AppStories - Ep. 494 - 48 minutes

All About Siri AI

This week, on AppStories, Federico and John look at what Siri AI is good at, where it needs improvement, and where it might be heading.

On AppStories+, the conversation expands to Federico and John’s experiences with the betas of macOS Golden Gate, iOS 27, and iPadOS 27.

Also available on YouTube here.

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AppStories Episode 494 - All About Siri AI

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Siri AI and Apple’s Trickle-Up Strategy

By Federico Viticci

The new Siri AI in iOS 27.

In the month that I’ve been using iOS 27 (launching in public beta today) and the new Siri AI, I’ve come to a few conclusions: Siri AI is a much better Siri and will (probably) be a massive success; the newfound chatbot capabilities of Siri will pose a serious threat to OpenAI and the vast majority of free ChatGPT users they have; and the new Siri is (again, probably) not for me at the moment. At the very least, it can’t be right now given its lack of support for third-party apps and technical issues I’ve encountered during beta testing.

It took me a while to accept the fact that Siri AI can’t be the kind of AI assistant I’d spend hours working with every day. But after testing iOS 27’s new Siri experience every day (and breaking it often in the process), I think that’s okay – and, arguably, what Apple is shooting for at the moment.

The new Siri AI is not designed for people who have grown accustomed to working with frontier models and agents such as Claude Code and Codex. The first version of Siri AI can’t be considered an “agent”, nor can it be compared to products from Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google that are targeting power users living at the bleeding edge of AI. If you go into Siri AI thinking that it’s Apple’s answer to ChatGPT Work or Claude Cowork for long-running tasks or deep research queries, you’re going to be disappointed – like I initially was.

Instead, Siri AI carries all the typical traits of a new Apple product: it’s a user-friendly experience designed for the masses, without any of the complexities that define a power-user tool, for better or worse. This is how Apple rolls: they don’t start from a high power-user ceiling and let products trickle down to consumers; they always start from the consumer level and refine, iterate, and extend until products trickle up to power users. This perspective isn’t meant to excuse the (many) current flaws of Siri AI. (More on them below.) It’s just the necessary lens for understanding how Apple is addressing their AI shortcomings in a way that doesn’t betray the company’s soul and design ethos.

There will be plenty more to say about iOS 27, the improved Shortcuts app, Liquid Glass tweaks, and other system enhancements later this year. After all, I have a review to write. Today’s column is merely an opportunity for me to reason through the obstacles I’ve faced with Siri AI and the way I’ve had to re-learn how to think about Siri.

AppStories - Ep. 493 - 52 minutes

Fable 5 and OpenAI’s Curious ChatGPT Update

John

Federico

This week on AppStories, Federico and John look at our experiences with Claude Fable 5 and how they differ from other models and break down the controversial changes made by OpenAI to its Mac’s ChatGPT app.

Then on AppStories+, John and Federico contrast their experiences with Fable 5 and OpenAI’s new family of GPT 5.6 models.

Also available on YouTube here or download the transcript here.

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AppStories Episode 493 - Fable 5 and OpenAI’s Curious ChatGPT Update

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AppStories - Ep. 492 - 44 minutes

Email Survival Guide

John

Federico

This week on AppStories, Federico and John talk about the 10+ email apps they’ve used over the years and how their strategies for dealing with recent spikes in email volume has caused them to change their approaches.

On AppStories+, Federico and John update listeners on their summertime agentic coding projects.

Also available on YouTube here.

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AppStories Episode 492 - Email Survival Guide

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Safari’s New MCP Server Is Great for Agents →

Linked By Federico Viticci

Saron Yitbarek, writing on the WebKit blog:

In Safari Technology Preview 247, we’re introducing the Safari MCP server — a Model Context Protocol server for web developers that makes your web development and debugging workflow faster and more powerful. We know agents are increasingly integral to the coding process and the Safari MCP server gives your agent the ability to know how your code actually renders in the browser by connecting it to a Safari browser window.

