Google killed some Nest devices. Along with, as I say in my Stuff column, any lingering doubt smart home kit is any different from other consumer tech. Sure, the Nest devices lasted longer than a phone – but not as long as an appliance should. Consumers need to decide whether they want to continue the rush to smart tech if it’ll just become dumb tech when companies get bored or decide older kit is no longer profitable enough to support.

What is Apple in 2025? Michael Tsai rounds up thoughts from Dan Moren (who says the hardware is still good but Apple itself less so), Jeff Johnson (“the company itself is no longer special”), and Dimitri Bouniol, whose post has the most damning quote: “Once they were successful, they acted like no one else took part in helping them reach that success.”

Culturally, the shift at Apple has been gradual, but it’s now a different company from in the early 2000s. My take is it moved in key areas from wanting to “be the best” to settling for “be least worst”. And even then, I’m not sure it’s always successful. 

I’ve seen quite a few push back on the notion current CEO Tim Cook only cares about money and that Steve Jobs didn’t. That’s wrong. Cook clearly cares about more than the bottom line alone, but it feels like that’s now Apple’s priority over everything else. Jobs? Of course he cared about cash. But he also appeared to fully believe all that “bicycle for the mind” stuff and care about creativity. Compare that with the recent raft of Apple Intelligence ads, celebrating lazy assholes by empowering them with faux creativity, productivity and thoughtfulness. That those didn’t set alarms blazing and went out at all says a lot.

It’s May the 4th. Which means an excuse to do Star Wars things. Which for me means an excuse to write about Lego Star Wars for Stuff. Your wallet right now: “I have a bad feeling about this.”

Apps for the car? Not while you’re driving, obvs. But otherwise, here are the apps, tips and gear I reckon are worth considering while going vroom. Car optional. Maybe you just like running around and making car noises, in which case, good for you.

Can you get something for nothing for iPhone and iPad? Of course. But anything good? Absolutely, if these 15 apps are anything to go by.

Retro racing games? Yes, please. Mr Qwak’s Retro Racing 2 Pro is now out for Android, and Shane McCafferty has released Hero GP for Game Boy Color. He’s also teased OutRun for Game Boy Color and so is clearly some kind of wizard.

Apple Watch is 10. I write for Stuff about 10 ways in which Apple’s wearable surprised me over the years, from having me chat to a stranded astronaut to declaring me deceased.

Apple Notes is underrated. I increasingly rely on it for thought dumps, lists and tracking, mostly using a simplified version of the Forever Notes system to keep things organised. That and other tips form part of my new Notes deep dive for TapSmart/Swipe.

I like daylight savings time. As someone with SAD, gloomy winters negatively impact my mood in a big way. I feel like a new person come the end of March. But in those months before, when the days very gradually lengthen, iPhone app Solstice helps me cope.

Online age verification for kids? Rachel Coldicutt suggests that’s now on the UK political agenda. I’m not in favour. For every perceived benefit, there will be several downsides, not least in terms of personal privacy, data breaches, and general tech company shittery. 

The Lib Dems back a ban on playing media out loud on public transport. This kicked off a debate on Bluesky about whether or not this was illiberal. (Ian Dunt says no. My take is… it depends.) Depressing, mind, that this party (with over 70 of the UK’s 650 MPs) barely gets any news presence, and when it does it’s for a policy like this.

App Store curation remains dreadful. So says Jeff Johnson, who discovered a ‘virus protection’ app lurking on Apple’s Store, charging people an insane amount of money to ‘protect’ their devices in a manner that’s impossible. As Nate Vack noted on Mastodon: “I kind of feel like ‘once a week, go through the top 100 grossing apps and investigate the obvious scams’ is maybe a reasonable expectation for a company Apple’s size. Especially if ‘our store is closed because it is safe’ is their entire brand and legal argument.”

Ian Dunt writes a love song to the filth we left behind. It’s about addiction and the holes left when you are able to free yourself from a drug. Some great insight, but it also, curiously, overlapped with how I feel as someone with OCD. Those elements of craving, relief and then self-hate are all too evident during a ‘bad’ period or moment. Although there’s no real high with OCD – just the briefest spike before you fall into a pit on recognising you’ve ‘given in’ again.

Can AI creations be art? An interesting thread on Bluesky explores this subject. And, ironically, it was kicked off by Ian Betteridge, whose law I broke at the start of this paragraph (given that, yes, AI creations can be art). Sorry, Ian.

