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Tech

iOS 26 review one year later

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Most of the conversation around iOS 26 got lost behind social media’s need for it to be as controversial a change as iOS 7. The bigger story is the lack of a revitalized Apple Intelligence.

My iOS 26 review is going to focus on the changes that actually affected our day-to-day use of the iPhone. There are a lot of new features, app updates, and the Liquid Glass material, but the elephant in the room is the ongoing delays in AI.

If you’re here for me to pile onto the Apple failure bandwagon, this isn’t the review for you. In fact, I am still fully of the opinion that Apple’s admittedly embarrassingly slow start in artificial intelligence might be one of its biggest victories in tech in decades.

Apple didn’t plan for it to go this way, but boy is it shaping up to be quite the coup. The true winner of the AI race was the one that waited to start the race after all of the others paved the track and painted the finish line.

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I’ll get to the AI of it all and my thoughts at the end of this review, but for now, let’s actually discuss what iOS 26 actually gave us.

iOS 26 one year later review: Liquid Glass

As I sit here and write this on an iPad Pro connected to an external display, my Slide Over window of Drafts has a clear glass edge. The YouTube video playing underneath of the 2025 WWDC keynote bleeds through colors splashing across the edge of the video.

iPhone lying on a wooden surface, screen displaying colorful widgets including weather, photos, health and activity rings, app icons, and a small map in the lower-right corner

iOS 26 review: Liquid Glass is more obvious in some places, less in others

Liquid Glass wasn’t limited to iOS 26, but I’ll keep my conversation about it limited to that platform. The new material stands out most on the Home Screen and Lock Screen.

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Every Apple app quickly adopted the new material throughout. Popover lists are a smoky glass, icons and buttons have a distinct glassy edge, and everything is reflective.

If an object moves in front of another object, some of the underlying layer peeks through. Grab an element and it warps and moves as you interact with it.

Sliders behave like bubbles while more elements move into menus. The entire design philosophy focuses on minimalist presentation with flashy visuals.

Minimalist UI mockup with translucent rounded buttons, sliders, and plus and diamond icons on a light grid background, featuring blue, green, and rainbow color accents

iOS 26 review: Liquid Glass changed how elements looked across the platform

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The driving force behind Liquid Glass is Apple Silicon. I have no doubt that Apple’s claims about other smartphones being unable to replicate the material are true.

I personally enjoyed the introduction of Liquid Glass. It had its flaws, and still does, but it was an interesting departure from the flat and boring state iOS was in.

The biggest winner of Liquid Glass was the intuitive UI interactions. When you tap a button, the menu appears where the button was tapped, for example.

The Lock Screen and Home Screen really take advantage of Liquid Glass too. You can either have a completely transparent set of icons or tint everything to be a specific color.

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Close-up of a modern smartphone's top screen showing blue app icons, time 4:20, muted icon, SOS and WiFi indicators, front camera pill cutout, on a gray fabric background

iOS 26 review: Liquid Glass isn’t going anywhere

Apple’s slow evolution of Liquid Glass is apparent throughout the iOS 26 release cycle. Small changes have been made with each update, but it has fallen short of giving users the ability to turn the material off entirely.

If you’re holding your breath for such a button, it is best to stop waiting. Apple has made it clear the Liquid Glass will be mandatory for all apps soon and it isn’t going anywhere.

Expect more refinements over time, but this Apple Silicon-driven UI is here to stay.

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Of course, this is a review of iOS 26 after a year of dealing with it, so let’s move past the refresher.

iOS 26 one year later review: customization

One of the more surprising aspects of iOS 26 and Liquid Glass is just how many people in my life noticed it. Not only did they notice, but they were genuinely happy with it and utilized the new customization features.

Three overlapping iPhones with dark, minimalist home and lock screens displayed, featuring large digital clock, control center, stock widget, calendar widget, and app icons on a patterned black background

iOS 26 review: Customization options from the Home Screen to the Lock Screen

Several jumped on the new transparent icon setting for the Home Screen. Though, beyond that and the new clock on the Lock Screen, there’s not much else to speak of.

