Against All: Claude
Technology usually rewards the biggest company. The fastest company. The one willing to move first. That's why the AI race has felt so predictable over the last few years. OpenAI made ChatGPT, Google responded with Gemini, and everyone else seemed to be playing catch-up. Anthropic always felt like the quiet company in the corner. They talked more about safety than speed, and because of that, most people assumed they would always stay behind. This month proved that assumption wrong. Let's get into it.
Anthropic just raised another massive round of funding, pushing the company's valuation to nearly one trillion dollars. For a company that was founded by former OpenAI employees who left because they believed AI should be developed more carefully, that's a pretty incredible turnaround. While everyone else raced to release the next model as quickly as possible, Anthropic spent years building a reputation around caution, transparency, and safety. For a while, that looked like a disadvantage. Investors usually like growth. Consumers usually like flashy announcements. Safety doesn't normally make headlines.
But then something changed.
Over the last year, businesses started asking different questions. Instead of asking, "What's the smartest AI?" they started asking, "What's the AI we can actually trust?" That's a very different competition. Anthropic wasn't trying to win by having the funniest chatbot or the biggest product launch. They were trying to become the company that businesses felt comfortable building around.
KPMG's announcement proved exactly that. The consulting giant rolled Claude out to all 276,000 of its employees, making it the largest official AI deployment inside a company to date. That's more than a software update. That's a company betting part of its future on another company's technology. Trust suddenly became just as valuable as intelligence.
The interesting part is that Anthropic's biggest strength may have been the thing people criticized in the beginning. They were called too slow. Too careful. Too focused on safety. In Silicon Valley, moving slower is almost always seen as losing. But maybe they weren't falling behind. Maybe they were building something that simply took longer to appreciate.
It's easy to look at a trillion-dollar valuation and think this story is about money. I don't think it is. I think it's about patience. Anthropic didn't win because they shouted the loudest. They won because they stayed consistent while everyone else was sprinting. In an industry obsessed with moving fast and breaking things, they built their company around the idea that some things shouldn't be broken in the first place.
Whether Anthropic stays on top is anyone's guess. Technology changes too quickly to crown permanent winners. But this month felt bigger than another funding announcement. It felt like proof that being the careful company doesn't always mean finishing second. Sometimes, it just means taking a different road to first.
The Mythos of Anthropic
Technology companies usually can't wait to put their newest products into people's hands. Every keynote ends with the same phrase: "Available today." The goal has always been to get technology to as many people as possible as quickly as possible. Anthropic just did the exact opposite. Instead of releasing its smartest AI model to the world, they decided it was too dangerous. Let's get into it.
Earlier this month, Anthropic announced Mythos, its most advanced AI model yet. But unlike Claude or ChatGPT, Mythos isn't something you can sign up for. Instead, Anthropic is only allowing a small group of trusted organizations to use it. According to the company, Mythos is capable of finding software vulnerabilities at a level that could become a serious cybersecurity risk if it fell into the wrong hands. During testing, Anthropic says it discovered thousands of security flaws, including some in major operating systems and web browsers. Rather than putting that power online, they decided to lock it behind what they call Project Glasswing.
That's a strange moment in the history of technology. Companies usually brag about making the fastest processor or the smartest chatbot. Anthropic is essentially saying, "We made something so powerful that we'd rather you not use it." Whether that's completely true or not almost doesn't matter. The conversation has already changed. Instead of asking how smart AI can become, people are starting to ask whether every advancement should immediately become public.
What's interesting is that Mythos wasn't even built to write essays or generate images. Its biggest strength is finding weaknesses. Every piece of software has bugs. Security researchers spend months trying to discover them before hackers do. Mythos can reportedly do that work dramatically faster. That's incredible if you're defending hospitals, banks, or power grids. It's terrifying if you're trying to protect them from someone using the exact same tool. Suddenly, the smartest AI isn't competing with other chatbots. It's competing with cybersecurity experts.
This also feels like another turning point in the AI race. For the past few years, companies have been competing to release bigger and better models as quickly as possible. Mythos is different. It's one of the first major AI systems whose biggest headline isn't what it can do. It's what the company won't let it do. That's a future I don't think many people expected.
Maybe Anthropic is being overly cautious. Maybe they're setting the standard for how frontier AI should be handled. Either way, Mythos proved something important: for the first time, the biggest breakthrough in AI wasn't released because people were afraid of what might happen if it was.
At What Cost
New MacBook came out. And its fine.
