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Profile of Apple's Eddy Cue, Who Oversees Company's Internet Software and Services (theinformation.com)
The Information (paywalled) reports: In 2012, Mr. Cue took on even more responsibility when Mr. Cook fired Scott Forstall, then a senior vice president of the iOS software powering iPhones. Mr. Forstall had overseen the launch of Apple Maps, which was panned due to misplaced landmarks, distorted satellite images and other problems. With Mr. Forstall gone, Mr. Cue took over Apple Maps and Siri, the intelligent assistant that launched as a major feature of the iPhone 4S the prior year. From the moment he gained responsibility for Siri, Mr. Cue seemed to lack much interest in it, according to people who worked on the project. When Siri team members presented Mr. Cue with technical data around the performance of the assistant -- an area of frequent criticism of the technology -- Mr. Cue appeared bored and seemed to fall asleep in at least two meetings, said a former Apple employee who was present.
[...] One obstacle for Mr. Cue, in his meetings with television executives, was that he didn't encounter the kind of desperation that made it possible for Apple to sign all the major record labels, then being ravaged by piracy, to iTunes. Cord-cutting -- people dumping their cable and satellite subscriptions -- had not yet emerged as a problem. "Apple kept wanting to use the same playbook, and it's not going to work in the video world," said a former Apple executive who worked on video. Around four years ago, Mr. Cue oversaw development of a version of Apple TV that could integrate with cable services, with the goal of replacing set-top boxes distributed by the likes of Comcast and Time Warner Cable, said a former Apple employee. The Apple TV box -- with a coaxial cable port for plugging into cable networks and software to handle the combination of live and on-demand video -- never launched due to disagreements with the potential cable partners. Apple engineers involved in the product were dispirited, said a former employee. A non-paywalled source.
[...] One obstacle for Mr. Cue, in his meetings with television executives, was that he didn't encounter the kind of desperation that made it possible for Apple to sign all the major record labels, then being ravaged by piracy, to iTunes. Cord-cutting -- people dumping their cable and satellite subscriptions -- had not yet emerged as a problem. "Apple kept wanting to use the same playbook, and it's not going to work in the video world," said a former Apple executive who worked on video. Around four years ago, Mr. Cue oversaw development of a version of Apple TV that could integrate with cable services, with the goal of replacing set-top boxes distributed by the likes of Comcast and Time Warner Cable, said a former Apple employee. The Apple TV box -- with a coaxial cable port for plugging into cable networks and software to handle the combination of live and on-demand video -- never launched due to disagreements with the potential cable partners. Apple engineers involved in the product were dispirited, said a former employee. A non-paywalled source.
And that's exactly how I feel about Siri. I live in a small town where there's basically no internet-connected businesses (i.e. no Uber, for example), the only useful thing on my iPhone is Google Maps for when I go to another town or city.
You forgot those stupid "active-wear earbuds" they sell. Those are the domain of your basic white hipster asshole. They let them virtue-signal about how not-racist they are by wearing the "inner city earbuds" but also show off how they're willing to spend $250 on earbuds they only need because their $1000 phone doesn't have a fucking headphone jack.