The next appageddon is imminent. Over at Stuff, I cover this in my latest column, ‘As Apple prepares to kill Intel Mac apps and games, I wish Macs were a bit more PC’.

The iWork revamp sucks. Not because the apps are bad, but because Apple has welded them to Apple Creator Studio. I’ve been using the trial for a while and have written up my thoughts in ‘Everything I hate about Apple’s Pages, Numbers and Keynote revamp’. (OK, maybe not quite everything I hate about it, but still…)

Operating systems don’t stand still. So I rounded up the 10 best new tips for iOS 26.3, iPadOS 26.3 and macOS 26.3. Which also includes new 26.2 features. But, hey, SEO headlines, etc.

Want to ditch Spotify? If you’re on an iPhone, check out my guide to the best streaming apps and services for Apple gear.

Accessibility is for all. This is something I’m never going to shut up about when it comes to software. But that extends to specialist features too. Over at TapSmart, I update my guide to the best iPhone accessibility settings for everyone.

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AI is ruining everything. Jonn Elledge sums up why he feels angry about AI, while Catharina Doria’s superb Insta reel tackles the subject from a creator standpoint. But one angle of this is being under-reported: how much AI is strangling the entire tech industry. It’s rapidly making products more expensive or even entirely unviable. And for what? Lots of AI slop. That’s not to say there’s no good coming from GenAI, but it shouldn’t be eating resources the way it is. Mallory Moore’s thread is very much worth a read if you’re keen to learn more: “I hate to inform you how many MRI machines, X-Rays, all sorts of other vital machinery are just a Windows IoT Edition PC in a beige plastic box with a big magnet/accelerator/whatever attached…”

Pocket Super Knob 5000. Yes, this is the name of an actual console. I don’t even. Perhaps AI should have knackered this one’s chances…

What’s inside Lego’s Smart Brick? M’ colleague Jeremy White digs deep into the subject over at Wired, in a piece I’m NOT REMOTELY JEALOUS that I didn’t get to write myself. 

Social media is ruining everything. Including, it appears, basic rationality. Right now, we’re seeing countries rush to implement bans for teens, without considering the consequences or the holes in their plans. But as FT journo Stephen Bush and novelist Naomi Alderman point out, there is limited evidence to back up many of the claims and the things that would improve social media for kids would be good for adults too. My take is there’s a lot of projection going on. The irony of perennially online adults – and especially pensioners – suggesting kids shouldn’t have access to even basic messaging (bar, for some reason, SMS) floors me.

Cadence: Musical Playgrounds is wonderful. It’s a kind of mashup of logic-puzzle pathfinding and synth, but far more zen and approachable than that sounds. If you own an iPhone, iPad or PC, buy it. Natch, it’s made its way into my best iPhone/iPad games list.

A new iPhone is imminent! Exciting! Only no, because it’s the iPhone 17e. I write for Stuff about why Apple may as well rename it the iPhone 17ehh.

Bear joins my classic iPhone/iPad app series. In the piece, I have a great chat with Shiny Frog co-founder Danilo Bonardi about how Bear made note-taking fast and beautiful.

The death of Setapp Mobile matters. In fact, more than you might think, as I outline for TapSmart.

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Spotify goes all-in on AI. According to Sarah Perez at TechCrunch, the company says its best developers haven’t written a line of code since December. I can’t imagine what horrors are now lurking in the codebase. The company is depressingly light-touch regarding AI music too.

Apropos of nothing, Bandcamp and Deezer have both come out against AI ruining the music industry.

Children are lazy! Apparently. Or at least, that appears to be what Ofsted chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver is inferring in his utterances over at LBC, in a piece by Katy Dartford. He argues it’s bizarre the school year was “determined around harvesting” and then, inevitably, argues children are in school for a “ridiculously low percentage of the year” and calls the six-week summer holiday to be scrapped. What’s actually bizarre: adults constantly slamming school children for not being in school enough, rather than recognising that they need lives beyond the classroom. Enough.

Squid Bits is awesome. Ending on a brighter note, I’ve long hoped Jess Bradley’s very silly comic strip for The Phoenix would get a collection. And that’s now happening. Hurrah!

Apple Arcade now has classic arcade cabs. Almost literally if you own an Apple Vision Pro. But even on iPhone and iPad, the new Retrocade app is great. For Stuff, my take is that Apple Arcade just accidentally became the best place for normal people to play retro arcade games.

Apple Creator Studio is weird. Over at TapSmart, I ask (from an iPhone/iPad perspective), Should you subscribe, and what are the alternatives?

Need to relax? Try these four free meditation apps for iPhone.

Liquid Glass still sucks. I made a video about yet another glitch that provides more evidence Apple didn’t do nearly enough accessibility testing. Or, you know, actual design. Still, my hope is that Sebastiaan de With’s return to Apple (TapSmart) might herald improvements across the board.

Apple Watch sleep score is a joke. I’ve gone back and forth on this, wondering whether the sleep tracking is helpful. The one good thing is it’s given me a reality check about when I fall asleep. But the ratings are laughably awful. I’ve been ill and a few nights back ended up barely sleeping at all before 3am and was then fully awake for another two hours. I eventually passed out and stayed in bed until almost 11. Cue: Apple. In bed on time? YES. Enough sleep? SORTA! Disturbances? NOT MANY! 74/100. I can only assume to get under 50, you’d need to go to bed at 4am yet stay awake and spend the remainder of the night dancing. And even then you’d get 49.