It has the A18 chip, which is Apple’s incredible silicon chip, but it’s made for the iPhone 17. It has 256 GB of storage and 8GB of memory, which isn’t good at all compared to Apple’s lineup. It has a 13-inch liquid retina display (which seems to just be LED not OLED). 20W charging, which is truly difficult to have work if you plan on doing anything crazy at all, but with a battery up to 16-hours of video streaming. As far as ports go, it only has 2 USB-C ports (not Thunderbolt USB-C ports, to be clear) and a headphone jack. The Neo comes with Bluetooth and WiFi 6 respectively, and dual stereo speakers on either edge of the MacBook, where the ports are.
So, I mean, spec wise, this computer is really bad. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who tracked anything I said in the last paragraph, because, let’s be honest, if you know what a Thunderbolt USB-C port is, the MacBook Neo simply isn’t for you. Especially if you are doing any type of complex task, because that A18 will not be incredible ay high-demand tasks, although it still is a fantastic chip that I have no doubt will be incredible for just relaxed web browsing, docs editing, and maybe a little Canva-ing. But if this computer isn’t good in professional terms at all, who is this for?
It’s for the people who like the sound of $599.
Genuinely, this is the best deal Apple has made in a long time. For what this computer is, this is not the price we expected. Yes, the computer is quite weak as a device in context of all devices, but compared to other $600 computers, it blows them all out of the water. You can get a solid computer for that price, but especially if you want something to work with your iPhone, this is truly a great deal.
And bonus: you can get it for $499. Apple has an education store, where the price of Apple products is significantly smaller. If you are a student and you head to the Apple store, they will simply ask for your student ID and you get the meaningful discounts. However, online is a little different… they don’t even ask you for your student ID. Anyone can get the education price. Ethical? Maybe not. Cheaper? Definitely. I don’t encourage unethical behavior, but if you are a student and need a computer, get the MacBook Neo.
Good job Apple. This is actually great.
CES Twenty Six
Every year, thousands of companies gather at CES to show off what they think the future will look like. Most of the time, it's bigger TVs, faster laptops, and gadgets that disappear a week after the event. But every once in a while, a product comes along that makes you stop and think, "Wait...they actually built that?" This year had more than a few of those moments. Let's get into it.
The two biggest stars of CES 2026 couldn't have been more different. One was a robot vacuum. The other was a luxury self-driving car. Somehow, both managed to make the future feel a little closer.
First, there's the Roborock Saros Rover. Robot vacuums have always had one obvious weakness: stairs. If your house had more than one floor, your robot could only clean half of it before giving up. The Saros Rover changes that by literally climbing stairs. Not rolling over bumps. Not avoiding them. Climbing them. It almost looks fake the first time you watch it. It's one of those inventions that seems so obvious after someone finally does it that you wonder why it took this long.
Then there's Uber. Instead of announcing another feature for its app, the company partnered with Lucid Motors to build a luxury robotaxi from the ground up. The car doesn't just drive itself. It's designed around the idea that nobody is driving at all. There's more room inside, more comfort, and even a glowing halo on the roof that displays your initials so you know exactly which car is yours. It's a small feature, but it's one of those details that makes autonomous cars feel less like prototypes and more like products you'll actually use.
What's interesting is that neither of these products is trying to invent something completely new. Robot vacuums already exist. Ride-sharing already exists. Both companies simply looked at the biggest inconvenience and decided to solve it. That's usually how technology moves forward. The biggest innovations aren't always the ones nobody imagined. Sometimes they're the ones that make you wonder why nobody thought of them sooner.
At the same time, CES always reminds me how strange progress can be. Twenty years ago, people imagined flying cars, robot butlers, and cities on Mars. Instead, we got robot vacuums that climb stairs and taxis that greet us by name. It's not exactly what science fiction promised, but somehow it still feels futuristic.
Maybe that's what the future actually looks like. Not one giant invention that changes everything overnight, but thousands of small improvements that slowly make everyday life a little easier. And if CES 2026 proved anything, it's that the future is going to be a lot weirder than we expected.
Application Over Intelligence
Technology has always been about making things faster. Faster processors, faster internet, faster answers. But eventually you reach a point where speed isn't the problem anymore. The problem is thinking. A calculator can give you an answer instantly, but it can't solve a problem the way a person can. At least, it couldn't. Let's get into it.
Just a few weeks after OpenAI launched Atlas, Google responded with Gemini 3. On paper, it's another AI update, but the interesting part isn't that it's smarter. It's how it's smarter. Google introduced something called Deep Think, a mode that slows down, considers multiple possibilities, and works through complicated problems before giving an answer. Whether it's writing code, planning a vacation, solving a difficult math problem, or helping organize a business project, Gemini 3 is designed to reason instead of simply respond.
