Apple is being Apple. Leaks regarding its iPhone Fold multitasking plans suggest it’ll hold back that device much like it long held back the iPad. I grumble about this over at Stuff.
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Banning everything is bad. I wrote a while back about local smartphone bans at schools. The UK looked set to ban social media for teens. But the government surprisingly pushed back last week. The opposition fumed. I was glad of the government’s decision. Here’s why.
Want to stop buying things? Not Yet is an app that helps you to consider purchases and see if you still want to go through with them a few days later. Check it out in my free apps roundup.
Remember OutRun? Sega’s 1980s racer remains a much-loved highlight of the era. Most of the home conversions, alas, were dreadful. Which makes it all the more impressive Shane McCafferty got the game running on the Game Boy Color. I thought that would be the most bonkers OutRun version ever. Wrong. Because someone got it running on Apple Watch. ZX81 port next, please!
AI is killing my favourite gadgets. And possibly yours. Over at Stuff, I look into how AI’s insatiable appetite for components is squeezing out the rest of the industry, and how that might impact the wider world of tech – especially the fun bits.
The Retroid Pocket 6 is fab.I reviewed this for Stuff, and it’s my favourite retro handheld to date. Although, as per the above story, Retroid got hit by RAM and storage costs and nuked the configuration I was sent – something that’s never happened to me before in more than 25 years of writing about tech. On the plus side, the remaining config is still great.
GamerCard is delayed. And still weird.Retro Dodo reported that Grant Sinclair’s handheld has also been hit by these issues and won’t ship for a while. However, while Retroid was solid with its comms, GamerCard was announced last summer with a shipping time of six weeks. The website since then has barely changed, and there’s been little attempt to make realistic timings widely available. I imagine those who bought one must feel… frustrated.
It’s a shame in some ways. Sinclair was clearly trying to do something unique, in the spirit of the family name. But when I reported on the device last summer, I questioned the controls and value. Now the latter looks even worse, due to a price rise making it more expensive than a Retroid Pocket Classic, or 3x the price of an RG Cube XX, both of which are significantly more powerful and have proper physical controls.
MacBook Neo has one big problem. Quite a few small ones too. But, as per my MacBook Neo column for Stuff, one in particular means this device is the budget Apple laptop we all wanted, with a major flaw we really didn’t.
Apple has new Studio Displays. Finally. And they’re… fine? Good, even? But while Apple fixed their biggest flaws, these displays cost a small fortune. Here’s a column.
The BBC is under review. Or, rather, the Charter is. But that kind of amounts to the same thing. If you want the Beeb to survive long-term, take part in the public consultation by Tuesday. If you’d like hints regarding what to say, British Broadcasting Challenge has published a PDF with thoughtful suggestions.
Exercise apps mostly suck. Or I suck at exercise. Definitely one of those. But one exercise app that doesn’t suck is WalkStar, which I wrote about for TapSmart/Swipe. In short, the music stops when you do. It’s a really clever motivational aid.
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Eins, Zwei, Drei! I can take or leave Eurovision at the best of times, and 2026 is… not the best of times. So I won’t be watching this year. Still, I can’t help smiling at the UK entry by Look Mum No Computer, which feels like a bonkers mix of Kraftwerk and Vitalic, with a singer who’s about 90% shouty Damon Albarn. I never thought I’d see the day when I really liked a UK Eurovision entry, but here we are. There’s a video here.
The ZX81 turned 45. Which makes me feel very old. Here is a piece about it, along with a lightning-fast round-up that covers six of the best ZX81 games.
A new notes app! Yes, I know. You’ve already tried 2,347 of the things. But make Gravity number 2,348 because it’s really good, with a clever approach that’s ideal for capturing and managing fleeting thoughts.
The iWork revamp sucks. Not because the apps are bad, but because Apple has welded them to Apple Creator Studio. I’ve been using the trial for a while and have written up my thoughts in ‘Everything I hate about Apple’s Pages, Numbers and Keynote revamp’. (OK, maybe not quite everything I hate about it, but still…)
Accessibility is for all. This is something I’m never going to shut up about when it comes to software. But that extends to specialist features too. Over at TapSmart, I update my guide to the best iPhone accessibility settings for everyone.
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AI is ruining everything.Jonn Elledge sums up why he feels angry about AI, while Catharina Doria’s superb Insta reel tackles the subject from a creator standpoint. But one angle of this is being under-reported: how much AI is strangling the entire tech industry. It’s rapidly making products more expensive or even entirely unviable. And for what? Lots of AI slop. That’s not to say there’s no good coming from GenAI, but it shouldn’t be eating resources the way it is. Mallory Moore’s thread is very much worth a read if you’re keen to learn more: “I hate to inform you how many MRI machines, X-Rays, all sorts of other vital machinery are just a Windows IoT Edition PC in a beige plastic box with a big magnet/accelerator/whatever attached…”
Pocket Super Knob 5000. Yes, this is the name of an actual console. I don’t even. Perhaps AI should have knackered this one’s chances…
What’s inside Lego’s Smart Brick? M’ colleague Jeremy White digs deep into the subject over at Wired, in a piece I’m NOT REMOTELY JEALOUS that I didn’t get to write myself.
Social media is ruining everything. Including, it appears, basic rationality. Right now, we’re seeing countries rush to implement bans for teens, without considering the consequences or the holes in their plans. But as FT journo Stephen Bush and novelist Naomi Alderman point out, there is limited evidence to back up many of the claims and the things that would improve social media for kids would be good for adults too. My take is there’s a lot of projection going on. The irony of perennially online adults – and especially pensioners – suggesting kids shouldn’t have access to even basic messaging (bar, for some reason, SMS) floors me.
Cadence: Musical Playgrounds is wonderful. It’s a kind of mashup of logic-puzzle pathfinding and synth, but far more zen and approachable than that sounds. If you own an iPhone, iPad or PC, buy it. Natch, it’s made its way into my best iPhone/iPad games list.
The death of Setapp Mobile matters. In fact, more than you might think, as I outline for TapSmart.
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Spotify goes all-in on AI. According to Sarah Perez at TechCrunch, the company says its best developers haven’t written a line of code since December. I can’t imagine what horrors are now lurking in the codebase. The company is depressingly light-touch regarding AI music too.
Apropos of nothing, Bandcamp and Deezer have both come out against AI ruining the music industry.
Children are lazy! Apparently. Or at least, that appears to be what Ofsted chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver is inferring in his utterances over at LBC, in a piece by Katy Dartford. He argues it’s bizarre the school year was “determined around harvesting” and then, inevitably, argues children are in school for a “ridiculously low percentage of the year” and calls the six-week summer holiday to be scrapped. What’s actually bizarre: adults constantly slamming school children for not being in school enough, rather than recognising that they need lives beyond the classroom. Enough.
Squid Bits is awesome. Ending on a brighter note, I’ve long hoped Jess Bradley’s very silly comic strip for The Phoenix would get a collection. And that’s now happening. Hurrah!