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That isn’t to say these aren’t significant changes, but just fewer overall compared to previous years. I’m happy that Apple is still committed to pushing customization forward each year, but iOS 26 was the bare minimum.

The new material likely took up any attention Apple might have otherwise had to develop new customization options. I expect iOS 27 will have more and likely have a focus on any Liquid Glass improvements.

Since Liquid Glass was more of a reskinning of iOS than a full redesign, I didn’t feel the need to rethink my Focus Modes or Home Screens as much as I might have usually. I tried the transparent icons on a fitness Focus, but otherwise didn’t bother.

I’m quite happy with the dark icons and tinted wallpaper options.

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Close-up of an iPhone displaying the App Library screen with colorful app folders on a green background, time 3:05 at the top, and blurred multicolored backdrop behind the phone

iOS 26 review: Liquid Glass affects how everything looks

The new clock on the Lock Screen is the star of the show and perfectly showcases Liquid Glass. I never grow tired of it shrinking as I scroll the notifications.

I’ll also give a special shout out to all of the Apple Music design updates. While these aren’t customization options, they make the iPhone look better with animated Lock Screen art.

I do wish that Apple had gone a little further. There shouldn’t be such a small limit to Focus Modes (currently 10), and there needs to be way more Focus Filters available for system actions.

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Apple should also have a much better wallpaper, icon, and widget management system. What we have today works well enough, but it would be better as an independent app.

iPhone screen showing Focus settings list on dark mode with options like Do Not Disturb, Driving, Fitness, Gaming, Mindfulness, Personal, Reading, Reduce Interruptions, Sleep, and Work

iOS 26 review: we’re gonna need more Focus Modes

I love having unique wallpapers and icons, but implementing them requires too many menus. Plus, I wish I didn’t need to have the images in my Photos app to use them as a wallpaper.

Ideally, everything should be going through Files or a separate repository in this theoretical iPhone design app. Perhaps we’ll get some of that soon, as rumors continue to point to iPhone customization via AI.

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iOS 26 one year later review: social

The new unified Phone app layout is one of those changes that annoys people at first, but you can’t go back once you’ve used it. Spam no longer clogs my recents list, and I no longer accidentally dial someone by simply tapping the screen.

iPhone in dark mode displaying phone call filter options, including calls, missed, voicemail, and unknown callers, with a blurred warm background of lights and indistinct shapes

iOS 26 review: a new unified view in the Phone app

While some of my family were reluctant to change the layout, they gave it a shot. The new setup takes great advantage of Contact Posters and makes it simple to access various functions of the Phone app.

I’m still of the mind that there are too many apps in Apple’s social sphere. Ideally, everything would be run through Contacts so there wouldn’t be a need for Phone, FaceTime, and Contacts apps.

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Messages makes sense on its own, but more on that app later.

I make this assertion because the Phone app has the entirety of the Contacts app embedded within a single tab. Perhaps it would be too confusing to suddenly have two very important and prominent apps disappear, but I find the redundancy odd.

The unified layout is a step in the right direction. It puts contacts front-and-center since the contact card is what is shown when you tap on a recent call.

You can even jump straight to a video call or iMessage chat with a long press. Perhaps Apple is heading towards a unified social experience, but it is sure taking its time getting there.

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The changes to the Phone app aren’t all iPhone users got with iOS 26. Perhaps the most impactful updates are Call Screening and Hold Assist.

iPhone call screen showing voicemail-style text transcription of a loan processing team message about a 41000 dollar preapproval with 610 dollar monthly payments and a slide to answer button

iOS 26 review: Call Screening is a very useful spam filter

Call Screening does what it sounds like. Incoming calls are filtered by Siri and the caller is asked to provide a reason for the call. The user can see this interaction from the Lock Screen and decide whether to answer or not.

It isn’t a perfect system. My phone number got onto one of those call lists that seems to call from a near-infinite set of phone numbers each day to “update you on your loan application status.”

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For whatever reason, the spam filter doesn’t catch this, nor does the Siri Call Screening. It’s a robot, not a human, but sounds human enough to make it through.

My phone inevitably rings, and I have to dismiss the call, block the number, then report it as spam. Rinse and repeat this each and every day, and it gets old.

