Opinion pieces & commentary

It’s more than two years since we first started hearing reports about AirPods with cameras and the latest of these seems to suggest we’re getting relatively close to launch.

There have so far been conflicting reports about the purpose of the cameras, but Bloomberg does now very clearly indicate that it’s to support Apple intelligence features …

For the most part, iPad has dominated the tablet market – and that probably won’t be changing anytime soon. In recent years, though, I think many people have been struggling to come up with reasons to buy a new iPad – especially when the previous generations have been so good. While this likely isn’t a huge problem quite yet, I do think it raises some questions going forward.

This year, Apple is rumored to be doing a code cleanup for iOS 27, as well as overall having a renewed focus for stability and performance – on top of a plethora of Apple Intelligence features. While this on its own sounds good, I think there’s a higher reason for why we should expect an impressively stable release.

Apple’s painfully slow launch of the new Siri has become such a long-running saga, it seems to have all the makings of a movie – though probably not one we will see launch on Apple TV.

The announcement at the start of this year that it will be powered by Google’s Gemini models finally gave us reason for optimism, and the latest Apple AI news could be an equally important development …

Leaker Instant Digital has a decent track record when it comes to iPhones, but their latest post may need to be treated with a certain amount of caution.

They list seven new features we might expect from the 20th anniversary model, but it may be more of a wish list than a leak …

Bloomberg yesterday reported that Apple has been in discussion with both Intel and Samsung regarding future production of its device processors.

The move is said to be motivated by Apple seeking to reduce its reliance on Taiwan’s TSMC as its sole supplier of A-series and M-series chips …

We can argue endlessly about how innovative Apple is as a company, and indeed many people do. Personally, I would argue that some of its greatest innovations have been in the seemingly smallest of features, and AirDrop is one of these.

AirDrop is a really simple and convenient way to move a document from one of our Apple devices to another, as well as to exchange files and information with other iPhone users. The introduction of NameDrop in iOS 17 was a particularly great application of the tech in my view …

The past few days have seen conflicting views from AI companies about the future of smartphones. Perplexity thinks AI will only benefit iPhones, while OpenAI reportedly thinks its own smartphone can render them obsolete.

I would bet very heavily that the OpenAI smartphone will either never materialize or will be a commercial failure, but I still think the attempt is good news for iPhone users …

Former Apple design chief Jony Ive famously prioritized sleek aesthetics over almost everything else, and there was widespread agreement that he sometimes took this a little too far.

However, his long-term vision of the future of the iPhone as a single slab of glass has persisted beyond his tenure, and a new post does seem to present a persuasive view of what we might expect from a 20th Anniversary iPhone next year …

A report yesterday suggested that we may be seeing a succession of Apple Ultra products, including the upcoming folding iPhone and an M6-powered MacBook. So far, of course, we’ve only seen the branding used for an Apple Watch.

It may potentially be pointing to a new tier of Apple products across almost the company’s entire range of devices, and to me that would make sense for both the company and its customers …

While it had long been expected that John Ternus would succeed Tim Cook as Apple’s CEO, a key detail in the transition process shows that the company can still keep things under wraps when it counts. Here’s why.

To put it simply: Apple Silicon is impressively optimized for running local AI models. And the data is clear: people care about this. Mac Studios are widely sold out, and Mac minis are impossible to find. There’s a variety of reasons for this – like OpenClaw and other computer-use agents. But there’s also a group of people buying up high-end Macs with swaths of unified memory, which are incredible for running local LLMs.

While I’m sure Apple appreciates the additional hardware sales, I think they could push this even further – by entering a segment they’ve thus far ignored.

When AirPods Pro 3 initially debuted, I was a little bit hesitant about upgrading. I felt that AirPods Pro 2 were still excellent. On top of that, one of the key features of AirPods Pro 3, Live Translation, was also coming to AirPods Pro 2. However, now that I’ve actually given them a shot – I can genuinely say I was wrong about my pessimism.

The spacesuits worn by the Artemis II crew during their moon mission have a feature completely new to space missions – an iPhone. Each has a pocket containing an iPhone 17 Pro Max.

The iPhone had to pass a whole bank of safety tests in order to be approved for the mission – but that preparation was totally worthwhile …

Last month, Apple acquired a popular Final Cut Pro plugin maker: MotionVFX. It isn’t clear what this acquisition will turn into, but based on the fact that it quickly followed the launch of Apple Creator Studio, it’s highly plausible that Apple will integrate its templates, effects, and other offerings as a perk of Apple Creator Studio.

While that on its own is interesting, I think the implication behind it is far more worth talking about.

I reluctantly accepted last year that the end of the line for the Mac Pro was an inevitability. It had already effectively been replaced by the Mac Studio, and a macOS 26 feature was another nail in its coffin.

Yesterday was a day that had been coming since the first Apple Silicon Mac. I do think it’s the right call, but confess to still being a little sad to see it happen …

Apple unveiled the MacBook Neo earlier this month, and in my opinion – it completely breaks the MacBook lineup as we knew it. If you’re someone who previously bought a MacBook Air, and you don’t need 16GB of RAM for heavier multitasking – why wouldn’t you buy the MacBook Neo now?

In my eyes, the MacBook Neo is just as good of a general purpose laptop as the MacBook Air was, and besides more RAM, a much faster processor (though still a thermally limited one), and a larger display, it doesn’t feel like MacBook Air has much going for it – at least for now. Here’s how I’d improve it.

Meta claimed for years that it was technically challenging to implement end-to-end encryption across Facebook Messenger and Instagram DMs, but back in 2023 said that it had resolved those issues.

Unfortunately, the company has now made a U-turn on Instagram direct messages, and that’s bad news for all of us …

As someone who bought my first Mac in 2019 as a young student without much money of my own, the MacBook Neo is incredibly inspiring. When the M4 Mac mini came out towards the end of 2024, I had already felt quite strongly about its potential for inspiring young creatives – and the MacBook Neo takes that much further.

I know, we’ve been waiting forever for the new Siri and it still isn’t here yet. Many are adopting the cynical view that it won’t be worth the wait, and that AI is mostly hype anyway.

I’ve long felt that my own view of AI is somewhat at odds with the very polarized views mostly expressed on the internet. That it’s a villain or a hero. That it’s a mental toddler or a professor. I don’t see it as either, but a recent experience with Claude suggested to me that it is now close to reaching a tipping point …