Apple picks Gemini to power Siri • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple picks Gemini to power Siri

#551

Post by omnimus » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 10:58 AM UTC

compounding_it wrote: post #524

espadrine wrote: post #519

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counterpoint: iOS’s biggest competitor is Android. They are now effectively funding their competition on a core product interface. I see this as strategically devastating.

Is android really iOSs competition ? I feel like the competition is less android more vendors who use android. Every android phone feels different. Android doesn’t even compete on performance anymore the chips are quite behind. The target audience of the two feels different lately.

Of course android is iOSs competition. android is also 75% of the market that apple surely wants bigger piece of.

Performance? We are many years past the point somebody cared about performance. I am writing this on iphone 11 pro and the experience is almost exactly the same as current iOS.

You know what's not the same? Android became pretty great OS. I recently got older Pixel to see how GrapheneOS works and was surprised about Android (which i havent seen for a decade). iOS on the other hand has recently gone trough with very bad ui redesign for no reason.

Imho the main thing Apple has going for it is that Google is spyware company and Apple is still mainly hardware company. But if Apple decides to pull their users data to gemini… well good luck.

Re: Apple picks Gemini to power Siri

#552

Post by Affric » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 11:00 AM UTC

virgildotcodes wrote: post #544

_fw wrote: post #523

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the person you’re replying to meant MacBooks. They were USB-C exclusively way before Windows machines.

It's funny, I was mad at them for getting rid of magsafe for years, and super excited when they brought it back with the AS macs. Used the cable for a year or two and then decided to simplify my life but just using USB C for everything. I hope they can forgive me for doubting their benevolent wisdom, I promise never to do it again.

Mag safe in the age of goof battery life

Re: Apple picks Gemini to power Siri

#553

Post by GeekyBear » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 11:04 AM UTC

delis-thumbs-7e wrote: post #493

moltopoco wrote: post #473

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They did still overpromise and that should not be the way Apples does things (although it was hardly the first time; the AirPower mat was announced in 2017).

To be fair, all tech companies do this. Sell first, implement later, hype hype hype. Of course we’d like to think Apple was better, but well.. it isn’t.

Google certainly shipped Magic Cue as their tentpole new AI feature on the Pixel 10 despite it not working.

> “The right info, right when you need it.” That’s how Google describes Magic Cue, one of the most prominent new AI features on the Pixel 10 series. Using the power of artificial intelligence, Magic Cue is supposed to automatically suggest helpful info in phone calls, text messages, and other apps without you having to lift a finger.

However, the keyword there is “supposed” to... even when going out of my way to prompt Magic Cue, it either doesn’t work or does so little that I’m amazed Google made as big a deal about the feature as it did.

https://www.androidauthority.com/google-pixel-10-magic-cue-o...

Re: Apple picks Gemini to power Siri

#554

Post by lostlogin » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 11:09 AM UTC

virgildotcodes wrote: post #544

_fw wrote: post #523

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the person you’re replying to meant MacBooks. They were USB-C exclusively way before Windows machines.

It's funny, I was mad at them for getting rid of magsafe for years, and super excited when they brought it back with the AS macs. Used the cable for a year or two and then decided to simplify my life but just using USB C for everything. I hope they can forgive me for doubting their benevolent wisdom, I promise never to do it again.

Fist use of a Macbook Pro and in a sleep addled state I plugged the MagSafe cable into the Mac USB-C end first.

It’s very confusing if you do that and are an idiot.

Re: Apple picks Gemini to power Siri

#555

Post by lostlogin » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 11:14 AM UTC

willtemperley wrote: post #540

espadrine wrote: post #519

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counterpoint: iOS’s biggest competitor is Android. They are now effectively funding their competition on a core product interface. I see this as strategically devastating.

It's strategically devastating because no small number of users choose Apple because they do not trust Google and now they have no choice but to have Google AI on-board their machines. I respect Google's engineering, and I'm aware that fundamental technologies such as Protocol Buffers and FlatBuffers are unavoidably integrated into the software fabric, but this is is avoidable. I'm surprised Google aren't paying Appl…

Siri > off is my default. Presumably I could still do this?

Re: Apple picks Gemini to power Siri

#556

Post by adastra22 » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 11:21 AM UTC

virgildotcodes wrote: post #544

_fw wrote: post #523

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the person you’re replying to meant MacBooks. They were USB-C exclusively way before Windows machines.

It's funny, I was mad at them for getting rid of magsafe for years, and super excited when they brought it back with the AS macs. Used the cable for a year or two and then decided to simplify my life but just using USB C for everything. I hope they can forgive me for doubting their benevolent wisdom, I promise never to do it again.

Same… I love MagSafe and would prefer to use it. I’m always worried about yanking the computer with the USB-C charger in and breaking the cable or the port.

But I have a bunch of USB-C stuff and so when I go to charge my laptop it’s just easier to find that cable and use it.

Re: Apple picks Gemini to power Siri

#557

Post by adastra22 » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 11:26 AM UTC

fragmede wrote: post #455

krferriter wrote: post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, I can't answer that right now. Would you like to click this button which takes what you said and executes it as a Google search in Safari?

Now playing You're Missing, by Bruce Springsteen on Apple Music

Here is Missing by Everything But The Girl on Apple Music

Re: Apple picks Gemini to power Siri

#558

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 11:32 AM UTC

lostlogin wrote: post #555

willtemperley wrote: post #540

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's strategically devastating because no small number of users choose Apple because they do not trust Google and now they have no choice but to have Google AI on-board their machines. I respect Google's engineering, and I'm aware that fundamental technologies such as Protocol Buffers and FlatBuffers are unavoidably integrated into the software fabric, but this is is avoidable. I'm surprised Google aren't paying Appl…

Siri > off is my default. Presumably I could still do this?

[deleted]

Re: Apple picks Gemini to power Siri

#559

Post by roryirvine » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 11:40 AM UTC

matwood wrote: post #546

ffsm8 wrote: post #506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reality is that almost nobody actually wants LLMs in their phones. They're not good enough for that usecase, currently - so almost all interactions make the UX worse, currently. Might change in the future, I'm just taking about today in January 2026

> The reality is that almost nobody actually wants LLMs in their phones. I don’t think that’s true. People just use the LLM apps. What people don’t feel like they need right now is deep LLM integration across the whole OS. IMO, that’s more of just not showing people the killer product yet.

Live translation? Circle to search? All the magic reframing and relighting stuff in the camera app? I don't know how good the Apple equivalents are, but those are all deeply integrated into Android and are used pretty heavily as far as I can see.

I don't often use voice assistants myself, but they're fully conversational these days and several billion times more useful than the old-school Alexa-style stuff with a limited set of integrations.

Re: Apple picks Gemini to power Siri

#560

Post by JumpCrisscross » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 11:44 AM UTC

hnlmorg wrote: post #488

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if there wasn’t a forcing function then “Apple Picks Gemini to Power Siri” wouldn’t be the headline A pair four-trillion dollar companies striking a deal in the hottest technology space since the internet getting headline treatment is not evidence of a forcing function.

Them having bolted on ChatGPT in the ugly way they did is evidence though. Their naff image generation tool (Playground) is further evidence. Apple are definitely panicking. And they should be too.

> Them having bolted on ChatGPT in the ugly way they did is evidence though

That's evidence they forced themselves. Not that there was a forcing function. That's the whole point of the top comment. (Mine.) They rushed where they didn't have to. And I still don't think they need to rush.