I like this feature and don’t want to turn it off, but the previous “send unknown callers direct to voicemail” was much more efficient. If the call was important, they’d leave a voicemail.

iPhone screen showing Messages settings for Unknown Senders, with toggles for screening unknown senders, allowing notifications, text message filter, and spam filtering, all enabled against a green background

iOS 26 review: Call Screening needs more aggressive options

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Something in the middle would be much better. Siri should screen calls, but only from numbers that fall into the “might be known” category. All unknown numbers I’ve never interacted with before should be immediately dismissed.

The FaceTime app got a similar redesign to the Phone app where it features Contact Posters in a grid. If someone ever left you a FaceTime video message (think voicemail, but video), a thumbnail of that video is shown instead.

I’m not sure anyone in my life knows this feature exists or has ever tried to use it. I really like what Apple has set up here, but I find it annoying that it can only be used if the person you’ve called doesn’t answer.

I think it would be way more fun if I could choose to send a video message on a whim. Like, instead of texting “can I FaceTime you,” let me send a video that shows up in the FaceTime app in the moment I’m trying to share via the call.

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iPhone lying on wooden table, showing FaceTime call screen with several contact photos and names visible, including a highlighted profile of an older man named William

iOS 26 review: FaceTime also got a new unified view

It would also be nice if FaceTime was part of a unified social app, but I’m not sure Apple will ever actually do that.

Finally, the Messages app saw some pretty good upgrades this time around. These might be the ones most users notice and use since they’re a bit more in their face.

The Messages app has a new layout that separates unknown texts, promotional messages, and potential spam into separate categories. There’s also the ability to add backgrounds to every chat.

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Group chats gained typing indicators, and all chats also can utilize polls to get votes from participants. Small, but welcome changes.

The background feature has been quite a lot of fun, especially in group chats. I love that they act as an extra layer of verification that you’re typing into the correct chat.

iPhone Messages app showing a filtering menu overlay with options for Messages, Unknown Senders, Transactions, Promotions, Spam, Recently Deleted, and Manage Filtering against a blurred conversation list background

iOS 26 review: Messages has new filtering options

Just an aside, Apple Vision Pro places the background on a separate layer as the chat bubbles, so it adds an extra cool effect to Messages.

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Some images work better than others as backgrounds. Solid colors and abstracts will always be winners, but the occasional photo or meme works too.

The effect might be a bit overwhelming for some users, so the plain black or white backdrop is still an option.

Outside of Liquid Glass, Apple’s biggest upgrades in iOS 26 focused on social. I’m happy to see that Apple has continued the trend of improving social aspects of its experience with each release.

I’m going to continue to hope for more half-steps into a full-on Apple social media, but these are few and far between. The biggest thing we’re missing today beyond public profiles (i.e. making your Contact card into a public profile) is some kind of public feed. Maybe next time.

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iOS 26 one year later review: apps

There are three apps that Apple released or updated specifically for iOS 26. There’s been a lot of other updates since, and the new Apple Creator Studio, but that’s beyond the scope of this review.

Colorful overlapping Apple app icons, including Photos, Messages, Calendar, Mail, Weather, Home, Podcasts, FaceTime, and other rounded squares, arranged against a dark background.

iOS 26 review: Apple’s apps got some updates too

I think we’ve all grown accustomed to Apple’s new Camera app and the two tabs in Photos. And while some might like Preview, it has become an addition to the “other” folder for many.

I feel like those features have been tread enough over the past year, so I’m going to discuss four main apps in iOS 26: Apple Games, Apple Journal, Safari, and Wallet.

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Apple Games

Never bet on Apple doing something right in gaming. Apple Games sounded like an interesting idea when it was announced, but like other new Apple apps, it kind of fell flat.

Apple Games has all of the necessary parts to be great. It integrates with Apple’s social features like SharePlay, FaceTime, and Messages, and it shows Game Center data.

iPhone screen showing a colorful Crossy Road style game challenge page titled Home and High Score with start challenge button, against a plain blue background

iOS 26 review: Apple Games isn’t well thought out

However, it has failed to become the go-to game hub that it could have been. Like Invites and Journal, Apple kind of released the app into the world without much fanfare.

