Discussion
Lil Finder Guy
behnamoh: Honestly, who cares about anything AI-related that Apple does? Their head of MLX team just quit after months of threatening to leave due to MLX not being Apple's priority. Their Siri is a joke even Samsung Bixby works better than that. They switch between AI providers (OpenAI → Google) like you can "just change the LLM bro", and their M-series hardware is held back by lack of quality software and compute despite people literally begging them to improve it.
neom: I learned about apples tiktok via this post and I must confess as an old person, in terms of brands reaching young people, I find the content pretty cool: https://www.tiktok.com/@apple
Waterluvian: I think what makes them work (for me too!) is that they're not simply random for the sake of being random. They're a oddball but there's clearly a shared theme/style and they're well-executed.I'm not sure I'm interested in anything they're selling, but after what felt like 15 years of "young California hipster", I think this style catches my attention at least somewhat.
GaryBluto: It's saddening to me how the all the Mac OS X icons have slowly lost their definition and uniqueness over the years - this twee figurine is just the cherry on the excrement sundae.
borski: > They switch between AI providers (OpenAI → Google) like you can "just change the LLM bro"You can. They’re not the same, but you can absolutely “just switch the LLM, bro,” and most consumers would never notice a difference.As for the rest: this is about the future, not the present. All of your comments about the present are thus not particularly relevant, imho.
CompoundEyes: I do wonder — what has Siri being bad truly cost them over the years? It’s been a running joke but how many people skip buying their products because of it? It’s 15+ years on and maybe in only the last year plausible to replace with an LLM model that would deliver on people’s expectations of next gen. Will Apple products enjoy a massive uptick in sales if Siri were modernized?I was driving through Selma, AL last year and had ChatGPT in voice mode give me a tour of civil rights landmarks live. That felt like the future.
MBCook: Give the response this has had in the Mac community I really hope they’re smart enough to release a little playset.It would be great merch. I know that’s not really an Apple thing but make an exception.Tim Cook loves grubbing money.
behnamoh: > You can. They’re not the same, but you can absolutely “just switch the LLM, bro,” and most consumers would never notice a difference.Tell me you've never built a serious LLM app without telling me...Each LLM has its own quirks; you can't just switch the models.> As for the rest: this is about the future, not the present. All of your comments about the present are thus not particularly relevant, imho.Wrong. In AI world, you either move fast or let rivals win. This stuff is not about the future; the best time for Apple to position itself as a great AI hardware producer was last year.
borski: I have built plenty. Some of them even make me money.I never said LLMs didn’t have their own quirks. You can mitigate for those quirks.You can just switch the models.It’s just not as simple as a one-line change. But that isn’t what we were talking about.
hrdwdmrbl: Clicked the link hoping for something that might improve Spotlight :/
paradox460: Mr.Macintosh?
latexr: > It doesn't even have the smile crossing both sides.It’s giving me Phantom of the Opera vibes.https://i.imgur.com/pcSbBZc.jpeg
krackers: >I do not think this is the last we’ve seen of Lil Finder Guy…https://www.macrumors.com/guide/siri-chatbot/> Apple is planning to make visual design changes. It's not quite clear what that will entail, but for the upcoming table-top robot that's in the works, Apple has tested an animated version of Siri that looks similar to the Mac's Finder logo.
SpyCoder77: Fingers crossed this is right!
achierius: I can understand your general point, but how can you argue that this in particular isn't unique/cute whatever?
rvnx: 2026: Apple chose the tip of a penis as a mascot.Say hello to your new companion!https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e949a92e17d55...
NetOpWibby: Blank Check, what a wonderful premise.
dangus: Finder guy doesn’t technically make sense without the mouth reaching the side profile face.I.e., only one of the two faces has a mouth.
halapro: If you see penis everywhere that's on you, unfortunately.
halapro: To me this looks 100% like what you used to see on Tumblr. Just pure random art with a theme. The difference is that back then it used to be gifs.
gumby271: Looks like Apple decided they need their own version of the Android mascot. Theirs is definitely a little more unsettling than the little droid guy though.
jcynix: My first thought: a rather strange copy of the en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillsbury_DoughboyGoogle's Android robot has a much better design, IMHO. And I remember the Amazon box version of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danbo_(character) and Arielle Nadel's photo stories "365 Days of Danbo" with it. Can't imagine that with the Apple Dough boy..
canucker2016: Android mascot is known as bugdroid - see https://www.androidpolice.com/every-android-bugdroid-ever/The shape of the bugdroid changed a couple of years ago - arms became asymmetric - narrow near the shoulder, widening at the hand, among other changes.
krackers: I remember reading somewhere that to target gen-z/alpha advertising shouldn't be direct or in your face but instead present things in an "organic" way that makes it seem cool, without the appearance of trying too hard to sell you something.I guess the target audience they're going for is people who already have iPhones/iPads but would have bought a chromebook for school instead. This seems to be a reversal from their previous "what's a computer"-style ads that tried to sell iPads as the replacement for personal computing.
steve_adams_86: Have you tried raycast? I haven't looked back in years.
leoh: Or maybe you’re just in Bhutanhttps://explorepartsunknown.com/bhutan/photo-essay-bhutans-p...