Any MCP-compatible client can connect to the Safari MCP server. By connecting your agent to a Safari browser window, your agent can emulate what your users experience, giving it the information it needs to debug more autonomously, like access to the DOM, network requests, screenshots, and console output.

Importantly:

The Safari MCP server runs entirely on your local machine and makes no network calls of its own. It also does not have access to your personal information in Safari (e.g. AutoFill or other browser activity). When it captures page content, screenshots, or console logs, that data goes directly to the agent you’re running — not to Apple. What happens to that data from there depends on the agent and model you’re using. As with any agent you give access to your browser, only use ones you trust.

For the past few months, I’ve been using Google Chrome on my MacBook Pro and Mac Studio not because I like the browser (in fact, I really dislike Chrome’s text rendering and UI), but simply because it was the best option for agents. In Codex specifically, between Playwright, Chrome Dev Tools, and OpenAI’s own Chrome extension, I could kick off research tasks (such as vacation planning and booking a hotel) that involved a browser directly from my iPhone, letting Codex drive the research on my remote Mac.

Safari in Codex.

Now, thanks to Safari’s new MCP server, I no longer have to use Chrome on desktop and can return to a unified browser setup across all my devices. Even better: it actually looks like Apple shipped the most ergonomic browser MCP for agents to date. The MCP server has dedicated tools for page extraction (including getting webpages as Markdown, based on WebKit’s own conversion pipeline), evaluating JavaScript, DOM interactions (clicking, scrolling, resizing the viewport for mobile screens, etc.), taking screenshots, and more. I set this up immediately in Codex, and I also asked Codex about comparing Safari’s MCP to its own Chrome extension and the older Playwright. The verdict: although Chrome has a richer API with Chrome Dev Tools when it comes to network requests, Codex actually preferred Apple’s leaner, more direct approach for letting an agent drive and debug a browser.

I’m really happy to see folks at Apple embrace agentic tools: between the new MCP capabilities of Xcode and now this, it looks like Apple’s software (on the Mac, of course) is becoming more and more approachable by people who are working in new ways thanks to agents. Whether you’re a web developer or tinkerer, I highly recommend checking out what Apple has released in Safari Technology Preview. More of this, please.

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Headless Macs and Hamstrung iPads

By Federico Viticci

My Codex setup.

In the current era of coding agents becoming productivity assistants, iPadOS’ limitations are no longer defined by the lack of desktop-class multitasking or access to external peripherals. A new class of iPadOS shortcomings looms large on the horizon: the iPad’s app sandboxing and the absence of an open filesystem have relegated it to acting as a remote control for agents.

AppStories - Ep. 491 - 44 minutes

Are AI Aggregators Worth It?

Federico

John

This week on AppStories, Federico and John talk about the state of AI aggregator apps and their future prospects before checking in on their current AI app setups for the AppStories+ post-show.

Also available on YouTube here.

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AppStories Episode 491 - Are AI Aggregators Worth It?

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43:58

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Testing Raycast AI vs. Siri AI on iOS

By Federico Viticci

As I’ve mentioned on AppStories, Connected, and Mastodon over the past week, I haven’t had a great experience with Siri AI yet. I can access Siri AI from Italy thanks to a combination of region settings and my American Apple Account; while I do have the new app, several functionalities are broken for me at...

AppStories - Ep. 490 - 48 minutes

WWDC Debrief

John

Federico

This week on AppStories, John and Federico are back home and reflect on all the WWDC announcements, including Siri AI, Apple Intelligence, design changes, developer tools, and more.

On AppStories+, we check in on our research setups and how they fared at WWDC.

Also available on YouTube here.

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AppStories Episode 490 - WWDC Debrief

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47:37

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AppStories+ Deeper into the world of apps

This episode is sponsored by:

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AppStories Episode 494 - All About Siri AI

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AppStories Episode 493 - Fable 5 and OpenAI’s Curious ChatGPT Update

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AppStories Episode 492 - Email Survival Guide

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AppStories Episode 491 - Are AI Aggregators Worth It?

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AppStories Episode 490 - WWDC Debrief

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