Opinion pieces & commentary

Last year, Apple debuted Digital ID on iPhone, allowing users to use their US passport as identification in Apple Wallet. Apple’s been rolling out drivers licenses in Wallet slowly over the past few years, but that’s on a state-by-state basis. Digital ID is universal, allowing anyone with a passport to use it.

Of course, you can use it at TSA checkpoints in airports – but Apple had a bigger scope in mind: digital age and identity verification. While not yet confirmed, it’s possible that we could see a first major implementation of this quite soon, in Claude.

In my roundup of what I saw as the 11 key AI features announced by Apple at this year’s WWDC, I said that the camera features seemed extremely well thought through.

In the two weeks since, my view has been very much reinforced. The Clean Up tool is now significantly more powerful, while the Reframe and Extend tools address similar real-life needs …

While macOS 27 introduces lots of new features, it does have a few drawbacks. One of these appeared to be that it bricked Time Capsules.

A Microsoft engineer has found a way to maintain compatibility, but it really just leads me to renew my belief that Apple needs to revive the product …

It’s not unusual for both hardware and software companies to make claims about faster performance for new models and new software releases. I generally roll my eyes a little at these since they often refer to tiny improvements that would hardly be noticed in real life usage.

Apple has claimed more than 40 speed improvements in iOS 27, and I have to say that I did do a little eye rolling …

Vibe coding has shaken the App Store. As stated at WWDC, over 1000 apps are being submitted every hour. Apps can be built substantially faster now – creating a flood of submissions. This is a bit of an issue when there’s only one true method of distributing apps on iPhone, at least in most of the world.

Apple recently introduced a higher review bar for App Store submissions, and while that’s certainly a step in the right direction – I don’t think it’s a full solution.

In asking one big question and highlighting 11 key features about iOS 27, I said that the Liquid Glass debate was over. Apple introduced a slider that enables everyone to choose their exact desired degree of transparency, including effectively switching off the effect altogether.

But in running the developer beta on my main iPhone with the Liquid Glass effect maxed out, I’d now argue that the company has done far more than this …

A number of people have been complaining that the new Siri demos during the keynote videos were a little on the slow side. There were notable lags of several seconds between Siri requests and the task being carried out.

But while the ideal we’re aiming for is for AI tasks to be carried out as quickly as possible, what we saw is kind of good news …

Yesterday’s WWDC 2026 keynote was a very different beast to its predecessors – and not just because the company spent more than ten minutes talking about child safety and screen time in response to growing concerns by regulators.

The structure of the keynote presentation was completely different to what we have seen in the past, but we can expect this to be the new normal …

Almost two years after Apple first showed off a video promoting the new Siri and lots of exciting new Apple Intelligence features, that future has finally arrived – at least in first beta form.

The company had a lot of ground to make up. Obviously, the test will be how well the new features work in real life usage, but let’s start with what seemed to me to be the most important things the company announced …

Over a decade ago, with the launch of the of the Apple TV HD and the first version of tvOS, Apple set off on a rather unsuccessful journey to turn the Apple TV into a gaming platform. The efforts have largely died off, but I think this year could potentially mark the beginning of a renaissance, if Apple wanted to. Let’s outline it.

A report a year ago said that we could expect an Apple Vision Air product in the second half of 2027. This was expected to address both of the issues that have led to the Vision Pro being such a niche product.

This week brought two reports suggesting that we may have to wait significantly longer for a Vision Air, if indeed we ever see one at all …

It’s more than 18 months since I wrote an opinion piece suggesting that while the wait for the new Siri is frustrating, the privacy payoff would be worth it.

A lot of time has passed since then, and of course user frustration at the ongoing delay has grown significantly. While goodwill has undoubtedly been lost, a recent announcement does provide some hope that privacy may still rescue the company’s tarnished reputation in AI …

Granted, there’s probably at least one person who says that any given Apple TV show is the best. But if you’re not watching Widow’s Bay, you are really, really missing out.

One of the core Apple Intelligence features to date has been Visual Intelligence. It started off in a rather limited capacity through Camera Control, but with iOS 26, the company expanded it to screenshots. I’ve found those capabilities very useful thus far, and I’d love to see Apple take it even further with iOS 27.

Introduced in iOS 16, Focus Filters are excellent in premise. If you’re in say, a Work focus, you can block out distracting apps, websites, and notifications. It even works in Messages, where you’ll only see texts from people in your Work focus.

There’s one caveat with its implementation in Messages though, and it makes it much less useful for me than it could be.

The appeal of Apple devices has always been a mix of hardware quality and software features, with the wider ecosystem absolutely key. Effectively, Apple devices gain value as soon as you have more than one of them.

Handoff is a perfect example. You can begin working on a document on your Mac, seamlessly continue on your iPad, and then make some last-minute changes on your iPhone. Google is now cloning this feature in Android 17 …

Whenever the new Siri finally launches, it’s going to be the most privacy-respecting AI chatbot out there, with an additional privacy feature reported yesterday.

We already knew that Apple’s agreement with Google will mean that Siri is not allowed to be used to train the Gemini model, and Bloomberg is now reporting an option to automatically delete our Siri conversations …

Apple’s stock Camera app started out with a very straightforward goal: it was intended to allow anyone to pick it up, press a button and get a decent result. It essentially made an iPhone the ultimate point-and-shoot camera.

Over the years, however, the app has grown increasingly sophisticated. While that may be a good thing, it has been accompanied by growing complexity. Finding the setting you want can involve a lot of guesswork about where it is found in the ever-expanding UI. Fortunately, it seems that iOS 27 may solve this problem …

It’s more than two years since we first started hearing reports about AirPods with cameras and the latest of these seems to suggest we’re getting relatively close to launch.

There have so far been conflicting reports about the purpose of the cameras, but Bloomberg does now very clearly indicate that it’s to support Apple intelligence features …

For the most part, iPad has dominated the tablet market – and that probably won’t be changing anytime soon. In recent years, though, I think many people have been struggling to come up with reasons to buy a new iPad – especially when the previous generations have been so good. While this likely isn’t a huge problem quite yet, I do think it raises some questions going forward.

This year, Apple is rumored to be doing a code cleanup for iOS 27, as well as overall having a renewed focus for stability and performance – on top of a plethora of Apple Intelligence features. While this on its own sounds good, I think there’s a higher reason for why we should expect an impressively stable release.