That's a pretty big shift. For years, companies have competed to make AI answer questions faster than the competition. Now they're competing to make AI think better. It's almost like we're moving away from search engines and toward digital coworkers. Instead of asking your phone where to eat, you ask it to plan your entire weekend. Instead of fixing one line of code, it helps build the whole program. The expectations for AI are changing almost overnight.
The part that surprised me most wasn't even the model itself. It was how quickly it reached people. Millions of Android phones received Gemini 3 almost immediately. That's the advantage Google has that almost nobody else does. They don't have to convince people to download something new. They already own the platform. Overnight, millions of phones suddenly became smarter without their owners buying a new device.
But there's something a little strange about calling a feature Deep Think. Thinking has always been one of the few things that separated humans from computers. Now companies are marketing machines based on how closely they can imitate that process. Of course, AI isn't actually thinking the way people do. It isn't conscious, creative, or emotional. But if it becomes good enough that the difference doesn't matter in everyday life, does that distinction still matter to most people?
Google didn't respond to OpenAI, they created a new discussion. The race has changed. The race isn't about who has the smartest chatbot anymore. It's about application.
Browser Wars: Revenge of the Search
The internet has looked almost the same for the past twenty years. You open a browser, type something into Google, click a few links, and hopefully find what you're looking for. Sure, browsers have gotten faster, cleaner, and more secure, but the basic idea has stayed the same. Search, click, read, repeat. OpenAI thinks that process is outdated. Let's get into it.
OpenAI officially announced Atlas yesterday, their first web browser, and it's probably the biggest challenge Google Chrome has ever faced. Instead of acting as a window to the internet, Atlas acts more like a guide. You can ask questions about a website, have articles summarized, compare products across multiple tabs, or even have the browser navigate through pages for you. Rather than opening ten different websites to answer one question, Atlas tries to do all of that work itself. It's less like using Google and more like talking to someone who already read the internet before you did.
This feels like the next logical step for AI. Chatbots were useful, but eventually everyone started asking the same question: now what? OpenAI's answer seems to be simple. Instead of waiting for people to visit ChatGPT, bring ChatGPT to where people already spend their time. Billions of people use a web browser every single day. If Atlas becomes the browser people open every morning instead of Chrome, OpenAI doesn't just compete with Google Search. They compete with Google's entire ecosystem.
But this also changes something much bigger than browsers. For years, websites have competed to be the first blue link on a Google search page. That's how people discovered information online. Atlas doesn't really care about blue links. It cares about answers. If AI summarizes a website instead of sending people there, what happens to the websites that spent years trying to climb Google's rankings? If people stop browsing and start asking, the internet itself could begin to change.
Of course, Google isn't going to sit back and watch this happen. Chrome is the most popular browser in the world, and Google has been building AI into Search for years. But this is the first time someone has challenged Google on the thing they practically invented. The Browser Wars aren't about speed anymore. They're about who gets to decide how we experience the internet.
Maybe Atlas becomes the future of browsing. Maybe people still prefer clicking through websites themselves. Either way, one thing is clear: the browser just became one of the most important pieces of software again.
How to Sell Air
Apple announced the iPhone Air yesterday, and, as expected, it's all anyone in tech seems to be talking about. Every year, companies compete to make the fastest phone, the brightest screen, or the best camera. This year, Apple decided to compete on something different: thinness. But when does making something thinner stop making it better? Let's get into it.
The iPhone Air is Apple's thinnest phone ever, and honestly, it's impressive. The first time you see someone hold it, it almost doesn't look real. Apple clearly wanted this to be one of those products where the hardware itself makes people stop and stare. It reminds me of the first MacBook Air, when Steve Jobs pulled it out of a manila envelope. That product had a purpose. Laptops at the time were bulky, and making them dramatically thinner actually changed how people carried them around every day. Phones are different. They're already incredibly thin. Most people don't look at their current iPhone and think, "I wish this was two millimeters thinner." They think, "I wish the battery lasted longer," or "I wish I had more storage."
And that's where things get interesting. To make the iPhone Air this thin, Apple had to make compromises. The battery is smaller than the Pro models, there are fewer cameras, and there's less room inside for cooling and other hardware. None of those are flashy features during a keynote, but they're the things you notice after six months of owning a phone. Apple is betting that people care more about how a phone feels than what they give up to get there. I'm not sure that's true.
