It’s a new year. (You probably noticed.) Much of my published writing over the past week has therefore been about what’s coming in 2025.

For Stuff, I wrote 7 tech and gadget New Year’s resolutions I will fail to keep in 2025. Which is now an obsolete title because, surprisingly, I completed one of these (the personal ‘archive’) last week. Go me! Want to make your own lists? Check out my piece on iPhone apps for resolutions and another on bucket list apps – both for TapSmart.

Two articles were published about what I want to see from Apple in 2025: one for Stuff and one for TapSmart – and not covering all the same things. For TapSmart, I also wrote about the AI in Apple’s iPhone beyond (or before) Apple Intelligence. 

But my most pleasurable bit of work of late was reviewing the Ruark Audio R3S. Last year, my column about why I’m buying my first CD player in 20 years was a surprise hit. I got a bewildering number of emails and messages about it, and the readership stats made my eyes spin. 

The snag: I then did my usual thing of making a big list of possible items to buy rather than actually buying anything. But Ruark kindly sent over an R3S for a few weeks, and it’s been great. Since the review, my family used it over the holidays for CDs (including new ones!), radio and Bluetooth. The review unit will be going home shortly, and I’ll without doubt then buy my own to replace it.