In the December 2025 edition of Apple Crunch, hosts Thomas Domville (AnonyMouse) and John Gassman wrap up the year with a wide-ranging discussion covering AppleVis community awards, Apple’s own App Store recognitions, major Apple hardware and business news, and an accessibility-focused app pick to close out the month.
The episode begins with a deep dive into the AppleVis Golden Apples Awards for 2025. Thomas explains the nomination criteria and selection process before announcing this year’s winners. PixieBot takes top honors as Best App of the Year, praised for its rapid adoption of new AI models and especially its standout video description capabilities. Adventure of Faith earns Best Game of the Year for its fully accessible RPG design and highly engaged developers, while the PixieBot developer is recognized as Best Developer of the Year for consistent community involvement and innovation. The prestigious David Goodwin Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Aira, recognizing its long-standing global impact in providing visual assistance to blind and low-vision users. Runner-ups across categories, including Ally, InnerSearch AI, Art of Fauna, Land of Livia, and Weather Gods, are also discussed in detail.
From there, the conversation shifts to Apple’s own 2025 App Store Awards, focusing on the Cultural Impact category. Art of Fauna and Be My Eyes are highlighted as winners, with discussion around why Apple may have chosen to spotlight these apps as examples of accessibility, inclusion, and broader social awareness.
The second half of the show turns to Apple news and rumors. Thomas and John examine troubling reports about the iPhone Air, including its dramatic 47 percent resale value drop within ten weeks and what that says about consumer demand and pricing strategy. They also revisit ongoing rumors surrounding the iPhone Fold, expressing skepticism about its rumored $2,400 price point and questioning whether it risks becoming another niche, luxury product. The Vision Pro receives similar scrutiny, with discussion of sharply reduced marketing, low unit sales, and signs that Apple may already be shifting focus away from the headset.
This leads into a broader conversation about Apple’s leadership, including rumors that Tim Cook may step down. While acknowledging his many successes—particularly Apple silicon—the hosts debate whether recent missteps in AI, hardware pricing, and product strategy signal that Apple may be ready for a new era.
The episode concludes with AnonyMouse’s App Pick for December 2025: Mona 7 for Mastodon. Thomas discusses Mona’s long history as a highly accessible social networking client, the mixed community reaction to its move to a subscription model, and why it remains a strong option despite controversy.
Hosted By
Thomas Domville (AnonyMouse) John Gassman
Crunchy Topics
Golden Apples Spotlight — Celebrating Accessibility Excellence Apple’s Cultural Impact Awards Apple News Bytes and Rumors Leadership Shift — Is Tim Cook Nearing the Exit AnonyMouse App Pick of the Month
Resources
Golden Apples Spotlight — Celebrating Accessibility Excellence
AppleVis Announces Winners of the 2025 Golden Apple Awards https://applevis.com/blog/applevis-announces-winners-2025-golden-apple-awards
Apple’s Cultural Impact Awards
Art of Fauna and Be My Eyes Win 2025 Apple App Store Awards for Their Cultural Impact https://applevis.com/blog/art-fauna-be-my-eyes-win-2025-apple-app-store-awards-their-cultural-impact
Apple Unveils the Winners of the 2025 App Store Awards https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/12/apple-unveils-the-winners-of-the-2025-app-store-awards/
Apple News Bytes and Rumors
Freefalling: iPhone Air Resale Value Plummets 47% https://www.idropnews.com/news/iphone-air-resale-value-plummets/256421/
Supply Chain Report Claims Apple Is Preparing for Strong iPhone Fold Demand https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/12/09/supply-chain-report-claims-apple-is-preparing-for-strong-iphone-fold-demand
Is Apple Giving Up on the Vision Pro? https://www.idropnews.com/opinion/is-apple-giving-up-vision-pro/257796/
Leadership Shift — Is Tim Cook Leaving This Year?
Are We Nearing the End of Apple’s Tim Cook Era? https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/16/are-we-nearing-the-end-of-apples-tim-cook-era/
AnonyMouse App Pick of the Month
Mona 7 for Mastodon https://applevis.com/apps/ios/social-networking/mona-7-mastodon
Contact
Questions, suggestions, or thoughts? Reach out to us at AppleCrunch@AppleVis.com
Transcript
Disclaimer: This transcript was generated by AI Note Taker – VoicePen, an AI-powered transcription app. It is not edited or formatted, and it may not accurately capture the speakers’ names, voices, or content.