Apple has done this before. They removed the headphone jack. Everyone complained. They removed the charger from the box. Everyone complained. They got rid of physical SIM cards in the United States. Everyone complained. Eventually, people adjusted.x Apple has become very good at making controversial decisions that become normal a few years later. But those changes usually pushed the industry toward something else. Wireless earbuds replaced headphone jacks. eSIM replaced plastic cards. I'm not convinced that thinner phones solve a problem in the same way.
The interesting part is that this feels like Apple admitting that smartphones have reached another plateau. For years, every September brought a noticeably better camera, a new display, or some feature that changed how you used your phone. Now the improvements are getting smaller. Chips are faster, but most people won't notice. Cameras are better, but last year's cameras were already excellent. So instead of selling new capabilities, Apple is selling a new feeling. Pick it up, and it feels futuristic. That's a lot harder to measure than megapixels or battery life, but it might be exactly what Apple needs right now.
That doesn't mean the iPhone Air is a bad product. In fact, I think it'll sell incredibly well. Apple knows how to make hardware that people want to hold, and that's part of why they're so successful. But I do wonder what this means for the future. If every company starts racing to make the thinnest phone possible, are we actually moving forward? Or are we just running out of things to improve?
Maybe the iPhone Air is the beginning of the next era of smartphones. Or maybe it's just Apple proving that sometimes, when you've nearly perfected a product, the only thing left to change is how thin you can make it.
Google… Just Stop
On August 20, Google had their Pixel event. Great! New phones, new foldables. Some new AI and UI, all good improvements and also they had…. a bunch of celebrities…?
Google, hey bud, so listen. I don’t care what a paid actor has to say about your product. I truly don’t. If you think Jimmy Fallon will convince me buy your phones just by being there, you are wrong. Okay, but if the Jonas Brothers…. OH MY GOODNESS THEY WERE THERE TOO. LET ME BUY YOUR PHONE IMMEDIATELY…
So you see the problem yet Google? As a tech person, I just want to see the cool tech. As a regular person, I’m sure no one cares about these celebrities doing a multi-hour ad read for you. No one is happy, no one is convinced to buy your phone. Also, you declaring that green vs blue bubbles is stupid is such a sore loser move. “I didn’t want to win anyway” vibes, and, let’s be real, the quiter is no one’s favorite kid at recess.
This event just came off so desperate for attention. Just make an impressive phone! I personally love Google’s products. Do I own any? No, because I’m an Apple sheep, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t if I wasn’t going to be bullied for my whole life after switching. Their phones are solid, good enough for someone like me who isn’t doing anything hardcore on my phone, and the UI is so pretty. I would take Google’s UI over Apple’s if I could, but that is sacrilege, so I never said that if anyone asks.
But Google, stick to what we actually care about. I don’t understand mega-corporations obsession with celebrities. They do have actual humans within their company, right? For me, it makes me care less about the product and think less about the company who is trying to use fame to get my attention.
So Google, let’s try next time and make it a little more… well a little more anything. I don’t really care what, just make me feel something.
Why AI Can’t Truly Write
If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.
AI could never write this. This passage is from Hemingway, and it will always be from Hemingway. He was writing and thinking and pondering while jotting down this passage for the first time. He was probably sitting on a cobbled French road, sipping a coffee after a night of boxing. He was bruised, but not broken. He would look up and see the couple he always wished he could be strolling down the Parisian road together, arm in arm. That woman biked to work, he presumed, again, with her hair billowing and blowing in the morning breeze. Her bell to alarm people of her presence and subsequently of her hurriedness would enter from his left ear as a bell and exit from his right ear as a different tone as her biked wheezed its way across the cobblestones. He looked at the fountain he always admired, see the faint inscriptions of the soldiers who died in who knows what European war. Then he would look back down, and write about why nature couldn’t allow those men to live beyond the battle where death had dragged them out of the light.
Of course, this is probably not what happened. I know that Hemingway was in Paris and did box, but when or where or why he wrote this passage doesn’t truly affect the truth in it. Hemingway was a human, and wrote about the human experience. Even though people like me may have to read the passage a few times to digest it, the inherent humanity of his writing is evident and that is why it touches so deep.
AI is an incredible actor. Many a man has already applauded its skills, while some troubled men believe its passionate show of love is real (recommend reading up on the man who proposed to ChatGPT…). But an actor is an actor, no matter how dedicated to their task. AI will never be human. It will write like us, and write eloquent novellas on love and war. It will capture the emotions of grief and pain. It will harness our hearts to follow on a journey it is stitching together from pervious human work. But it will never be human.
