The Vergecast AirPods, Touch Bars, and the rest of Tim Cook's legacy
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Apr 24, 2026 
John Gruber, Daring Fireball writer and longtime Apple analyst, joins a lively chat about Tim Cook’s legacy, Apple’s succession plan, John Ternus, and whether the Touch Bar ever had a chance. Then it’s on to Microsoft making Xbox more Xbox again. Plus a wild lightning round with BMW screen chaos, a logo-ready mic, and Meta using employee activity to train AI.
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The Touch Bar Exposed Apple’s New Blind Spot
- The Touch Bar and butterfly keyboard capture a Cook-era pattern of shipping shaky ideas and failing to iterate fast enough.
- John Gruber said the last Touch Bar was basically the first one again, while the bad keyboard survived multiple annual revisions.
John Ternus May Have Saved The Mac Internally
- Apple’s Mac recovery may reflect John Ternus winning the internal fight against treating iPad as the future of all computing.
- John Gruber said influential factions downplayed Mac problems, but Ternus pushed to make the Macintosh better instead of letting it drift.
Apple Hardware Improved While Software Design Slipped
- Post-Jony Ive Apple hardware looks more coherent, while its software design has visibly deteriorated.
- John Gruber said hardware kept improving after Ive left, but macOS Tahoe shows software teams ignoring the Mac’s long-evolved interface nuances.