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It’s better in some ways than something like what Backbone offers. There’s less of a spammy collection of icons and no paid subscription, but it also feels like it is missing something.

When I open Apple Games, it feels like I’m browsing someone else’s iPhone. It seems to have little real awareness of the games I play or what I might want to launch in that moment.

There’s also a notable absence of emulation or streaming apps. If it isn’t from the App Store or Apple Arcade, it doesn’t exist.

Two iPhones on a coral background display Apple Arcade Friends and Library screens, showing game challenges, achievements, updates, and a colorful trophy banner in dark mode interface

iOS 26 review: Apple Games could learn from game consoles

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When I launch my PlayStation 5, I’m met with my most recent games in descending order. Below that list is a selection of news from games I follow.

Apple Games opens to a score a friend beat in a game I haven’t touched in months. It offers to continue playing Apple News, which is where I play the Emoji Game each day.

The social aspects are also lacking. There don’t appear to be any matchmaking tools, nor any way to generate iMessage group chats or SharePlay sessions on the fly.

Apple Games could be a go-to destination for iPhone gaming in the future. Today, it’s a barely functional catalog without direction.

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Apple Journal

There were some much-needed updates to Apple Journal. First, it is now available across iPadOS and macOS, and it has the ability to have multiple journals.

iPhone on wooden desk showing a colorful statistics dashboard with a 600 day streak and various activity insights, partially overlapping a laptop keyboard in the background

iOS 26 review: Apple Journal got quite the expansion

Journal might appear to be a simple app on its surface, but it has the ability to get details from your device to generate entries. The biggest limitation it has today is that these suggested entries are only tied to Apple-based events.

Maps can see where you’ve been, Fitness shares your recent workouts, Music shares what you’ve been listening to, and Photos can donate what you’ve captured. It’s all quite nice, but lacks a few details I’d like to see in iOS 27.

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First, there’s still no good way to get an archive of journal entries from a third-party app into Apple Journal. I’ve got my Day One backed up through various options to ensure I still have those entries, but Apple hasn’t provided an official way to sync them.

I once tried a trusted person’s shortcut to generate each entry with images and text, but it only half worked. It did get on foot in the door for covering my 1,000+ entries, but a lot went wrong too.

So, I’ve spent my spare time going through each day in Apple Journal alongside my Day One journal to see what synced and what didn’t. The parts that are wrong or broken are edited, then the original entry is deleted in Day One.

iPhone screen showing journaling app with 605 day streak, yearly and total entry stats, map of visited places, and list of journal categories on a purple background

iOS 26 review: multiple journals was a must-have feature

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I’ve knocked out chunks, but Day One shows I’ve still got about 962 entries to check. Not ideal.

The only reason I can do this at all is because of the ability to generate multiple journals. I’ve got several.

Journal is the default and where everything goes each day. Imported is my Day One list of entries.

I’ve also got a Memories journal that consists of any entry I want to make based on photos or other information pertaining to a date in the past. For example, if I want to write about something I did on deployment in the Navy, it would go into Memories.

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I have a little-used Dream journal. It’s one of those things that when I need it, I need it, because I can have some pretty surreal dreams.

And finally, I’ve experimented with writing about video games that require a little more thought and planning. I made a Minecraft journal to catalog things I’m building or exploring along with a few screenshots taken that day.

Close-up of a blue smartphone showing a podcast app with colorful show tiles on the screen, against a blurred warm-toned brick wall background

iOS 26 review: Journal suggestions need third-party apps in a future update

Journal is a fun app, and I think everyone should be using it. There’s no need to worry about data scraping for AI use, at least.

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I’ve discussed what I’d like to see from Apple as a social platform in the future, and I think Journal could weirdly be a part of that. Imagine shared journals where each member could submit entries containing the same data that’s available to regular entries.

A friend could create an entry about going out in town with a friend along with map pins, photos, and music they heard. The other members in the shared journal could react and comment to the entry and post their own entries.

Yes, a social media feed, but micro-social. Private, local, free of ads, chronological, and only the people and things you care about.