What is more important: what something says or what something means? AI may say these beautiful and gorgeous thoughts on the human experience, but there is no thought behind those robotic keystokes. Hemingway might have trashed his first attempt at the passage above, and it might’ve said nothing. But it meant everything, even if not well portrayed.
So writing is inherently human. Don’t give up on it to seek ease. I have leaned to heavily on AI in order to allow myself more time to finish that YouTube video, play that game, driving myself more and more into a pit of humanlessness as an AI takes up my mantle and tries its best to play me in its extravagant play. But it can’t. And it never can. Humans are made to be humans, so feel free to be one.
Tech-riffs: The Delicate Dance of Tariffs and Tech
I know, I know. You hear about tariffs 25/8, me too. But it’s hard not to discuss this. However, I’ll make it brief, very brief.
I don’t want to talk global politics, and even if I did, I am nowhere near knowledgable enough to have an opinion. However, tariffs shape the tech world. We need China and China needs us. We make our phones and earbuds and speakers and, I don’t know, flashlights over there. It feels like anything made was made in China. These tariffs make everything a lot more complicated, especially because the tech corporations that the government wants to move over to the United States simply won’t. As I am a sucky journalist, I have no citation or even a person to quote here, but someone said that the tariffs would need to be 1400% in order that the companies start trying to move over to the United States for manufacturing. So anyway, tech is tied into tariffs because tech is a global industry and is too complicated to say that the United States has to make everything themselves. CaterPCs (you can search him on any social media) talks about these tariffs, and has gotten pushback for being too political, but as his content is all about tech, it would be absurd to not talk about the effect of these tariffs on technology. I don’t really feel the effects of the tariffs (I’m still a teen…), but I’m sure its hurting some pockets and purses.
Stay financially responsible out there guys. God bless!
Pixel 9A
Alright, we’re back. And so is Google. They dropped the Pixel 9a and everyone has a take. Let’s get into it
The Google Pixel 9a dropped on March 26, and with the announcement came a lot of debates. These debates were focused on the main design difference between the other Pixels and this Pixel 9a, which is that the Pixel 9a doesn’t have a camera bump. This creates quite the different appearance, but I don’t hate it. It brings back some older iPhone vibes from when we didn’t need 19 cameras, but just the one 8-megapixel lens sufficed. But what I think makes this new design a clear winner is that it gets so much more battery life. Google filled the spot where the rest of the phone cut off and where only the bump protruded with extra phone, which means in general the phone is thicker, but it allows a much bigger battery. Google boasts a 30+ hour battery, which is probably very optimistic, and up to 100 hours when in extreme battery saving mode, which is absurd. And the last great thing about the removal of the camera bump is that it can lay flat on any surface, which is so nice. Personally, I really hate the wobbliness of phones on tables, especially Apple’s phones, where the side bump is all the way to the side (but that might change given recent iPhone leaks…).
Other than that one standout feature, the Pixel 9a is a really good phone. 6.3” display, slightly larger than that of the 8a, and has 2700 nit peak brightness now (35% brighter than last year), which is excellent and is only slightly less than that of Google’s flagship Pixel 9 Pro. It has faster charging than in previous years and gets 7 years of software support, which is wild. And back to the battery, it went from 4492mAh last year in the 8a to being 5100mAh this year, which is a very significant 13.5% increase.
I think this phone is excellent. I do not have the resources or the contacts (or any, for that matter), so I can’t be hands on with this phone (or any phone other than my iPhone 13), but the embargo they had on this phone for content creators was very odd. An embargo is an restriction that prevents media from releasing specific information to the public on a specific date. I believe that the Pixel 9a had a sort of rolling embargo, where some information was allowed to get out, but they couldn’t show anything but the homescreen for the software, which is very odd. But now the phone is out, and so we’ll see how the public reacts.
Existential Edition: What Are Humans Made For?
AI has us questioning everything. We had created this world dependent on humans and the tools we have made. These tools enhance our abilities. These tools take away the mundane tasks. These tools are meant to be under us. But what is AI? A tool, in theory, that is capable of thinking in a way. Thinking isn’t a mundane task. It’s being a human. God created us in His image all those years ago. He blessed us with brains, making the creation capable of understanding creation itself and how to create. For centuries, we used this blessing to create jobs, work, community, society. We made cities, companies, churches, associations. We create the ability to make us live longer. We made medicine, prosthetics, vitamins. We created AI. We created a mirror of ourselves. It shows us what we have decided in the past.
What are humans made for? That’s the question, isn’t it. Well, because no one is going to read this, I’ll tell you. We are made to love and serve God. We are made to work with Him; learning, growing, seeking, knowing, living with Him.
