The Xperia Play has returned! Sort of. The Ayaneo Pocket Play is a modern take on a smartphone that has slide-out controls that turn it into a handheld console. Again, sort of. As someone who’s loved smartphone gaming since the iPhone 3G, I ask myself over at Stuff why the Ayaneo Pocket Play doesn’t make me more excited.

Premium apps for iPhone? There are plenty of good ones, and my selection of the best is here, now including Fastbackward.

Love Lego? My final Lego update of the year for Stuff explores the best sets of 2025 and what’s coming up in early 2026, including a minifig-scale DeLorean.

Phones away for Christmas Day? Mostly. But there are times when an iPhone comes in handy, as outlined in my apps for Christmas Day feature.

Apple has nuked an Apple Account. Again. And this time, it’s owned by someone who literally wrote the book on Apple development and who runs the longest-running Apple dev event not run by Apple. If the company can obliterate Dr Paris Buttfield-Addison’s account for no good reason, no one’s is safe. Again, make sure you have local backups of EVERYTHING.

Robin Ince has quit the Infinite Monkey Cage. He outlines why on Bluesky, and his final moments on the show were captured too. This makes me deeply sad for Robin, the audience and approachable science as a whole. Infinite Monkey Cage was my favourite show. And I quite deliberately say that in past tense, because I won’t be listening without Ince, whose input to the show was irreplaceable. The BBC desperately needs a rethink when it forces out people who have the audacity to be decent human beings, while allowing those spouting all kinds of nasty views to remain in post.

Today is Adam Banks Day. For those of us who were fortunate enough to be in his orbit, he was an inspiration. The man was a giant in publishing and a fantastic, kind human being. I miss him deeply and he was taken from us far too soon. Wherever you are, Adam, I’m sure you’re spotting typos that no mere mortal could possibly have seen. (See also: Christopher Phin’s wonderful and heartfelt tribute on YouTube.)