Come on, Apple, it’s right there.

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My more realistic request is for Apple to let users name the location pins in the map entries. Every time I make an entry at home, I have to go in and change the address to read “Home” instead. It should be automatic.

Safari

Safari benefited from several design upgrades centered around the introduction of Liquid Glass. I heard of many tech nerds looking for a toggle to reverse the changes immediately, but I liked the change and embraced it.

Close-up of an iPhone screen showing a dark-mode article about Apple Vision Pro, with a Safari toolbar bubble displaying appleinsider.com and navigation, refresh, and options buttons over blurred text

iOS 26 review: the bottom address bar is compact and easy to use

I was already a bottom address bar user, so the move to Liquid Glass and even more limited UI was a natural transition. The content gets to own the display while the tools get out of the way.

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There are plenty of screenshots showing that the address bar is unreadable when some images or text are behind it. The thing is, that’s never really a problem because you can just keep scrolling.

There are three distinct control areas in this bottom bar setup. The forward and back buttons are self-explanatory, then there’s the address bar, and finally an ellipsis.

In pure Apple fashion, each of these items has various shortcuts, long presses, and more. For example, long press on the forward/back buttons to see a recents popover.

The ellipsis is very simple as it just opens the tab controls, bookmarking tools, and Share Sheet. It’s not ideal that the Share Sheet button is hidden, but I’m not overly upset.

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Close-up of an iPhone Safari menu showing options like Hide Distracting Items, Manage Extensions, and Show Reader against a solid blue background

iOS 26 review: extension and tab options in one menu

The address bar is perhaps the most complex and sometimes frustrating part of the setup. Long press gets you some window controls, a copy command, the Share Sheet, and a Voice Search option.

In case you’ve never used it, tapping Voice Search just triggers speech to text in the address bar and does a web search with your default engine.

Tapping the address bar lets you type in a URL or search query. There’s also the refresh button on the right.

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Then there’s the tricky left side button that is a puzzle piece with two lines below it. Long press that and you’re in Reader Mode or tap it and it’s a long list of actions.

Be careful though. That button is highly variable as it might briefly show a shortcut to the translate tool or Reader Mode. That’s right, a simple tap doesn’t always perform the same action.

The menu itself is filled with your Safari Extensions and various configurable controls.

iPhone screen showing Safari Page Menu in dark mode with options like Privacy Report, Show IP Address, Print, Report a Website Issue, and Connection Security Details against a plain blue background

iOS 26 review: additional options found in the ellipsis menu

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A new ellipsis at the bottom right of the menu will open an even more complex Page Menu. This section has specific options for the website or page you’re viewing and includes an edit function for customizing the controls in the previous menu.

I don’t think Safari on iPhone has reached its permanent form just yet. It feels a little too fidgety for my liking, though the configuration I’m using is my preference.

The address bar’s ability to shrink and get out of the way while scrolling is excellent. The transparency helps amplify the full-screen effect of the webpage too.

Apple introduced a new Immersive Browsing experience for Apple Vision Pro with visionOS 26. It feels like a combination of the Apple News format (sans ads) and Reader Mode. I’d love to see that evolve and come to iOS Safari.

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Sure, Immersive Browsing would lack the 3D effects found in Apple Vision Pro, but I think it could create quite the interesting experience. I’m already a fan of the simplicity of Reader Mode, so something designed specifically to enhance the browsing experience might be fun.

iOS 26 one year later review: artificial intelligence

Apple may have pulled back on Apple Intelligence during WWDC 2025, but it was peppered throughout the keynote. There wasn’t anything overpromised this time.

iPhone on gray fabric showing language settings and live translation instructions, with two white wireless earbuds resting side by side on the screen

iOS 26 review: Live Translation is an excellent example of a useful AI-powered tool

I haven’t encountered a situation where I might need Live Translation, but I’m glad it is there. The real-world demos I’ve seen of the tool all seem quite promising, and it will only get better over time.

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Visual Intelligence is now part of the screenshot tool. It’s not something I’ve used often, but it has come in handy a few times. Particularly, I like that reverse image search for Google is right in the interface.