Oh how worthless are the things we do on the earth. All is vapor! What is this life but a series of decisions, choices that amount to nothing if not with Jesus. We see a rise in depression over the past decades. Is it absurd to claim that people are getting depressed because they aren’t experiencing the fullness of life? We weren’t meant to be consumers but creators. We were made to be set apart from the rest of creation and to work and create and imagine. Scroll, watch, consume. That’s all we do; that’s what I do all the time. Scroll, watch, consume. Thats not the way of Jesus. His way is rest, bless, love. Now rest isn’t laziness. His rest is resting with God, learning in the quiet, studying throughout life, but still with peace.
So that’s what a human is made for. If you’re reading this and you feel depressed or worthless or feel like your life won’t amount to anything, I recommend Jesus. Just try it out. What’s the worst that can happen? The best that can happen is you find purpose and joy and love from God like I did.
God bless you, reader.
CMF: The Miracle of the $300 Ecosystem
There’s been a lot of talk lately about the cmf ecosystem. It consist of a phone, earbuds, and a watch but what does this change about the whole industry? Well, it’s insanely cheap which just changes a lot of things about how we think about how much money can buy when it comes to tech.
CMF, the lower end branch of Nothing, dropped the Phone alone with their new Watch Pro and earbuds. The phone is cheap, with a replaceable back, and a watch. And then there’s the CMF earbuds, which are $40. Forty. dollars. That’s absurd. I purchased the more expensive version of them, the Earbuds Pros. But still, cheap stuff has been here for a looong time. What’s so different about these products? Well, they’re really good for their price range. They even have some features the high end products have, such as the phone 120 hertz refresh rate, better than the iPhone. The earbuds have transparency and noice cancelation which the base AirPods (for $80-$100) don’t have. So the durability and quality has yet the be proven, CMF has played their cards right for now.
Your move, Apple.
(Tough last line or no…?)
The Folding iPhone
Samsung recently dropped their latest lineup of foldable, continuing to corner the market with the easiest-to-recommend foldable. Now there have been rumors about a folding iPhone. What would that look like? When might this come out? Why does Apple want to do this? Let’s dive in.
Earlier this July, Apple was granted a patent titled: “Electronic Devices With Durable Folding Displays”. This patent covered the clamshell design of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip, which folds like the classic folding phones from back in the day. The patent isn’t clear what size this phone could be, but rumor has it that the phone could have a display ranging from 7.5 to 9 inches in length. It is possible that Apple has been working to eliminate the crease of a folding phone altogether, which would be a first.
Now, when could something like this hit the market? The folding iPhone (or the V68, which is how it is referred to as within Apple) could come out in 2026, but market analysts propose that it may drop later due to Apple trying to perfect the crease.
And lastly, why would Apple do this? It seems rather unnecessary, given their prowess as such a brand and phone manufacturer. Personally, I think Apple has decided that they want to be on the front lines. Not the very front, though. They let other brands been the bleeding edge, such as Samsung with the original Galaxy Z Folds and Z Flips and Meta with the Oculus 1. But with Apple showing they are able to produce a good product in the Vision Pro relatively quickly, I think they are willing to take bigger risks and are okay to work out some kinks after the Gen 1 product has launched. But why this type of folding phone. Honestly, it’s anyone’s guess. I would think that an ultra thin iPad that can fold into a phone would be a huge deal, but they seem to be opting for the clamshell design. The great thing about this design is that it works way better for female clothing. The fashion industry has decided that men get an abundance of pockets, and women usually are stuck with carrying a bag or purse everywhere. But a small folding phone could work a lot better. It could fit into the insanely small pockets they are given, which would be a a game changer and could get some of the female market to switch from their current phones, especially in America, where they already have by far the most phones. Lastly, its kind of obvious that Apple doesn’t want their competitors, like Samsung, Motorola, and Google, to be able to make sales without someone actively not choosing Apple.
iOS 18: Not Great
I have had iOS 18 for about 2 weeks now, and I have some thoughts.
Customization: You can now make your apps look wierd. And maybe good. I love that we have more customization, but Apple tried to make the UI simple enough for everyone to understand, but that means it lacks deep customization options, and the whole thing feel lackluster and just gives enough to want way more. You can also now edit your control center, which is super nice actually. I really haven’t changed much about mine, but it makes it a lot easier to edit and you can even add additional pages to your control center. (Also circle icons on control center, which looks so much better.)
