Opinion pieces & commentary

If you’ve just installed iOS 26, the first thing you will, of course, have noticed is the new Liquid Glass user interface. This has proved a somewhat polarizing feature, with some developers arguing it’s not yet ready for primetime.

It certainly takes some getting used to, but overall I’m a fan, and I particularly like some of the small but notable changes …

Apple is sometimes accused of deliberately withholding new features from older devices for no good reason. For example, eyebrows were raised when dual capture video recording was restricted to the iPhone 17 when the same feature has been supported by third-party apps all the way back to the iPhone 11, so is clearly nothing to do with hardware capabilities.

When it comes to the latest health features, however, the company is wisely taking a far more inclusive approach …

Apple’s satellite messaging service was a key feature of the iPhone 14. Initially limited to providing an emergency service for those outside cellular coverage areas, it was subsequently extended to offer roadside assistance cover for mechanical problems and messaging with family and friends too.

Although initially described as free for the first two years only, Apple subsequently extended free coverage – and has just done so again …

Apple’s hardware design chief said yesterday the company knew it would be hard for some to choose between the new iPhone Air and the iPhone 17 Pro or Pro Max.

That isn’t true for everyone, of course. For some, the decision will be very straightforward – but I can see how it could be tricky for others …

In 2020, Apple surprised a lot of people by re-entering a neglected segment of the smartphone market: small phones. With iPhone 12 mini, Apple did something fairly special, by squeezing all of the same technologies of the iPhone 12 into a 5.4-inch form factor. Unfortunately, it didn’t live for too long, but thanks to a recent lineup change, a new window might’ve opened for its resurgence.

Apple has always been unapologetic in its premium positioning. You know that when you buy Apple, you’re going to be paying a higher price than for almost any competing product, and are willing to do so for the perceived benefits of this – whether that’s the quality, the style, or the ecosystem.

The company has made a few nods toward affordability over the years, and we’re expecting the next one to be a new entry-level MacBook. But we’re also moving into an era where three new product launches are going to push the boundaries ever higher …

As a techie, it’s easy to get caught up in the trap of buying the most expensive devices with the most features. And, for the most part, it’s still a problem. That said, I recently made the decision to switch to Apple’s cheapest iPad, the budget model with an A16 chip. I’m pleasantly surprised with how incredibly useful it truly is – while costing less than a third of an iPad Pro.

Apple is likely going to introduce a new Apple Watch SE at its Awe Dropping event in just over a week. While we’ve been referring to this device as Apple Watch SE 3 for quite some time now, we’re yet to ask: will it actually be called that?

A few years ago, Apple used to have a much simpler iPad keyboard lineup. It just offered a Smart Keyboard for each of their iPad models, and they all essentially served as the same product. Nowadays, after the introduction of trackpad support in iPadOS and the Magic Keyboard, everything is unnecessarily convoluted – with each iPad model having a slightly different Magic Keyboard and varying features.

While the keyboard lineup is a mess, that’s not what I take issue with right now – it’s the fact that we’ve lost the Smart Keyboard Folio, which in hindsight was an incredible offering.

Last October, Apple announced the M4 MacBook Pro. On the surface, it looks like yet another MacBook Pro spec bump. However, there are a number of key features that make it worth upgrading to, even if you already have an older 14″ MacBook Pro.

Whenever a new story comes out detailing yet another setback with Apple’s AI initiatives and roadmaps, without fail, someone shows up and asks: “What exactly is Apple behind on?,” or “Catch up? Catch up to what?”.

And while this sort of comment tends to come from people who seem to spend quite a lot of time and effort trying to make sure that everyone knows they don’t care about something, this specific hill they’re choosing to die on is getting increasingly steep. Here’s why.

Last month, we heard some news from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo about Apple entering a new segment of the laptop market. The company is reportedly working on a new MacBook at a lower starting price point than the MacBook Air, and it’ll apparently pack the A18 Pro chip found in iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max.

While a cheaper MacBook is certainly a welcome add, the question truly stands: will Apple do it properly, or will it serve as another decoy model?

We were already expecting higher iPhone prices this year, but it now seems that one of the four models will get a bump in storage in return.

That’s always welcome, of course, but a move Apple made two years ago already made it irrelevant to me …

Since Apple’s latest earnings call, talk of a potential Perplexity acquisition has quieted down (the fact that Perplexity was once again allegedly caught red-handed sidestepping content restrictions didn’t help).

Meanwhile, with the ever-increasing number of engineers from its Foundation Models team jumping ship, Apple’s need for fresh talent is getting more urgent by the day. But if Perplexity is a no-go, who else could Apple buy?

One of the bullet points in Apple’s announcement of its increased US manufacturing spend made a big, but very non-specific, claim. Apple said that it was working with Samsung on an “innovative new technology which has never been used before anywhere in the world.”

Although the company was being mysterious, we likely know what that means – and it’s great news not just for the iPhone 18, but also for future iPhones beyond it …

We yesterday highlighted what is quite possibly the smallest user-facing change in the latest iOS 26 beta: the ability to revert the camera app slider to its previous direction.

While this is in itself a very tiny change, I do think it ought to be a guiding principle for Apple’s approach to user interfaces …

Perplexity has long been accused of deliberately bypassing anti-scraping measures to retrieve web content. While the company has historically dismissed these accusations as disingenuous or misunderstandings, a new report shows that not only is the practice still happening, but it may actually be getting worse.

A Bloomberg report over the weekend suggested that Apple has created a new Answers, Knowledge and Information team as part of its Apple Intelligence efforts.

While that might not sound like a huge deal, effectively just catching up with what others are doing, I actually think it’s about the smartest thing the company could be doing right now in terms of addressing Siri’s reputation …

Yesterday saw the emergence of three rumors about the iPhone 17 Pro camera system. The source for them has no track-record, so it’s entirely possible that all three are nonsense, but it’s at least plausible that they would have access to the claimed information.

Two of the rumored features would be welcome, even if one sounds rather unlikely. But the third is something I’m very much hoping is dead wrong …

A report yesterday suggested that the two iPhone 17 Pro models could get an anti-reflective display, after Apple’s suppliers managed to overcome production difficulties.

I do love anti-reflective displays, and still have very fond memories of my all-time favorite Apple one from way back in 2004, but an iPhone one would have only moderate appeal to me …

Amazon, Google, and Samsung are all working on an exciting way to bring AI to smart homes – and Apple risks being left behind.

Samsung is first to launch the new feature: the ability to use natural language to simply tell your smart home app what it is you want it to do …