Image Playground and Genmoji gained ChatGPT support, which hasn’t proven useful really. Of course, ChatGPT can make better images, but it requires sending your data off device. Even with the added privacy promises between Apple and OpenAI, it still feels icky.

Then of course there’s also the problem with OpenAI clearly having used copyrighted material for references. Every anime-filtered prompt is unmistakably close to a style from a favorite film or show.

I’m not sure Apple can escape that problem even when its own models are better at image generation. However, at least those supposed future models would be on-device or in an Apple server running on renewable energy. It’s not much, but those thoughts help the tools feel a little less gross.

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Close-up of a iPhone bottom screen showing large central circular button, with smaller Ask chat icon on left and Search photo icon on right, above a purple background

iOS 26 review: Visual Intelligence got a small upgrade

Apple also opened up third-party access to Apple Foundation Models, including in Apple Shortcuts. I’m going to be completely honest here and say I’ve basically missed this entire aspect of iOS 26.

I mostly use Apple apps and don’t really deal with AI in any aspect. I don’t use ChatGPT, Claude, or the others, nor do I even have an account with them. I’ve never spent money on a token or done “research” with AI.

I’ve seen some clever adaptations, like Carrot Weather and others utilizing Apple’s models for chatbot experiences and the like. It’s just not for me.

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The closest thing to AI that I use in my day-to-day beyond Proofread in Writing Tools is an app called FoodNoms. It uses OpenAI’s models to scan photos of food or food labels to generate estimated nutritional values.

Package tracking in Mail added to Wallet

I had honestly forgotten that the new Deliveries in Mail (beta) had begun in iOS 26. In preparation for the new feature, I deleted my other package tracking tools and went all in.

iPhone Mail app screen showing a Litter Robot order email, with Siri Found an Order notification and a colorful Summarize button near the top of the dark interface

iOS 26 review: orders found in Mail are sent to order tracking in Wallet

The past year has been filled with quite a lot of packages from all kinds of places: Amazon, SimpleHuman, Best Buy, and a variety of stores that use Shopify.

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As usual, the Shopify purchases go into Apple Wallet natively. Some others support Wallet, but most, like Amazon, appeared when Mail was synced.

The system worked, more or less, but I wish it was 10% more intelligent. For example, if an incoming email has been identified as a delivery update, automatically move that mail to a deliveries folder and mark it as read while adding the data to Wallet.

I could write a mountain on Mail categorization and sorting, but that’s not a part of this review.

iPhone screen showing a dark-mode order status for Litter-Robot, marked Shipped with a green check, UPS listed as carrier, and a blue Track Shipment link below.

iOS 26 review: a good-enough tracking tool buried in Wallet

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So far, I’ve not really missed my other delivery tracking tools, and I like the automatic nature of Apple’s implementation. However, it is far from perfect.

When I buy a game from PlayStation Network, a digital product, I sometimes get a delivery tracking notification in Wallet. Obviously, I can just delete it, but it seems odd that it can’t differentiate between that and an actual delivery.

The feature will improve with time, though there are two significant problems I have with it today.

First, Apple still doesn’t support Wallet order tracking natively. It does now via the Mail tracking option, but that’s silly. Apple should be showing my orders and receipts in Wallet.

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iPhone screen showing a dark-themed shopping receipt for Atoms shoes totaling $264.39, listing two pairs, shipping, tax, subtotal, and total with clear white text on black background

iOS 26 review: native order tracking like what Shop supports even provides in-Wallet receipts

Second, Apple has buried the feature in an ellipsis in Apple Wallet. It is beyond time that Apple Wallet gets a tabbed interface.

The payment cards could be the main tab, then the passes in a second tab, and a third tab for order tracking. I’d even take it a step further and add a special App Store section for the fourth tab, which would showcase apps and services that utilize Apple Wallet.

In any case, there’s work to do.

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Apple Music Playlist Playgrounds

Playlist Playgrounds arrived late in the cycle, but it is still a part of iOS 26 and a bit of a surprise. Apple didn’t mention the feature once prior to its release, so that shows the restraint the company is having post-AI embarrassment.