Thomas:Hello and welcome to Apple Crunch for December of 2025, where we talk about the latest and greatest in Apple news and rumors. We talk about accessibility and what it means for us and for the community. My name is Thomas Domville, also known as AnonyMouse, along here with my buddy, John Gassman. How are you, John?
John:I'm doing good. Good. And I'm sure you are, too. It's another month, another AppleVis podcast, so we get a chance to talk about accessibility again.
Thomas:It's the same old thing, right? It's just the same routine, but different type of news. But I'm here with John today, and Desiree was unable to attend today, so it's just going to be me and John today. So, in December, we had the usual annual tradition in AppleVis. We had the AppleVis Golden Apples Award for 2025.
Thomas:Kind of give you a little background story of what that means is that this is the time that we like to reward or award people and developers and games that made a hit or was pretty successful in the blind community for 2025. So we go out and recognize those apps and developers and not.
Thomas:And some of those requirements and a lot of people ask, what are the requirements that you see those nominees and the Golden Apples Award? And that's a great question. As what we look for are apps that are new. So they're brand new apps for that year, and they made a difference in the blind community. They get slotted into possible nominees. And then if you got any existing app that's already been around for a while, they receive some major updates.
Thomas:So let's take an example of Seeing AI. Now, that's an awesome app, I think a lot of us would say. Now, you would think that would be part of the Golden Award. It does not, because with Seeing AI, it's not a brand new app. It's been around for a number of years, but it has not received anything major this year, so that's why it didn't get nominated. However, we have things like Pixie Bot, which came out last year, but it received some major updates, and that's why you saw that nominee.
Thomas:We come up with these possible nominees. And then we have AppleVis committees. They are a set of people all across the blind community to help us kind of fine line and come up with a final list of nominees. So with that said and done, let's talk about this year's winner. All right. Well, it kind of was surprising to me, John. So for the best app of the year was PixieBot.
Thomas:Now, I absolutely love Pixie Bot. Do you have Pixie Bot? Do you own them?
John:I think I downloaded it. I haven't used it very much yet. I probably should. But there are so many other apps that do the same thing. You know, that's probably why I have not really spent a lot of time with it.
Thomas:I get it. And you make a very good point. And I think a lot of people are probably in your boat, and I really need to do a podcast on PixieBot, so I'll put that down as a note. I will try to do that soon and try to show people why PixieBot won and why I think it is the best of the year. PixieBot, yeah, you're right. There are a ton of different AIs that will describe images to you.
Thomas:So Be My Eyes is probably the most popular one out there for a lot of you that need an image described to you. So why do I want to use PixieBot? There's a couple of reasons, and it's not going to be for everybody. If you're happy with Be My Eyes or Aira AI or Ally AI that describe images for you, that's fantastic.
Thomas:What it does different, John, is that it gives you different AIs to choose from, so different models. So, for example, Be My Eyes uses ChatGPT, OpenAI, and there's different models within ChatGPT. So sometimes Be My Eyes can be kind of behind on the models. So let's just say OpenAI just came out with 5.2. So it's not on Be My Eyes quite yet.
Thomas:Sometimes it takes a few months before it comes across. But PixieBot will typically get it within a day or two after they release the new version. So you get the newest, latest AI immediately on PixieBot. And then I can choose from Gemini. There's Grok in there. There's a ton of other AI models, and you can change them. But I think the most go-to that I use PixieBot, and I use this a lot, is describing video.
Thomas:That is where the magic lives is in PixieBot is the video description. And I get a lot of Disney YouTube, and most of the time it's just a lot of music, and you can hear characters talk and stuff like that, but you don't know what's going on in the video. So I'll have it described to me, and it's beautiful. It's gorgeous. It does a fantastic job of describing it. And then, of course, if I want to describe images, you can use different models that might give you a little bit different results.
Thomas:So that's why I love PixieBot a lot. Now, I will admit to you, John, I was surprised because Ally was on that list and it wasn't the winner. Isn't that surprising? Or do you think it may not be the best of the best?