Photos: The app is confusing now. It used to just be photos, and sure it was a little difficult to access shared albums, people, and memories but they didn’t have to go this hard. The app is now cut in half, where if you swipe down you go to your library, and if you swipe up, and go into people, memories, albums, shared albums, etc. But it just sucks. I didn’t need this to be this confusing! Also, the video viewer is worse too: the photos and videos are shown in a smaller area with worse controls. So thanks Apple, you out minimalist-ed yourself this time.
Calculator: Actually super impressed. Now you can convert measurements (and currencies) within the calculator app. Also: math notes. You can just write out equations and it can pull the answers based on the variable you give it and can even make a graph for you. It works a lot better on iPad, but if you haven’t seen the Apple demo of this feature, go check it out. It’s awesome.
Other: You can schedule send messages, finally. New word effects and expanded Tapbacks in messages. Mail app should be getting an update, but hasn’t happened yet as of iOS 18 Beta 2. Apple Intelligence is coming out, but doesn’t look awesome and won’t be available to most since it’s limited to the phones with Apple’s silicon chips. The Lock Screen lets you change the 2 options on it, letting you change the quick options to be something other than flashlight and camera if you want.
Overall, I can’t lie, I was pretty disappointed in this update. Sure a lot happened, but especially with all the promises of cool and useful AI, I’m pretty disappointed. But maybe that’s just me.
AI: The Apple Way
Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) happened on June 10 and it honestly started slow. They opened with new a new arsenal of Apple TV+ TV shows and movies, and then VisionOS 2, which was an underwhelming update given the name’s implication of a much more major one. Then iOS 18, which also felt underwhelming given the rumors swirling around before WWDC, leaving us with not much more than more customization and a few more messaging features. iPadOS and WatchOS passed without anything of note except a very strong calculator app finally coming to iPad. MacOS Sequoia has a new way to control your iPhone remotely. And that was it until Apple Intelligence stole the show.
Apple Intelligence, or AI (I see what you did there, Apple), is the new way AI is being incorporated into Apple’s ecosystem of products. It mostly consists of generative imaging, writing tools, and a ChatGPT-enhanced Siri. And Apple has made it their way. They brought up all the ways that this AI will be on-device for our privacy, and when it can’t be on-device, it will be part of a network where the only information allowed to be used to answer your question or help with your task is the information your Apple device thinks that network needs to complete the request. Even when Siri draws upon ChatGPT to get a better answer, Apple obscures your IP address and hides all other information other than your question. However, other than Siri and the useful AI writing tools, I think most of the new “Apple Intelligence” is not helpful or just weird. For example, I cannot think of one time that I would unironically send an AI-generated picture or drawing to anyone. Ever. The “genmoji” is a little more useful, letting you create a custom emoji in the style of the other Apple emojis, but again, I don’t anticipate ever using this feature. That is, if I could use it. Apple claims that only its own Apple chips are capable enough for Apple Intelligence, so these new AI features are limited to the iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Maxes and all M1-M4 iPads and Macs. I’m not going to sit here and say no one else uses features to promote the purchasing of a newer model, but I certainly feel like Apple is the king of this. They are always working you up on their ladder that climbs higher and higher into absurd prices, and now locking AI behind their newest models is just another way to promote the purchase of the new iPhone 16 lineup that is coming out in September. As a user of the iPhone 13, I’m pretty sad that my phone won’t be able to get these new features, but I won’t get super upset since I was just saying that I don’t think these new features are all that great.
Anway, let me know if you have topics you’d like me to discuss or questions in general. You can reach me at techtabloidblog@gmail.com.
What Is An iPad…
On May 7, the new iPads dropped. Each one is slightly better. Each one is faster. Each one has longer battery life. But who needs that? Apple dropped the thinnest Apple product of all time in the new iPad 11 Pro. They also dropped the newest Apple Pencil Pro. But who is going to by the (at its cheapest) $1000 iPad for a slight spec bump and for a thinner experience?
The iPad has always been the ambiguous one in the middle. The Mac and the iPhone. These two legendary products have shaped what a smart device is. They are fast, capable, and well known. But most importantly, they have a specific use case. The iPad and the Apple Watch have always been the products that people buy, but they don’t have a super specific use case. The Apple Watch is for very specific people: people who want to always be connected or want a solid way to track their fitness. The Apple Watch has now become a flex, just a way to flex the money somebody has. The iPad has followed a similar path, being an expensive toy or expensive distraction for your kids. iPad wants to be a mini computer. They act like every body needs one for when they don’t want to use their computer or their phone. I only understand this in one case: for artists. It makes os much sense for artist to want to draw and have it automatically on the internet. Otherwise, I think the iPad is a poorly marketed product. The iPhone and the Macs are a dynamic duo, and it is simply unnecessary to get an iPad without being someone who needs that for their specific job.
