Sega killed loads of mobile games. You can save them. But, as I write for Stuff, you shouldn’t have to. This piece looks at how Sega Forever became ‘Sega For About Eight Years’, the ephemeral nature of digital games, and how (and why) the industry should embrace emulation. 

5 reasons to buy the Trump Mobile T1 Phone 8002 (gold version) was my second column for Stuff this week. Long-time readers might imagine it’s not entirely serious. Indeed, it suggests “[…] millions of idiots will buy one. Are you one of them?” Natch, I got angry ‘fan mail’ from someone who I imagine owns a red cap with MAGA written on it.

The new Spotlight for Mac is amazing – and I want it on my iPad. I’ve long been a fan of ‘pro’ launchers like the original Quicksilver. I write that I’m glad Apple’s getting in on the act – but would love the new Spotlight on iPad too.

Apple Intelligence live translation in iOS 26 is AI done right. Lest anyone think I only moan about Apple, here’s a second positive Apple article in one week. The heat must be getting to me. There are caveats with translation, but for personal use I’m excited about more people being able to communicate. This strikes me as a good use of AI.

But AI is mostly still terrible. This past week, WhatsApp gave someone another user’s number, AI-gen music on Deezer is being consumed by AI bots to make people money, and ChatGPT is offering to tailor translated articles for submission to specific magazines. That last one’s like Inception-level rights infringement – and equally terrible for editors and newcomers looking to break into journalism. 

Password advice remains terrible. You may have read Cybernews and others reporting on a massive hack. The snag: few concrete details are in the wild and yet publications reported this with clickbait headings and terrible advice. A commonality on the latter was ‘experts’ telling people to regularly update passwords. Genuine expert Kate Bevan said on Bluesky, “Actual experts say you shouldn’t change passwords unless you think they’ve been compromised. Also, SMS is better than no 2FA, but it’s the weakest method of 2FA: use an app to generate codes.” She uses Authy. Other options include Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, and Apple Passwords. Additionally, she points to the NCSC’s guidance from 2018 on why you shouldn’t regularly change passwords. Publications need to do better when giving advice on this subject.

I wrote about why it feels hotter in a UK summer than you might think. Unsurprisingly, quite a few people countered that by saying that, actually, where they live, 31°C is like being in a fridge, having not read the piece. Sigh. (I also just checked local humidity readings. For the past week, they bottomed out in the mid-50s and mostly lurked in the mid-80s or higher. Bleh.)

Bluesky is still dying. According to a Spectator columnist, who then adds: “Which is a shame, because I don’t want these people back on Twitter”. Reader, these people do want us all back. To save you a click, this is another piece by someone who doesn’t like Bluesky and didn’t bother to integrate. Increasingly, I hear people countering this narrative, saying that Bluesky is great for engagement and traffic. (Wired said much the same in its most recent print issue.) The Spectator piece does have one important point, though: if the decline in users becomes an ongoing trend, Bluesky might be in trouble. Mastodon might be fine as a quieter, niche online space, but it strikes me that for Bluesky to succeed long-term, it needs scale.

The English language is changing. Watching a Girl Gone London video about ‘zed vs zee’, she noted globalisation is causing Brits to use more Americanisms. I see this myself and suspect the dominance of US English will eventually win out. Most publishers and companies I work for prefer US-English (Stuff being a rare exception). British children’s books use as much US-English and terminology as they can get away with, to push sales. And Brits taking in so much US media is echoed in vocabulary changes that, honestly, I sometimes find grating. Yes, old man shakes fist at cloud. But when ‘pants’ is being used for outerwear rather than underwear, I grumble a bit. And I’m absolutely going to draw the line at ‘faucet’, because come on.

The new tvOS is a bit rubbish. I was going to write about this, but I’m not sure I need to now. Joe Rosensteel says everything in tvOS brings minor additions and weird priorities, covering Apple’s slew of terrible UI decisions (including glass effects and profile frictions) and the only major new feature being faux-karaoke.

Duolingo is probably dead to me. In three days, my plan renews. But I’m over it. Extended time with it has made me more aware that the system is more about gamification and engagement than learning. Most changes Duolingo has made have been for the worse. And the CEO is an AI bro with no understanding of why people don’t want that infecting their already compromised experience. Babbel is the most recommended alternative, according to people giving me advice. My one concern: mini-G (10) has racked up a streak now well north of 1000. I hope she continues – in Duolingo or elsewhere.

Make your iPhone more minimal! If you want to. This is my selection of cracking apps that get out of your way and four beautifully minimalist, simple games.

Retrospecs is on sale for $0.99/99p. The app lets you load a photo or video and makes it look as if it had been generated on anything from an ancient Commodore PET through to a SNES or a Mega Drive. It’s a wonderful app – easy for newcomers, yet with loads of things to fiddle with for retro geeks. Buy it!