different things. He is trying to work it on the Ray-Ban when the new – The kit comes out that they described this year that they're going to open up the camera and stuff. So you're going to look to see if that's going to be able to be used on them. But anyway, check that out. last thing I want to talk about is my app pick of the month, and that is Ramblio. Have you guys heard of the Ramblyo? No, just from what you gave. Yeah? Okay, have you heard about it or used it?
Desiree: I haven't used it, but I've heard of it. Isn't it like a chat where you can talk to people, kind of like Clubhouse or one of those?
Thomas: Right. Do you remember back in the days we had Clubhouse? We had, what was that other one called? Not voice chat, but Vorel. Do you remember Vorel and Clubhouse?
Desiree: I met my husband on Clubhouse.
Thomas: Oh, really?
Desiree: Oh, my gosh.
Thomas: That's so awesome, Desiree. Yeah. Okay, so it's like Vovail with Clubhouse. So it's all audio, so you do leave ramblings. That's what the hint, the ramblio, is that you do rambles, and you have different categories where you can leave a ramble in. So if you want to talk about technology, you can ramble, and people can reply to that by audio. Okay. You like that, do you?
Desiree: So it's not like you're having a conversation live. It's sort of like WhatsApp used to be where you could record it. So you record your ramble and then post it.
Thomas: That's just one half. The other half is called Hangouts. And this is the Clubhouse portion where you can have Hangouts and talk to people in real time.
Desiree: Interesting.
Thomas: So this is a free app. And so it's my app pick of the month. I have been on beta tests, gosh, for two or three months on it. And it's a You know, for those that have a lot of time or like to get more socially connected with people to talk with others, this is something you might want to look at. It's not something I would use every day, but it is something that if you did love Voreal and Clubhouse, this is something you definitely need to check out. So that is it for the morning, guys. All right. Thank you, both of you, once again. And I'll see you guys next month for December. Oh, my gosh. December is here. So we've got to get our shoppings done. And I'll send you both my address.
John: We all have to pick out our presents for Desiree.
Desiree: How many orbits am I going to get? Exactly. I always need two. So, you know, one for each one. Okay. Oh, yeah. No.
Thomas: That's very nice of you, John. Yeah. Okay. All right, guys.
This is going to be Apple Crunch for November of 2025. My name is Thomas Domville, also known as AnonyMouse, along with me with John Gassman and Desiree Renee, saying goodbye, have a wonderful November, and we'll see you in December. Bye-bye.
Desiree: Bye.