2025-09-11 21:00:00
MacPsych on his blog: What is a phone anyway...?
I’ve not had any groundbreaking epiphanies, but I have read lots of differing perspective online, from fanboy exclamations of ‘the best phone everrrrrr!’ through to the much more realistic ‘it’s just a fucking phone’.
As time passes, I find myself moving much more towards to the latter perspective.
And Lee Peterson linking to the above piece:
It’s just a phone – mine needs to take nice pictures, keep me in contact with friends and families, help me stay on track with things I need to do and be an audio player.
These are very reasonable takes to have, and honestly, I think they're how most people think about phones. Everybody has different product categories where they feel this way as well. For me, it's cars. There are some people who are passionate about cars, who keep up to date with what car companies are releasing, and obsess over the details when they have the privilege of buying a car. Personally, outside of some racing, I don't care about cars at all, they're just a means to an end for me.
Everyone's got hobbies and those hobbies make them care and spend money on things that other people go, "what's so exciting, it's just an XYZ?" Different strokes, as they say.
2025-09-11 12:20:50
It's iPhone week and I should be thinking mostly about iPhone specs and Apple Watch quirks, but here I am reacting to the news of the day, Charlie Kirk's murder. Of course, mindless partisans like Elon Musk will say this is proof that only the left is violent, but that's absolute nonsense. As Reid J. Epstein writes for the New York Times, Acts of political violence are now part of the American fabric.
Before Charlie Kirk, a right-wing political activist, was fatally shot on a college campus in Utah on Wednesday, there were two attempts to assassinate Donald J. Trump last year while he was the Republican nominee for president; a Passover firebombing at the residence of Gov. Josh Shapiro, Democrat of Pennsylvania; middle-of-the-night shootings of Democratic state lawmakers in Minnesota; and a man officials said was fixated on the coronavirus vaccine who killed a police officer in a shootout at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta.
That is all just since last summer.
The problem is that politics has gotten too fundamentally violent, and I will say that definitively, there is one party in the US which revels in violence against their opponents. One that shares videos of minorities getting roughed up by masked men as though they were memes. One that takes glee in tearing people from their homes and sending them to third world countries. One that had supporters who wanted to hang the (Republican!) Vice President in 2021, only to be told they were brave heroes 4 years later. One that celebrates the idea of the federal government invading cities run by their opponents so they can "find out why it's call the Department of WAR". Yes, the president posted that over the weekend with an AI-generated image of Chicago being napalmed…
I don't support political violence, and assassinating a political pundit, no matter how vile their message is, is completely unacceptable, and is horrible. But don't believe for a second that this violent rhetoric or action is coming primarily from the left just because you have the memory of a goldfish.
2025-09-10 20:25:57
I've had a little time to sleep on it, and I think yesterday's iPhone update is set to be the best year-on-year upgrade to the iPhone line in many years. This stands in contrast to previous years where, for example, the iPhone 16 lineup was basically a spec bump and a new button that most people think is over-engineered, or the iPhone 15 line, which did improve the industrial design with titanium but didn't change the actual functionality significantly. Then there was the iPhone 14, which was literally just a repackaged iPhone 13 with almost zero other updates. Yes, there have been good updates in the mix, but we've certainly moved on from the era when one year's iPhone was significantly more compelling than the previous year's model. Hell, in my iPhone 16 Pro review on YouTube last year, I said that smartphones have entered their laptop era, where these iterative updates are pretty much what we can expect year over year. What's notable about yesterday's event is that Apple released three new iPhones, all of which I think represent pretty significant upgrades over last year's models.
Let's start with the iPhone 17, the base iPhone, which got a lot of the features that Pro phones have had for a while and have really frustrated people like me who pay attention to more than just Apple and understand how far behind the curve Apple was on some core technology for their $800-1,200 iPhone lineup.
In addition to the spec bump we would expect with the new processor, Apple also gave this phone ProMotion, increased the base storage to a very reasonable 256GB, and kept the price exactly where it is. They made significant updates to both the rear and front cameras, and this is just a pretty outstanding new iPhone that honestly has very few compromises. I think it's a meaningfully better product than what Apple has been selling with the iPhone 16.
