The Talk Show With John Gruber

Manton Reece and whisky-soaked baritone Brent Simmons join the show to talk about JSON Feed, the new spec they co-authored for syndicating things like blog posts and podcasts...

Special guest Jim Dalrymple returns to the show to speculate about what Apple might announce at the upcoming WWDC 2017: Apple Watch, iPad, iOS, updated MacBooks, Apple TV, and more. Also: a celebration of the great Roger Moore.

Ben Thompson returns to the show. Topics include Microsoft's announcements from Build 2017, search engines, Amazon's new (confusingly-named) Look and Show devices, the need for HAL 9000, Apple's WeChat problem in China, and more.

Rene Ritchie returns to the show. Topics include Apple’s Q2 2017 financial results, the iPhone’s decline in China over the past two years, Microsoft’s new Surface Laptop and Windows 10 S, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick getting called to Tim Cook’s office regarding Uber’s surreptitious “fingerprinting” of iPhones, judging Apple Watch’s success, Hulu’s entry into the cord-cutting “live TV” subscription market (and Apple’s conspicuous absence from that same market), and more.

Special guest Lisa Jackson — Apple’s vice president of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives — joins the show for an Earth Day discussion of the state of Apple’s environmental efforts: climate change, renewable energy, responsible packaging, and Apple’s new goal to create a “closed-loop supply chain”, wherein the company’s products would be manufactured entirely from recycled materials.

MG Siegler returns to the show. Topics includes Virgin America's sad fate as a subsidiary of Alaska Airlines, the Touch Bar on the new MacBook Pros, "doing work" on an iPad Pro, Walt Mossberg, the absurd bloat of iOS apps, Clips, Netflix and Amazon's spending on video, and more.

Matthew Panzarino returns to the show for an in-depth discussion of last week's "future of the Mac Pro" round table discussion between a handful of Apple executives and journalists who cover the company. We talk about what went wrong with the 2013 Mac Pro design, speculate on the timeline of when Apple made this decision, why touchscreen Macs are almost certainly a bad idea even though a lot of people think they want one, and more.

Matthew Panzarino returns to the show for an in-depth discussion of last week's "future of the Mac Pro" round table discussion between a handful of Apple executives and journalists who cover the company. We talk about what went wrong with the 2013 Mac Pro design, speculate on the timeline of when Apple made this decision, why touchscreen Macs are almost certainly a bad idea even though a lot of people think they want one, and more.

Special guest Dan Frommer returns to the show. Topics include the end of The Deck ad network, my weird story about getting kicked out of Amazon’s affiliate program, Apple’s new products announced last week (Red iPhone 7 models, larger-capacity iPhone SEs, the new 9.7-inch just-plain iPad, and Apple’s excellent new Clips app), Samsung’s new Galaxy S8, Twitter’s new reply system, CarPlay getting its ass kicked in a head-to-head comparison with Android Auto, ISPs and Privacy, and more.

The one and only Merlin Mann returns to the show. Topics include modern plumbing technology and product marketing, the intricate ordeal of switching from iCloud’s old two-step authentication to the modern two-factor authentication, and the future of voice-driven UI/AI. Also, a wee bit of follow-up on our post-election November 9 Holiday Party.