John:I think there's still some work to do with it. Some development. I mean, it's pretty good, but it may be that PixieBot is further along. You know, we'll have to see. But I got a video just the other day from one of my relatives, and there was nothing on it but music and a few sounds. So maybe what I'll do is go get PixieBot and try and have it described to me and see what it comes up with.
Thomas:That's a fantastic point, and I've gotten that too. So anytime family sends video, I get tons of family video that does not describe it to me, but the PixieBot will. See, I think it's just some few unknown things. Of course, it might be a cost thing too because it's not free, so you do have to pay. So I get that. But as for Ally not making it, yeah, it does make you wonder.
Thomas:If Ally didn't get the top notch because it's still kind of in the works. So maybe next year if they come out with some new major releases for Ally and it becomes another nominee, it might have a chance to be better. But, you know, as much mixed results I've seen on the website, it makes me wonder if they're getting kind of a bad rap because of the Solo glasses, even though this is an app itself. I think the app itself is great.
Thomas:I just, you know, that's a different story than trying to talk about the Solo itself. And it does have some issues. But, you know, Ally came in runner-up. So it did come up. So runner-up is InnerSearch AI, which those aren't familiar with that. That's the shopping that helps the blind community to shop online easily. So that was runner up number two and runner up number three was Ally.
Thomas:So Ally was still in the top three.
John:So I still think there's one component still not in Ally and they're talking about bringing it in. And that's the live video. I think once that happens, a lot of people will take another look at it and we'll see what happens from there on. I think having the live video with glasses like some like Echo Vision has is a major major point and that's frankly what a lot of people did when they had to choose between the two they went to Echo Vision because it already had live video so we'll see what happens I mean I think they'll both do very well once that component is involved but you know that's for the future.
John:And I like InnerSearch. I've really only played with it on the web. I've got the app, but I haven't fooled with it too much on the phone, and I probably should just to kind of compare how well it works on the phone versus the web. I would hope it would work the same.
Thomas:Right. Right. No, I agree with you. And I think it's under the radar a lot of people. They've heard of it, but they never really used it. And I get it. I mean, I'm an Amazon Prime user myself. And so it doesn't really utilize my Prime. And that's kind of the key reason why I don't use it, because I don't get that two days delivery and stuff like that.
Thomas:If I didn't have Prime, I think I definitely would use it. So you've got that kind of a cultural thing that we've gotten so used to that now we've got something new that would help us. So it's one of those underrated apps. And so it's good to see that it came up in the top three. But those are the top three really good ones.
John:I use it more for airplane searches, air flights, rather than shopping because I can do okay on Amazon accessibility wise for shopping, but some of the airfare websites, they are hit and miss with regard to accessibility, so I always try and price stuff out with the InnerSearch version of flights and then if I can continue on and make the reservation I will and if not I can always get some help so I like the air flight portion of that even more than the shopping even though the shopping is nice as well.
Thomas:I totally agree and I think a lot of people may not be aware of that. Our Amazon experience is good. It's not awesome, but it's good. It's well enough that I can do on my own. But that flight, yeah, you're right. That's a whole different game. And this does make things way simpler. And with that said, I think, again, it's just underrated. I think more people need to take aware of that. Who knows? Maybe I need to do a podcast on that app to just show its potential.
Thomas:It's not for everybody, just like PixieBot isn't either. But it's good. It's all good.
Thomas:And our next category, and I know you're not a gamer themselves, so we'll just kind of go through here. I'll kind of give you my two cents as I have played with all these particular games. So, the big winner for this year is Adventure of Faith. They have been around for years, and they released two games last year, the Core Quest and Dungeon.
Thomas:Dungeon is probably the bigger one of the two, which came out in November, and rightfully deserve day one. It just really goes back to the developers themselves. It may not be the game that I would choose as in I want to play each day, but I'm picking the app because the developers is on the site. It listened to the people.
Thomas:It not only listened to people, but it gets comments and feedback and it's active on AppleVis. So that is always going to give kudos to them by me. I'm like okay they're active on AppleVis and then two the games are totally accessible. They think about accessibility from the ground up instead of reverse. It's not a bad thing that you come to it in the end and make it more accessible, it's just a thought, but it's more of experience.
Thomas:Rightfully is a wonderful game, great sounds, great sound effects. It's a very difficult game, but that's what makes it fun to use. So if you like those kind of RPG games, that is definitely worth a look and worth the price to download.