Social media bans have consequences. As the Australians are finding out (Eelemarni Close-Brown for the Guardian). Advocates claim the ban is protecting children, but it’s not that simple. In many cases, it’s isolating them from their friends – especially those who found online activity to be a safe space, or their only way to socialise (for example, if they are housebound). Slow hand clap for everyone who was warned about this and hurried the legislation through anyway. I imagine the same will happen soon enough in the UK, before our own round of OH NO CONSEQUENCES.

Free iPhone games can be great. Here’s the latest update to my round-up for Stuff, now including unhinged party game Astro Party Ex.

VHS was always awful. Yet the rumblings of a revival are never far away. My take is over at Stuff: I love retro tech, but a VHS revival is the last thing we need. If you look very carefully at that title, you might just be able to figure out my opinion of this format.

Apple released new AirTags. They’re very much like the old ones, which is (mostly) a good thing. I wrote two columns about them: One thing Apple’s new AirTags won’t help you find is their actual range (Stuff) and I use this £29 iPhone accessory for peace of mind – and it just got even better (Amateur Photographer).

Fancy a new iPhone photo editor? I’m a fan of Obscura Studio, by the same creator as the excellent Obscura Camera. If you’re interested in trying it, check out my Obscura Studio deep dive, for TapSmart. 

‘Phones vs TV’ is increasingly a thing. Various TV show creators have noted that streaming services demand clunky exposition to be woven throughout episodes, because viewers are too often distracted by their phones. But phones can be a boon to TV and movie fans – if you have the right apps. Just, you know, stop looking at your phone when you should be looking at the TV, eh?

Is Apple the new Microsoft? This Betteridge-baiting headline sits atop an interesting piece by Shannon Carroll for Quartz. I don’t agree with everything in it, and I’m not convinced about the title. But this quote totally chimed with me: “Now, Apple doesn’t need every customer to feel delighted, it just needs them to feel locked in – and to keep paying.”

Apple made loads of money. Huge non-shock in Apple reporting it raked in yet more billions over the recent quarter. Over at Daring Fireball, John Gruber neatly burst the party bubble: “It is difficult to get a company to see that certain of its core competencies are in severe decline when the company is making more money than ever.” Agreed. Modern Apple appears to equate success solely with profits. Which might account for why it’s making a horrible mess of software, developer relations, and more.

I’m tired of Apple and accessibility. Every year, I write to Apple multiple times about accessibility concerns, primarily in the field I know best: vestibular triggers. To be fair, Apple has taken on board some of what I’ve recommended. But over the past year, it feels like things have slipped. Triggers show up in an operating system and they’re never removed. And most of this stuff is extremely simple to test for: turn on Reduce Motion and check if there are any problematic animations. It appears no one did this for the new Pixelmator Pro for iPad, given that it’s chock full of triggers. Not good enough.

VPNs might be age-gated in the UK. Or they might not. The Lords (UK upper/revisioning chamber) has been debating the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which looks to be about as well conceived as the Online Safety Act. That is, not very. Amendment 92 seeks to age-gate VPNs, which would cause untold problems in industry and be extraordinarily difficult to enforce anyway. And, for good measure, Amendment 94a appears to further a move towards a ban on social media for the under-16s. I wrote about smartphone bans a while ago (Stuff bumped it back up the feed last week) and feel much the same about these new amendments: we need better education, more parental action, and fewer blunt weapons that are setting up cliff edges while simultaneously causing inconsistency. On the plus side, given that the amendments are from the opposition, there’s a reasonable chance the Labour government will ignore them. That said, they seem exactly like the sort of thing this Labour government will wish it had come up with itself.

FUN THINGS! If you’ve made it this far, congratulations. Your reward is an update to my Stuff feature on best browser games, which now includes Hill Climb Racing Lite, and news that superb Bubble Bobble ROM hack Lost Caves has been converted to the C64. “Now, it is the beginning of a fantastic story!!”

Lego does tech again. Only this time, I think it might be on to something. I was sceptical about the new Smart Play line until I saw it in action and learned more about what’s inside. Read more in my latest column: The best thing about the Lego Smart Brick is also its biggest flaw.

The best retro gaming handheld? There are dozens of the things. Still, I had a crack at recommending a solid option for five different use cases over at Stuff. If you’re keen to have decades of gaming in your mitts, packed into a dedicated and affordable device, check out Best budget retro gaming handhelds in 2026 to emulate classic consoles and video games.

Apple forcing iOS 26 upgrades is not OK. I’m still swatting iOS 26 away from my main iPhone, because it’s so unfinished and broken. It’s so bad from a vestibular accessibility standpoint that I’m not sure I can safely use it. Read my Swipe/TapSmart column on why Apple should rethink.

The iPhone Fold is on the way. Here’s what I want from Apple’s first crack at this type of device. Again, this one’s for Swipe/TapSmart.

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Apple’s making App Store ads even worse. Reports say it’s A/B testing making them harder to differentiate from standard results. Elsewhere, it’s preparing to roll out more ads within search results. This is a disgrace, but then I’m not sure we should expect anything else from this iteration of Apple, which prizes the bottom line over everything. So much for Apple always being guided by its “commitment to privacy and a phenomenal customer experience”.

It’s The Muppet Show! For years and years, I’ve wondered why the original Muppet Show format wasn’t resurrected. Perhaps it was lightning in a bottle or just of its time. But Disney+ is giving it another shot, with a special that all reports suggest is a backdoor pilot. Here is the trailer.