Maybe at WWDC, Apple’s web developer conference, the new iPadOS will bring a whole new level of AI capabilities and use-cases for the iPad, but until then, the iPad will be in its own genre of Apple, in a bubble of insane computational and graphics capabilities, but nothing to do with it.
Me Time: Brawl Stars and the State of Mobile Games
In the world I’m in, everyone is playing Brawl Stars. I played it too, but the success of Brawl Stars sheds light on the state of mobile gaming right now.
Brawl Stars is a multiplayer game that lets you play in matches against random people across the globe, but also gives you the opportunity to compete with friends. I think its brilliant how there are multiple types of progression: unlocking all the characters, getting more “trophies” (which just show how much you play basically), and recently a tier based mode that shows just how good you are at the game (and these are just some of the ways to progress). But why Brawls Stars? Why not one of the other Supercell games, which all have multiple elements of progression? I think there are two big reasons.
Firstly, it is based on instant gratification. Games like Clash of Clans, Hayday, and Boom Beach are all slower based games, focusing on expanding your empire (village or farm) and upgrading that empire to become a stronger player. But upgrades take a long time once you get far enough in the game, and expanding takes even longer. But what about Clash Royale, you might ask. While it is fairly fast-paced game and has multiple forms of progression, I think it is missing one crucial aspect that Brawl Stars has: connection with friends. I played Clash Royale for maybe 3 days a few years ago, but it was just frustrating, and there was no group aspect of the game that made me want to play more. Brawl Stars, however, makes me want to gain more trophies than my friends, compete in group events to earn special rewards, and even lets you play with friends within the basic modes in the game.
I think Brawl Stars is the new top dog in the mobile gaming market, and that might be true for a while as Brawl Stars continues to gain popularity and even making TONS of money ($105.98 million in 2023).
Feel free to share your thoughts about Brawl Stars or the state of mobile gaming by emailing me at techtabloidblog@gmail.com.
Me Time: Where Is A Good Sports Widget?
Welcome back to me choosing what I want to write about.
Okay, I’ve been trying to find a good sports widget for the past year or so. Here’s all the apps I’ve tried:
Superfan
Bleacher Report
Sports Alert
Yahoo Sports
Apple Sports
theScore
Real Sports
Fox Sports
NBC Sports
That is too many. For how many I tried, there should be at least one good sports widget that tells me the score of my favorite teams. But they always have some stupid feature. Superfan only lets you choose one team, theScore and Sports Alerts’ widgets just look bad. All the other ones either don’t have one or aren’t good. The one I’ve landed on is Bleacher Report, and even that is never updated and look bad. But why is it so hard to make one? It’s just taking my favorite teams page and squishing it into a rectangle. Here’s what I want:
Updates once a minute
Shows my favorite teams
Let’s me rank my teams so that if I like a team more, that will show over the baseball team barely like
Matches system setting for light/dark mode
Allows individual sports, like F1 and PGA
I’m not an app developer, but based on the complexities of these respective apps, I don’t think this is too big of an ask.
Until then, I’ll just wait to see if ESPN can drop a good widget. (They won’t.)
Cybertuck Recalls and What It Means for EVs
In recent headlines, Tesla's Cybertruck recalls have stirred up significant attention within the electric vehicle (EV) community. Among the issues highlighted is a concerning accelerator malfunction, raising questions about the vehicle's safety and reliability.
The severity of this recall extends beyond mere inconvenience; it poses a substantial challenge to Tesla's reputation and market standing. With safety at the forefront of consumer concerns, potential buyers may now be inclined to explore alternative EV brands like Rivian, seeking assurance and peace of mind.
This development could potentially level the playing field in the EV market, prompting a reevaluation of brand reputation and consumer trust. While Tesla has historically been a frontrunner in the industry, the recalls underscore the importance of accountability and transparency in maintaining customer loyalty.
However, it's essential not to underestimate Tesla's ability to address challenges effectively. With a proven track record of innovation and resilience, the company has the potential to navigate through this setback and emerge stronger than before.
As the EV landscape continues to evolve, it's crucial for both manufacturers and consumers to prioritize safety and integrity. The Tesla Cybertruck recalls serve as a reminder of the dynamic nature of the automotive industry and the importance of adaptability in the face of change.
Moving forward, it will be interesting to observe how Tesla responds to these challenges and how the broader EV market landscape evolves in light of these developments. Stay tuned as we navigate through this unprecedented terrain together.