Apple’s new M5 chip is impressive, but raises some questions about contextual Siri.
I’m a bit behind with the news and with my thoughts on all things Apple, but I think the new M5 chip and future Pro and Max chips will be a cut off point for AI features. The marketing for this chip and its AI capabilities are beyond anything else Apple has ever released:
Just a teaser from their full Newsroom article:
A Next-Generation GPU Architecture Optimized for AI and Graphics
With the next-generation GPU architecture in M5, every compute block of the chip is optimized for AI. The 10-core GPU features a dedicated Neural Accelerator in each core, delivering over 4x peak GPU compute compared to M4, and over 6x peak GPU compute for AI performance compared to M1.1 And now with M5, the new 14-inch MacBook Pro and iPad Pro benefit from dramatically accelerated processing for AI-driven workflows, such as running diffusion models in apps like Draw Things, or running large language models locally using platforms like webAI.
Apple is still working on the new contextual version of Siri that allegedly can pull information from multiple apps to give you a proper answer to the hallmark question - “When is Mom’s flight landing,” and I think older hardware that was promised this feature will have significantly reduced performance.
The Catch-22 is, Apple has always been about top-notch performance and would axe features on older devices if they performed poorly, so that begs the question (or questions):
Will the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 line of devices even get contextual Siri? Will it have the hardware guts to truly support it without feeling slow and broken? Which Macs will receive the new contextual Siri? Surely an M1 with 8GB of RAM can’t spit out contextual Siri’s answers fast enough to satisfy Apple and even consumers?
Currently, only iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air have 12 GB of RAM, and all iPhone 16 devices and the 15 Pro devices have 8GB of RAM. Next year’s iPhone 18 lineup is rumored to have 12GB of RAM across the lineup to fully support what I would call “Apple Intelligence 2.0” (via MacRumors):
With its latest iPhone lineup, the iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max feature 12GB of memory. This is a significant increase of 4GB more their predecessors, largely driven by the demands of on-device artificial intelligence processing.
The iPhone 17 is the only new model to continue to feature 8GB of memory. It looks like that will change with the iPhone 18, with Apple reportedly seeking memory parity across all four models.
At this point we won’t get contextual Siri until WWDC 2026, which means it will release with iOS 27 in September 2026 along with the new iPhone 18 lineup.
I’m a bit behind with the news and with my thoughts on all things Apple, but I think the new M5 chip and future Pro and Max chips will be a cut off point for AI features. The marketing for this chip and its AI capabilities are beyond anything else Apple has ever released:
Just a teaser from their full Newsroom article:
A Next-Generation GPU Architecture Optimized for AI and Graphics
With the next-generation GPU architecture in M5, every compute block of the chip is optimized for AI. The 10-core GPU features a dedicated Neural Accelerator in each core, delivering over 4x peak GPU compute compared to M4, and over 6x peak GPU compute for AI performance compared to M1.1 And now with M5, the new 14-inch MacBook Pro and iPad Pro benefit from dramatically accelerated processing for AI-driven workflows, such as running diffusion models in apps like Draw Things, or running large language models locally using platforms like webAI.
Apple is still working on the new contextual version of Siri that allegedly can pull information from multiple apps to give you a proper answer to the hallmark question - “When is Mom’s flight landing,” and I think older hardware that was promised this feature will have significantly reduced performance.
The Catch-22 is, Apple has always been about top-notch performance and would axe features on older devices if they performed poorly, so that begs the question (or questions):
Will the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 line of devices even get contextual Siri? Will it have the hardware guts to truly support it without feeling slow and broken? Which Macs will receive the new contextual Siri? Surely an M1 with 8GB of RAM can’t spit out contextual Siri’s answers fast enough to satisfy Apple and even consumers?
Currently, only iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air have 12 GB of RAM, and all iPhone 16 devices and the 15 Pro devices have 8GB of RAM. Next year’s iPhone 18 lineup is rumored to have 12GB of RAM across the lineup to fully support what I would call “Apple Intelligence 2.0” (via MacRumors):
With its latest iPhone lineup, the iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max feature 12GB of memory. This is a significant increase of 4GB more their predecessors, largely driven by the demands of on-device artificial intelligence processing.
