Weeknote: 28 December 2024 – Apple in 2024 and tech horror in 2025

Published stuff
My Stuff column this week digs into 5 crushingly inevitable consumer tech and gadget predictions for 2025. And because 2024 isn’t quite over yet, I looked into the good, the bad and the smugly of Apple’s previous 12 months.
Also for Stuff, there was a small update to my best Apple Watch apps list and another airing for On the tech days of Christmas, my gadgets gave to me… Over at TapSmart, I wrote about the iPhone’s ‘hidden’ AI – AI and ML features that existed prior to Apple Intelligence.
Upcoming stuff
Stuff will soon post my annual ‘what I want to see from Apple this year’ piece. For TapSmart, I’ll ring in the new year with a mega-list of iPhone apps that can help you keep those pesky resolutions.
Other stuff
There’s been a lot of talk about how AI and EU regulation could upend the tech landscape in 2025. But less prominent stories have been bubbling under. One that I forgot to write about last week is the UK Online Safety Act. This rocks up in March and, as you might expect, is in part well-meaning yet also a mess.
From what I – and plenty of others I’ve chatted with – can tell, the requirements regarding risk assessment and accountability are likely to have one unintended consequence: causing many small-scale forums to close. That’s because they’ll now need time, money and someone to take responsibility for posted content – which won’t work for niche hobbyist sectors or outlets where forums are already a time and money sink.
My guess is this will result in yet more consolidation to the likes of Facebook groups and Discord. I’m not sure that will make things much safer for children either. But it’ll almost certainly further erode ‘owned’ content for organisations and outlets for hobbyists, which I think is a pity.