Close-up of a smartphone music app asking What do you want to hear, showing beta notice and playlist suggestions like Music to put me in a good mood and Morning coffee music

iOS 26 review: Apple Music Playlist Playground produces mixed results

Music playlists are a bit of an art, and I’m not entirely excited to hand their creation over to AI. I’m not particularly talented at putting playlists together either, but I do enjoy Apple Music’s human-curated selection.

I did like Beats Music’s The Sentence, which let you generate a playlist based on presets like activities and moods. It was very clearly machine learning and kind of worked.

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The problem with Playlist Playground is that it lacks understanding and specificity. You can make the prompt as long as you like (at least I didn’t hit a limit), and yet it is clearly looking for very specific keywords.

If you want to generate a playlist that’s based on a genre, era, artist, or song, it will do the job. But something about it seems off.

Honestly, it just feels easier to type in search terms and grab the dozens of playlists already available. I’m not sure AI is solving anything here, but perhaps it’ll get better and more nuanced with time.

The Apple Intelligence problem

Apple obviously made a mistake when it pre-announced an Apple Intelligence that would be proactive and personal in 2024. It believed that the results they were seeing internally could be improved and become shippable by the spring.

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Close-up of an iPhone 17 Pro Max triple-lens rear camera and flash, set against a blurred, glowing multicolor background forming abstract looping shapes

iOS 26 review: the promise of Apple Intelligence still hasn’t been kept

I’m not sure where the fault lies, but clearly the engineers working on Apple Intelligence didn’t account for the inherent failures built into all AI systems. Apple has a high standard, and hallucinating details approximately 30% of the time just wasn’t an option.

There was another problem that Apple seemingly didn’t foresee — Siri.

The aging smart assistant that created an entire software category still runs with a machine learning backend. Apple hoped to just drop Apple Intelligence on top and have the logic sort out the details, but it introduced too many opportunities for error and hallucination.

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That 30% hallucination rate was being multiplied across every exchange between the AI and ML systems. The only option was to scrap everything and build it with AI from the ground up.

Here we are two years later, and Apple is on the cusp of being ready to release what it originally announced, and then some. However, the timing was knocked off kilter once again by unforeseen circumstances.

Glowing multicolored atomic-shaped loop surrounding a soft rainbow diamond on a black background, with a subtle reflection beneath the vibrant neon symbol

iOS 26 review: rebuilding Siri with an LLM backend took some time

All signs pointed to a spring release of something until another strategy shift changed plans. Apple seemingly, until very recently, thought it could use Gemini to train Apple Foundation Models and implement it across its systems before WWDC.

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Cooler heads prevailed, and more restraint has been shown, though to the annoyance of Apple fans that are looking forward to the AI upgrades. It seems, as of this review, that Apple won’t touch anything related to Apple Intelligence or Siri until after iOS 27 launches in the fall.

WWDC 2026 is on June 8 and will reveal the upgrades, but what will follow is a summer of beta testing. There’s actually a fairly good chance that these new AI models won’t even be available until after iOS 27 launches to the public.

Apple doesn’t upgrade its models via the software updates. Those go out via a background process, so there is no telling when such updates could go out.

The only way they might arrive sooner is if Apple lets developers test against them during the summer.

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Red running track finish line with white lane numbers, overlaid by colorful abstract tech logos stacked vertically along the center lane

iOS 26 review: Apple doesn’t need to participate in the AI race

I’ve been talking about Apple Intelligence and its place in the artificial intelligence “race” since its inception. There has been talk about how Apple is behind and could likely never catch up. As if it somehow missed out on a revolution.

The reality is that Apple dodged a bullet.

Had Apple launched the personalized Siri and Apple Intelligence features it revealed in 2024 that October, it would have been ten times worse in terms of PR and backlash. Imagine if Apple’s models had been set loose in that state to parse personal data and provide proactive, contextual actions.

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Every hallucination would have become ammo. We saw a tiny version of this with the poor notification summaries that sparked a backlash from publishers.