Physical media clings on, not least with people who prize owning rather than renting what they buy. For TapSmart, I check out great iPhone/iPad apps to help people track collections.

MultiTimer joins my classic apps series. It’s amazing to think it took until 2023 for Apple’s Clock to support multiple timers. MultiTimer solved this back in 2015 – and remains superior to Apple’s app.

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Apple’s new rings award just gave me the perfect excuse to get moving again. Once more, a shiny badge is all the motivation I need to get started. Don’t @ me…

Apple Arcade is still pretty great. I’ve found it astonishing how much stick this service has got since its inception. And while there have been issues (not least the bizarre rollout and then a shift from ambitious indies to retention), it includes dozens of fantastic titles. My round-up for Stuff explores many of them.

I love em dashes. But are they a sign of AI writing? LinkedIn posters say yes. The linked piece by Watts Martin suggests there are better ways to detect AI-gen text than looking for dashes. Alex von Tunzelmann’s piece for the FT and Bluesky thread also offer a light-hearted exploration of this subject. And made me recall when one editor, years ago, publicly took the piss out of me for filing copy with “dashes as long as your arm”. Tsk.

Samsung Ballie has rolled back into view. This orb-like personal assistant on wheels is now infused with Gemini AI. I wrote about it for Stuff, where the cute little robot, in my mind, was transformed into a human-hating psychopath. But, hey, when you hear it speak in the video, you’ll know where I was coming from.

Photoshop for iPhone would once have excited me. But despite it rocking up for iPhone recently, I’m not sure anyone needs it. I mull this over in a column for TapSmart.

Speaking of, Adobe got hounded off of Bluesky. I’m not a fan of social network pile-ons, but Adobe wading in with its size twelves and going HEY KIDS was never going to end well. I sympathise with the social media person who was swamped with snark, but perhaps Adobe should have had a plan in place for this eventuality beyond “delete everything”.

ArcadeMania got approved. Sort of. I’ve written about the absurd story of iPhone arcade emulator MAME4iOS vs Apple before. The developer has now complied with every Apple demand, including a really stupid one that the app should only run ROMs owned by the dev. So right now, ArcadeMania is a husk. The dev aims to update it to make the functionality more standard. It wouldn’t surprise me if Apple blocks that, in full-on troll mode. 

I should note, yet again, that there are plenty of (often dreadful) emulators – including arcade emulators – already on the App Store. And so I really don’t know why Apple has a bug up its arse about this one in particular.

Nintendo officially unveiled the Nintendo Switch 2. You might have noticed. I wrote a few articles for Stuff on the little box of joy:

My daily life is busy – so the Nintendo Switch 2 is the perfect console for me. I’ve been playing games since the early 1980s. But I’m now closer to 80 than when I started playing games. As a busy parent, I don’t have a lot of time. The Switch has been great for keeping my love of games alive, with its slew of cracking bite-sized titles and co-op fare I can play with the nipper after dinner, until she decides she’s too old to play games with dad. Anyway, this column’s all about that.

Switch Virtual Game Cards are a good idea – but I want Nintendo to go further. There’s a tension between physical and digital across all media. Nintendo’s rethought digital games to make them a little more like physical cards. I’m pretty happy with what’s being offered, but, as ever, I wish Nintendo would take things further.

Nintendo Switch 2 Game-Key Cards are the worst of all worlds. Physical media should be yours forever. It’s unclear how many publishers will sell Game-Key Cards – physical cards that don’t have the actual games on them. I hope it’s not many. I hate the concept, even if I understand the reasoning from a tech standpoint. This column may have some passive-aggressive captions.

MusicHarbor hit v5 recently. It fills a gap by letting you track your favourite artists in a manner that Apple Music bafflingly doesn’t bother with. The update handily adds a ‘time capsule’ feature, so you can scoot back through the months and find albums you might have missed. The app is currently the lead item in my best free iPhone and iPad apps list for Stuff.

Some of the best apps are simple. I explore some of my favourites in 18 superb utility apps to boost your iPhone or iPad.

Space Invaders Infinity Gene is back on iPad. Sort of. The original release is my second-favourite Space Invaders game of all time, after Extreme. But it vanished from the App Store during the 32-bit appageddon. EVO is now on Apple Arcade. It looks to be based on the console version, which means it sadly loses the portrait-first set-up that worked so well on mobile. But it’s still pretty great. Also, happily, I still have the original on my first-gen iPad Air anyway.