Opinion pieces & commentary

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported a couple of days ago on what he described as “Apple’s biggest push into health yet with a new AI doctor.”

While I completely understand why Apple would want to do this, I think the company will need to tread extremely carefully to avoid the risk of doing more harm than good …

While there may be debate about whether iOS 19 will be a UI revolution or evolution, there does seem to be a consensus view on app icons. Namely, that they are likely to switch from squircles – squares with rounded corners – to circles.

Whether one looks better than the other is of course a matter of subjective judgement. But there is a small problem with circular icons …

Yesterday saw the latest episode in a Prosser versus Gurman battle over just how big a change we’ll see in the look and feel of the user interface in iOS 19.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says he’s seen evidence of a change almost as notable as that of iOS 7 back in 2013. Jon Prosser, on the other hand, says we should expect something far less dramatic …

A Bloomberg report last year revealed that Apple had been experimenting with the idea of building an Apple Watch SE made of plastic in an effort to cut costs. However, it seems that the company has now given up on changing the material of the entry-level Apple Watch, which, let’s be honest, should always be metal.

A report earlier this month suggested that Apple is working on embedding cameras into AirPods, followed yesterday by another suggesting the inclusion of Apple Watch cameras too.

Apple has for many years been exploring the idea of adding a camera to the Apple Watch, but the latest report suggests a very specific usage …

On Thursday, Bloomberg reported that Apple CEO Tim Cook had “lost confidence” in SVP of AI John Giannandrea. In turn, he’ll no longer be in charge of Siri product development, and now Vision Pro head Mike Rockwell will be taking the lead.

While pretty much any news for Siri would be good news at this point, I’m optimistic in Mike Rockwell’s ability to turn Siri around. I’ll explain.

Apple announced the redesigned Mac mini with M4 chip last October. It’s by no means a new product at this point, and its coming up on 6 months old. However, I think it may be one of Apple’s greatest gifts to up and coming creators, developers, and all sorts of creative professionals.

Apple introduced Apple One in 2020, providing an easy way for avid Apple users to subscribe to multiple services at once, and get a nice bundle discount for doing so. It offers three tiers, and its remained that way since it launched. However, I think Apple would benefit greatly from offering a fourth tier, capturing a key demographic.

At this point, pretty much all the rumors hint at Apple launching a new ultra-slim iPhone later this year, which is expected to be called the iPhone 17 Air. The idea is to create an iPhone with a brand new design to make it more appealing. But will the iPhone 17 Air really convince people to upgrade?

The embarrassment over the state of Siri continues, with the discovery that the ‘intelligent’ assistant doesn’t even know what month it is.

My colleague Zac Hall suggested that things are now so bad the Siri brand is irredeemably tarnished, and any new version should be given a completely new name – but some think Apple should go further than this, and let us replace Siri with our own choice of AI chatbot …

I know, I know. I’m late to the Siri Sucks party. In my defense, Siri’s degree of suck has increased. Siri never used to trip when asked what month it is. Apple’s designers nailed the glow effect though.

It’s not just that Siri has steadily fallen apart over the years. The floor for what’s expected of a system like Siri is quickly rising.

Meanwhile, Siri is waiting for someone to decide if maintenance can feasibly repair the elevator while we all take the stairs to the top of the world’s tallest building.

Apple recently confirmed the delay of the new “more personalized” Siri, which was teased last year at WWDC 2024. And while we argue about whether Apple Intelligence can become as good as other AI tools, Siri still struggles to answer a simple question like “what month is it?”

I last year described the touchscreen Mac as “the idea that will not die.” No matter how many times Apple says it won’t make one, we see continued suggestions that it will, or should.

To be clear, Apple absolutely has made prototypes of touchscreen Macs. The first of these dates back to at least 2008, and probably earlier …

Two years ago, Apple effectively censored a core iPhone communication feature. The change was reportedly initially made at the request of the Chinese government. However, Apple quickly implemented the change to all iPhones globally a few months later.

Apple essentially endorsed China’s censorship demands by voluntarily enforcing the limit on all iPhone users, including the United States and every other democratic nation. Despite being controversial at the time, Apple’s decision has not faceted sustained public scrutiny. Instead, user control and a decentralized communication method were lost under the guise of safety.

The Siri crisis is showing no sign of ending, with a blistering attack by a high-profile commenter, and even senior Apple execs admitting that the delayed features are embarrassing.

At this point, there isn’t anything Apple can do to completely recover from the embarrassment, but a report on an internal Siri team meeting did seem to indicate a potential way to at least mitigate the damage …

The last few days have been very busy when it comes to Apple news. That’s because the company has confirmed that the new Siri experience has been delayed while sources suggest that the new features promised at last year’s WWDC won’t be ready any time soon. Given everything that’s going on at Apple recently, there’s one thing that could really help: another Snow Leopard.

According to recent rumors, Apple has been exploring the idea of putting cameras in the AirPods. Although this project probably won’t see the light of day any time soon, I can’t stop imagining how AirPods with cameras would be a good match with the promised contextual Siri – which was recently delayed by Apple.

A Bloomberg report yesterday suggested that iOS 19 could be getting a completely new look, in the biggest change since iOS 7 back in 2013. A similarly dramatic change is expected for macOS 16.

While the report is light on detail, the few clues it provide does make it sound like the upcoming software updates could almost a complete reversal of the flat look we’ve had for more than a decade …

Among all of the Apple Intelligence features announced at WWDC24 last summer, notification summaries are likely one of the more controversial ones. Users have noticed a number of inaccurate summaries, which has resulted in Apple tweaking the design of notification summaries, as well as disabling it for news stories.

While these summaries will never be absolutely perfect, there is one way Apple could easily improve the quality and accuracy of them, and I’d like to see them take this idea into consideration for iOS 19.

While Apple has been in no hurry to launch a folding iPhone, it does now seem like we’re getting closer to the day when it finally happens.

Folding smartphones are never cheap, but a new report today suggests that the price could be even higher than some have anticipated, namely “above $2,000 and $2,500” …

As expected, Apple today announced the M4 MacBook Air. It’s a spec-bump update, with unchanged design aside from a new color, so it’s not a compelling upgrade for existing owners of any Apple Silicon model.

However, if you’ve been considering a MacBook Air purchase as either your first model or a replacement for an older Intel one, this is a really good time to press the button …