The iPhone 17 is the only new model to continue to feature 8GB of memory. It looks like that will change with the iPhone 18, with Apple reportedly seeking memory parity across all four models.
At this point we won’t get contextual Siri until WWDC 2026, which means it will release with iOS 27 in September 2026 along with the new iPhone 18 lineup.
Siri sucks, but AirTags rock.
After seeing Siri’s failings getting miserably worse and worse from both John Gruber and Paul Kafasis, I found some hope for all you Apple fans out there. Even though Siri is still “doomed,” Apple’s AirTags are still the best trackers in the world.
Rita El Khoury from Android Authority did a comparison of AirTags versus Google’s AirTag competitors, and the AirTag was the hands-down winner of all the different tests she threw at them. Mind you this test was conducted in multiple countries, none of them being the United States, where Apple might be accused of having an unfair advantage.
Her quick summary in the beginning gives you the TLDR, but I suggest you give it a full read.
I’ve been testing Chipolo and Pebblebee’s Google-compatible trackers ever since Google first launched its Find My Device network in May 2024. For eight months now, I’ve lugged them around, plus a bunch of their competitors, on every flight, train ride, outing, and activity, hoping to find the absolute best Bluetooth tracker out there. What started as a fun exercise of, “Hey, let me see if I can track my husband through a busy area in Paris,” quickly turned into a nightmare because of the sheer logistics of testing these.
I often had at least two or three phones in my pocket — sometimes four — with a bunch of testing scenarios, features to check, and environments to test in. I also had to enlist my husband’s help very often because I had to be physically separated from the “lost” item without losing it for real. Overall, I’ve tried these trackers in the UK, France, UAE, Lebanon, Belgium, Albania, Italy, and Portugal. When all was said and done, I had to comb through over 150 screenshots and dozens of videos. I’ve also delayed this article time and again because I wanted to give Google more time to roll out its network and redeem its disappointing performance. But time’s running out, and if there’s one verdict you need to know, it’s this:
Under absolutely no circumstance should you rely on Google's Find My Device network... just yet.
After seeing Siri’s failings getting miserably worse and worse from both John Gruber and Paul Kafasis, I found some hope for all you Apple fans out there. Even though Siri is still “doomed,” Apple’s AirTags are still the best trackers in the world.
Rita El Khoury from Android Authority did a comparison of AirTags versus Google’s AirTag competitors, and the AirTag was the hands-down winner of all the different tests she threw at them. Mind you this test was conducted in multiple countries, none of them being the United States, where Apple might be accused of having an unfair advantage.
Her quick summary in the beginning gives you the TLDR, but I suggest you give it a full read.
I’ve been testing Chipolo and Pebblebee’s Google-compatible trackers ever since Google first launched its Find My Device network in May 2024. For eight months now, I’ve lugged them around, plus a bunch of their competitors, on every flight, train ride, outing, and activity, hoping to find the absolute best Bluetooth tracker out there. What started as a fun exercise of, “Hey, let me see if I can track my husband through a busy area in Paris,” quickly turned into a nightmare because of the sheer logistics of testing these.
I often had at least two or three phones in my pocket — sometimes four — with a bunch of testing scenarios, features to check, and environments to test in. I also had to enlist my husband’s help very often because I had to be physically separated from the “lost” item without losing it for real. Overall, I’ve tried these trackers in the UK, France, UAE, Lebanon, Belgium, Albania, Italy, and Portugal. When all was said and done, I had to comb through over 150 screenshots and dozens of videos. I’ve also delayed this article time and again because I wanted to give Google more time to roll out its network and redeem its disappointing performance. But time’s running out, and if there’s one verdict you need to know, it’s this:
Under absolutely no circumstance should you rely on Google's Find My Device network... just yet.