Then there's the iPhone Air, which, as I wrote yesterday, is not the logical phone for almost anyone to buy. But it is a cool phone. Every single person I have seen who has actually held it is completely blown away by its existence. And while they all seem to say it's not the phone for them, I can definitely see people going to an Apple store, picking up this phone and thinking, damn, this is something new and exciting. How many of them will actually buy it? I don't know, but I think it is a genuinely cool phone that makes trade-offs that aren't right for me and probably aren't right for you, but they're very interesting. And just like the MacBook Air many years ago, one may expect that in time, the trade-offs required to achieve a form factor like this will ease up, and this could become the norm, which I think is pretty cool. Say what you will about the practicality of this phone, but it's not boring.
Which brings us to the iPhone 17 Pro, which feels like Apple has given themselves permission to just go all out with this device.
It seems like their thinking is that the iPhone 17 is a good purchase for almost anybody, and the iPhone Air will fill the gap for people who bought the Pro phone because they wanted a nicer iPhone, not necessarily ProRes video and all of the enhanced technology of the Pro devices. These new Pro phones are the antithesis of the iPhone Air. They are function first and foremost, and they cram as much raw technology as they can into the form factor. It really feels like Apple has found success getting the iPhone Pro lineup into the hands of filmmakers and creators because that's really what they've leaned into significantly over the past few years, and it was cranked up to 11 at this year's event. To be clear, I think that much like the Apple Watch Ultra, this model will sell to many people who don't need these features and just like having a bomb-ass phone with crazy battery life, but Apple's split the Pro buyer segment in two: people who want the sleekest iPhone and those who want the powerhouse iPhone.
The ability to shoot ProRes RAW is very powerful for video creators who need control over their footage, and even features like being able to synchronize dozens of iPhones so that you can do shots such as bullet time slow-mo is just remarkable.
That doesn't mean you're going to buy a hundred iPhones and recreate The Matrix yourself, but it does differentiate the iPhone from other premium phones on the market, and for the right audience, it is a significant upgrade that makes this a no-brainer for them and could unlock new possibilities in their workflows. When I think about this year's upgrade compared to last year's iPhone 16 Pro upgrade, which was a really minor change (basically just, do you want a camera button?), this feels quite significant.
We should, of course, reserve final judgment until we have actual units in hand and can review them. But I came out of this event more excited about the new iPhone hardware than I have been in many years. And I wanted to give a shout-out to that feeling because we don't get it that often in the current world of smartphones.
2025-09-10 09:44:04
For the first time in well over a decade, I wasn't able to watch the Apple iPhone announcement live, and I just finished watching it now. I haven't been online all day, so I have no idea what other people have said, which is a great way to write a blog post like this. Here are my initial impressions from just watching the announcement video.
These look like a very solid update to what I think are the best all-around earbuds in the world today. The translation stuff looks quite nice, although it's unlikely this is something I would use personally (much of this has been on the iPhone for a few years and it just hasn't come up for me). More interesting from my perspective is the improved noise cancellation, which they advertise as 2x as good as the current AirPods Pro. I'm interested in this largely because I still hear a ton through the noice cancellation on mine, and I really don't get it when people saywith confidence that AirPods block "everything" out…like it absolutely doesn't, there's more room to improve, and it's good to see this continue that trend.
I'm also interested in the heart rate sensor and workout tracking that you can do with them. I recently considered ditching my Apple Watch and going with a traditional watch, and the main thing that shut down that thought process was losing the workout tracking. Yes, I know other bands and rings exist that do this, but I don't want to have to remember to put on an accessory to track a workout. The magic of the Apple Watch is that I'm already wearing it, and so I never forget it. That said, I never do a workout without my AirPods, so if the AirPods can do the essential tracking for me, that may reopen this idea in the future.
The other benefits around battery life and sound quality are always welcomed, although frankly, the old ones were more than good enough for my needs, so they're more bonus upgrades than things I was dying to get.
Will I buy? Yeah, I think so, but not right away. I'm perfectly happy with my current buds and as we'll see below, I've got other things to spend money on.