Thomas:Some runner-ups for this category that were in the top three, which I am very happy to see, is Art of Fauna. We had the developer back in June. He won the WWDC recognition for his game. So I was so excited to see that he was a runner-up on Apple's Best Game of the Year.
Thomas:I still give Adventure of Faith just a little edge up because Art of Fauna is a very simple game. So you've got a puzzle. You have a sentence, but it's broken up in pieces. So you've got to figure out and rearrange the sentence to make it the right way of reading the sentence. Once you piece it together, it tells you about the art behind that sentence.
Thomas:So third runner-up is Land of Livia. Now that is my most favorite game of last year. That is definitely my cup of tea. It's at my pace. I absolutely love that game. I definitely have to do a podcast on Land of Livia.
Thomas:Got any comments on that?
John:I've never played them, only just because games just aren't for me. But I know a lot of people enjoy them, and I think that's great. So I don't really have anything to comment on not being familiar with them.
Thomas:And that's okay. Now we'll get to the third category, which is the best developer of the year. It doesn't surprise me. More times than not, whoever wins the best app typically will win the developer of the year.
Thomas:Of course, the developer of PixieBot won the best developer of the year. And as I mentioned in the best app, this is rightfully deserved because he is very active on the site and it is something we can all relate and use on an everyday basis.
Thomas:Runner-up was Access On for the Eleven Labs Reader. They made a huge announcement working with Eleven Labs to make their apps accessible and offering a high-tier subscription. Third runner-up was the developers of Adventure of Faith.
Thomas:The last category is the David Goodwin Award, a lifetime achievement award. This year it went to Aira. This did not surprise me at all. Aira has made a worldwide difference for many blind users and deserves to be recognized.
John:Yeah, I use Aira a lot of times for the five-minute free calls, but there are times when I need it for a lot more than that. So I have a subscription plan, and it’s worth it for me.
Thomas:And I think that's why it deserves the award. It’s professional, reliable, and helps people in difficult situations like airports and stores.
John:Everybody has to make their own decisions as to what they're going to pay for.
Thomas:Exactly. Some of the runner-ups included Adventure of Faith and Weather Gods. Weather Gods is a very robust weather app with a complex subscription model but offers incredible detail.
Thomas:That pretty much wraps up the Golden Apples of 2025. I think it went really well and the winners deserved it.
Thomas:Apple also released their App Store Awards, and the cultural impact winners included Art of Fauna and Be My Eyes. I was surprised to see Be My Eyes since it's been around for years, but it makes sense as awareness.
Thomas:Now onto Apple news. We followed up on the iPhone Air. Unfortunately, resale value is terrible. It depreciated 47% in ten weeks, which is far worse than other iPhones.
John:I really wonder if we got too many phones and with the expense being what it is, people have to make choices.
Thomas:Exactly. And it continues to drop. People just don’t want it at the original price.
Thomas:Now we move to the iPhone Fold. Rumors say it could cost $2,400. I don’t think it will sell well.
John:I think even now phones are at the top of what people are willing to pay.
Thomas:Apple is also scaling back Vision Pro marketing. They only sold about 390,000 units, which is very low for Apple standards.
John:That’s astonishingly low.
Thomas:Compared to AirPods and Apple Watch revenue, Vision Pro barely made a dent. It feels like Apple is drifting toward luxury niche products.
Thomas:That brings us to rumors that Tim Cook may step down. I think he did great work, especially with Apple silicon, but recent decisions haven’t landed well.
John:It may be time. Leadership changes happen when ideas stop resonating.
Thomas:Finally, my AnonyMouse app pick of the month is Mona 7. It’s a fantastic Mastodon client, but it has moved to a subscription model, which disappointed some users.
John:I’m still using Mona Classic, but I’ll have to see if 7 offers enough value.
Thomas:I suspect Mona Classic will eventually be phased out. For now, Mona 7 is still an excellent app.
Thomas:That’s going to do it for December. There’s a lot to look forward to in 2026, including CSUN, new iPhones, and hopefully Apple Glasses and better AI.
John:Looking forward to it.
Thomas:Thank you again, John, for joining me. This has been Apple Crunch for December 2025. My name is Thomas Domville, also known as AnonyMouse, along here with John Gassman. Have a wonderful 2025, and we’ll see you in 2026. Bye-bye, everybody.