Handmade Pac-Man? I have one now, courtesy of my 11yo. She also crafted a suitably terrified-looking blue ghost! Amazing!

There is no Screen Time Wrapped. Which is a surprise, given that seemingly every other app and service has been determined to hurl stats my way about how ‘well’ I’ve done this year. Still, it’s probably just as well, as I explain in my latest column for Stuff, Why you don’t want an Apple Screen Time Wrapped year in review.

How was Apple’s 2025? Mixed. I dig into what it got right and wrong in my end-of-year review, this time entitled Apple in 2025: the good, the bad and the sock thing. Because my editor at Stuff wouldn’t let me use ‘sockly’. Tsk.

Christmas happened. You may have noticed. And so one of my favourite ever columns got another airing: On the tech days of Christmas, my gadgets gave to me…

I watched The Muppet Christmas Carol. At the cinema! My 11yo surprisingly agreed to come and we had a great time. It’s such a great adaptation. Michael Caine is perfect. Even better, we saw the full cut, rather than the one that daftly lops off When Love Is Gone.

Thank you! If you read my output here and elsewhere, I hugely appreciate the support. See you on the other side, in 2026!

The new Pebble wearable is designed as e-waste. I’m getting fed up of this kind of thing. Hence my latest Stuff column: I want more eco-friendly tech, not gadgets that will die in two years.

The best iPhone apps and games of 2025 – at least as I see it. The rules: new apps only and available for iPhone. The results: best apps and best games.

Snap happy: My latest columns for Amateur Photographer explore why I use an iPhone and not a ‘real’ camera and why I’d never buy an iPhone Air.

Need a last-second packable present? Check out my quiz for BA High Life. Or just check it out anyway, because it’s quite fun and it took me ages.

Apple is ‘forcing’ iOS 26 upgrades. Jason Snell writes on Six Colors about this latest Apple wheeze. Typically, Apple has offered security updates for older systems. Now it won’t if a device is capable of running iOS 26. Far be it from me to suggest this is down to uptake being lower than Apple would like and the OS being a shitshow. It’s still littered with major bugs and accessibility problems. Making iOS 18.7.3 more widely available is the least Apple could do.

Dr Paris Buttfield-Addison got their Apple account back. So at least Apple did something right. Although if you’re not someone that enough of the heavy hitters in the tech industry would fight for, good luck getting a similar result.

Hackers are extorting Pornhub. This is going to be fun when the UK’s verification laws end up caught in this, and a pro-Online Safety Act MP’s entire porn search history gets leaked.

Remembering Commodore’s C64GS at 35 – because someone had to. My piece for Stuff, including six great games for the system (and non-rubbish C64s too).

Tetris is fab! So is this piece interviewing its creator, written by Daryl Baxter.

Mutant demon Haribo!

Er, and with that: happy holidays!

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.)

Your iPhone already has iPhone Fold Software, but Apple won’t let you use it. I’m not sure why I was surprised about this, but iOS and iPadOS aren’t really distinct, as recent hacks have shown by getting iPadOS running on an iPhone. My latest piece for WIRED explores the ramifications and what it might mean for the future of Apple hardware and software alike.

The iPhone Fold? Pfft! I want the iPhone TriFold. But only if it’s better (and cheaper) than the Galaxy Z TriFold. Which, as I write for Stuff, just isn’t going to happen.

I hate Liquid Glass. I wrote for WIRED about its divisive nature, griped over at Stuff regarding its shortcomings, and grumbled on this blog about its accessibility issues. Since then, improvements have been made, but Liquid Glass is still a mess, eroding clarity and usability across every Apple operating system. So I’m not shedding a tear that Apple’s head of user design, Alan Dye, has quit. I am, however, excited that his replacement is Steve Lemay, a well-regarded interaction designer. Not that this will lead to a handbrake turn, but it could result in iOS 27 and chums being at least a little less awful next autumn.

Want to fill your house with Lego? You’ll need fewer sets with these giants. Although your wallet won’t thank you if you buy all 52 of these massive sets.

Need a gift for an iPhone fan? (Or some thoughts for your own list?) Here’s my gift guide for TapSmart.

Everything we write at TapSmart goes online for free. But if you’d like to support our work and help us keep the lights on, please consider subscribing to Swipe, which costs just $2/£2 per month for two issues.

Planning for the holidays? Let your iPhone take the strain.

The new Met Office app is due. Specifically, the company will ruin its app and website on 10 December.

Actually good apps? Here are some for Apple Watch and Mac.

My Spotify Unwrapped is learning how poorly the service pays bands compared to its major rivals and that its founder invested in AI military defence. Other streaming services exist. As does Bandcamp, for when you want to actually own music rather than merely rent it.

Simogo Legacy Collection is out. I wrote about it last week. If you’ve got a Switch, buy it unless you hate fantastic, innovative games.

Games should not be ephemeral. Yet they are. Notably on iPhone and iPad, where Apple cares more about revenue and pushing people to the next thing than preservation. It’s this that pushed Simogo to release its entire mobile collection for Nintendo Switch. Over at Stuff, I outline why I think this is a smart move – and that it doesn’t say great things about the future of iPad games.

Color Splash is an iPhone classic. It now joins my classics series over at TapSmart. My thanks to Hendrik Kueck for the in-depth interview about the origins of this famous (and still fab) app.

We publish all our content, for free, online. But if you’d like to support our indie work, please consider subscribing to Swipe magazine ($2/£2 per month for two issues), so we can keep the lights on. Thank you!

The iPhone 17 is this year’s best buy. That’s my take after two months, and I’m sticking with it.

Apple’s Files app is lacking. Fortunately, there are other file managers for iPhone, which can make it easier to deal with network and cloud storage. My piece for TapSmartchecks out the best of them.

175 graphic novels for $18? That’s the latest – totally bonkers – Image Humble Bundle. If you’ve never tried digital comics before, now is the time to start.