Automatic hypertension and increased battery life are the things that stood out the most to me here. I'm always a fan of automatic health tracking that simply notifies you when something could be amiss, and the battery life is a big deal to me as someone who uses an Ultra mostly because of the increased battery performance. The Series 11 gets 24 hours, up from the Series 10's 18 hours, but it still comes up far short of my Ultra 2's 36 hour metric, so it's unlikely this is gonna be the watch for me. It definitely makes it more of a contender than before, though.
Oh, and it's not a huge deal, but it's interesting that this is maybe the first Apple Watch Series model to not come with an SoC upgrade.
Will I buy? Nah, not for me.
I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting to care about the SE 3, but this is the first time I can say I think the Watch SE might actually be pretty great. It's sporting the same processor and most of the features of the Series 11, including the always-on display. At the same $249 price as before, this has turned into a watch I can easily recommend to literally anyone who's looking at buying an Apple Watch.
Will I buy? Nah, but I really like it.
It's such a little thing, but I'm so happy to see the bezel on the Ultra get shrunk down this year. I remember when I originally bought the first Apple Watch Ultra a few years ago, and it was pretty shocking how substantial the bezel was compared to the Series 7 I was graduating from. There's still more to do here, but progress is progress.
Then the 42 hour battery life made me unconsciously go, "fuuuuuck yeah".
The Ultra also catches up to the Series updates from last year getting the better wide-angle LTPO3 display tech which allows for improved visibility and the ability to see seconds on the always-on display.
Will I buy? Bruv, I'm an Apple Watch sicko from way back, my pickup order is already scheduled for release day.
Can I get a hallelujah for the death of 60Hz displays on iPhones? Ah, that feels nice. It's a few years late compared to budget Android phones, but now that we have it, I can stop bringing up this hilarious technology gap in the market. And not to be a pill, but one benefit Apple touted that ProMotion delivered in this phone was improved battery life from the ability to ramp down the refresh rate as well. It's win win win and I'm so happy I can stop needing to convince some fanboys that this should be a standard feature on some of the most expensive phones in the world.
In general, the thinner bezels on this phone make it really feel very much like the outgoing Pro phones, which is great to see.
The selfie camera really surprised me. The square sensor is awesome, letting you take portrait and landscape selfies without rotating the phone, cranking up to 18MP at the most minimal crop. The addition of stabilization and Center Stage for video are cherries on top of what I think is a low-key killer camera update.
The rest of the phone seems totally fine. The A19 is 20% faster than the A18, the colors are not as good as last year in my opinion but decent, and the rear cameras are both 48MP and seem like they've inherited iPhone 15 Pro or 16 Pro tech, which is common in the main iPhone line.
Will I buy? Nope, although ProMotion means it's the first basic iPhone I'd be able to tolerate in years.
Okay, this phone looks really sick. It's not the most important thing to users, but as a fan of technology, the thing that stood out most to me here was that the entire phone's guts basically live in the camera hump. The A19 Pro, all the storage and controllers live up there and the rest of the phone is allllllll battery. I just think that's cool. And if it matters to you, its 5.64 mm thickness ekes out the Samsung Galaxy Edge's 5.8 mm.
The battery life will have to be proven out in real world use, but the fact that Apple advertises it as having the same video playback time (the only real metric they give for battery life) as last year's iPhone 16 Pro, which I found to be perfectly good enough, and it seems like a phone I could use.
The single camera setup is definitely a bummer, even if we knew this was coming. I know I would personally miss the other lenses, even if I'd usually be okay with just the one 48-megapixel sensor. Again, given the fact the entire rest of the phone lives in the camera hump, I can see why they didn't have space for a second rear camera. It's definitely a trade-off, though, so buyers will need to consider that.
I guess my overall impression of this phone is that it's a bit of a novelty. I don't necessarily mean that in a bad way, but this isn't the phone someone buys if they're being practical, it's the phone someone buys if they want something exciting.
Will I buy? I'm a sucker for novelty, but I don't think the trade-offs for battery and cameras compared to the other iPhones would make sense for me.
Oh boy, I'm worried about this one…not because it looks bad, but because I think it looks sick and I can't wait to get one. Like I'm genuinely excited to get this phone in a way I haven't in a number of years, and I'm worried this is an unpopular opinion. Oh well!
First off, they basically had me when I saw the bold orange color was real. There were rumors in the last few weeks that the orange was actually more like the current desert color that I actually don't like on the iPhone 16 Pro, so I was really happy to see that this actually is more like the Apple Watch Ultra's orange.
Second, I'm more on board with the new Plateau design that they're using in the Air and Pro lines now that I know that they are aggressively moving components into that space so that the rest of the phone body can be battery. The battery life Apple advertises for the 17 Pro is equivalent to what the 16 Pro Max gets today. As an owner of the 16 Pro Max, I can say that's awesome and is effectively unlimited battery on almost any day with any amount of usage.
The camera system looks like a good upgrade as well, with all 3 rear cameras getting 48MP sensors, complete with a few new genuinely professional level features that most people will never use, but add onto the many reasons that when professional filmmakers need to shoot with the phone, they basically always go with an iPhone unless it's for a brand deal with someone else.
Although can we stop for a second and recognize that the way Apple advertises the cameras on these phones is borderline dishonest? They say it's "Like having 8 pro lenses in your pocket", but let's be real, it's 3 lenses with 5 additional crop presets. They're good crops, I'll give them that, but I find this advertising sketchy and I am convinced the rest of the Apple punditry would say the same thing if it was Samsung doing this. Also it is a little funny to have rumors of a complicated moving aperture that would shift between 4x and 8x zooms, only to find out it's actually just a crop in on the 4x sensor.
Back onto the good stuff, I'm ever hopeful that the couple years of hot iPhones comes to an end with the improved cooling system. Another aside, I wonder how heat will be on the iPhone Air given its A19 Pro is at the top of the device, away from your hands.
I'm also interested in the "better anti‑reflection" the mentioned in passing in the video and on the marketing site, and as someone who adores the anti-reflective Galaxy S25 Ultra display, I can only hope this puts the iPhone in the same ballpark. Once you see it, it's hard to go back to any other display.
On the material change, I am interested to see what it's like to have a phone with a partially aluminum back again. It's been all glass since 2017's iPhone X and 8 lineup, so I wonder how that will feel in the hand. It was a little funny to hear them say "it's no longer glass at all, like iPhone Air, we're using Ceramic Shield for the back," which is also of dubious truth. Ceramic Shield is glass with ceramic nano crystals embedded in it to enhance its durability. Not a huge deal or anything, but it's weird to use a strong glass and then say it's not glass.
The context in which I'm looking at this phone is as someone currently testing out the best phone Samsung makes, the Galaxy S25 Ultra, which is very nice in many ways, but this new iPhone's hardware looks to outclass it in basically every way.
Will I buy? Yeah, especially since it'll just be $400 out of pocket with my trade in. Don't fight me for the 256GB regular Pro in orange on pre-order day, please. 😉
Now, I couldn't help but notice for the first time maybe ever, Apple filmed a few segments from outside southern California. Even more surprising, the iPhone Air and 17 Pro segments had Apple execs presenting from the war torn streets of Chicago and New York City. Here are some photos from the battlefield.
Absolute carnage, I hope they're okay. And to the fascist Donald Trump, keep your masked goons out of our cities. Thank you for your attention on this matter.
2025-09-08 23:11:41
Today, I'm happy to announce the next era of the Comfort Zone podcast: Cozy Zone.
Cozy Zone is a weekly bonus episode for Comfort Zone where Niléane, Chris, and I invite people to join us in the Cozy Zone where we're cover extra topics, invent wilder challenges and games, and share all our totally great (and maybe not so great) takes on tech. There's a longer writeup on MacStories as well.
Nothing is changing with Comfort Zone itself and it will continue to release Thursday like normal, this is just a new, mini-show coming out each Monday for subscribers only.
To get an idea what you're getting into, we're releasing the first episode for everyone in the main feed, and paid subscribers will get a new episode every week starting next Monday.
You can subscribe to Cozy Zone for $5 per month or $50 per year.
And have you seen that artwork???? So good!
2025-09-06 22:00:04
Let's get through my feelings on the most corporate of corporate companies buying the browser company who said they didn't care about corporate power users.