In the time since Apple’s AI delays, we’ve seen a bubble grow to its absolute limit. Instead of a violent pop that would have ruptured the global economy, we’ve seen more of a slow deflation in recent months.

iPhone with dark Apple-themed wallpaper, colorful glowing edges, and neatly arranged home screen icons including calendar, Slack, Mail, News, Photos, Messages, and other apps on a black background

iOS 26 review: Apple could release a whole new AI platform backed by its upgraded models

Sure, the grift is going harder than ever, but the public is more jaded than it has ever been so far. And as odd as it might sound, I think Apple’s missteps and delays have led it to stumble into the perfect release window for its new offerings.

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While time will tell if I have to eat these words, I expect Apple will finally launch the AI platform we’ve been waiting for. A private, secure, local-first set of proactive and personalized AI tools that can interact with third-party models of the user’s choosing.

Apple has always been the only company truly capable of executing this, even though others have tried to claim that they’ve done it already.

As soon as fall 2026, iOS 27 users should see Apple Foundation Models powering Siri and Apple Intelligence. Too bad this review is about iOS 26.

iOS 26 one year later review – Pros

  • Liquid Glass is a new, if divisive design
  • Smart changes like having menus appear where a button was tapped
  • A thoughtful rollout of AI features
  • Separating people from spam in social apps
  • Excellent upgrades to apps like Journal and Safari

iOS 26 one year later review – Cons

  • Continued lack of AI features promised in 2024
  • Liquid Glass makes some elements difficult to read
  • Some apps remain neglected and untouched, like Apple Home

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Overall, iOS 26 was a solid release with minimal issues across the board. You’ll find plenty of loud, angry people online, but they’re the vocal minority.

Apple changed the system-wide UI into live-rendered material that showcases Apple Silicon without completely frying the system. It’s an impressive feat, even if not everyone is a fan.

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It is frustrating that a company the size of Apple continues to be stuck in this flip-flop app update cycle. The apps that got attention in iOS 26 will likely be virtually ignored until iOS 28, while others will see some changes in iOS 27.

I expect iOS 27 will be one focused on tweaks and adjustments considering the upheaval that occurred in iOS 26. That, and Apple Intelligence could dominate the WWDC 2026 keynote, for better or worse.

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B&H Slashes MacBook Air to $829 in Limited Time Flash Sale

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B&H is blowing out M4 MacBook Air inventory with prices as low as $829. But supply is limited for this flash deal.

The $829 blowout special applies to the closeout M4 13-inch MacBook Air with an 8-core GPU, 16GB of unified memory, and 256GB of storage when ordered in the Sky Blue finish.

Buy M4 MacBook Air for $829

According to B&H, the deal is scheduled to end on May 15 at 5:05 p.m. Pacific Time, but supply is limited at the reduced price, so the deal may sell out before then.

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With other retailers sold out, B&H’s flash deal delivers the lowest price available on the closeout model. And if you’re looking for the lowest price on the M5 Air that was released in March 2026, it can be found for as low as $998, although you do get 512GB of storage with the entry model.

B&H is also running a sale on MacBook Pros and upgraded M5 MacBook Airs, which you can jump to via our deal coverage below.

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Musk’s xAI is running nearly 50 gas turbines unchecked at its Mississippi data center

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Elon Musk’s xAI is running nearly 50 natural gas turbines at its Mississippi data center, power plants that the state is currently not regulating thanks to a loophole.

The power plants are considered “mobile” by the state of Mississippi because they are sitting on flatbed trailers, thus allowing them to dodge to air pollution regulations for one year. The NAACP, which has filed a lawsuit on behalf of residents in the area, says the unchecked emissions from the turbines is worsening air quality in an already polluted region. This week, it asked the court for an injunction against xAI.

At issue is the “mobile” nature of the turbines. The Southern Environmental Law Center, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the NAACP, says the turbines are being operated in violation of federal law, which says that power plants mounted on a trailer can still be considered stationary and subject to air pollution regulations.

XAI has been granted permits for 15 of its turbines. A Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce press release previously said that “about half” of the 35 turbines in operation in May 2025 would remain on site. However, xAI has continued to install more. Currently, it’s operating 46, according to a local news report.

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Instagram’s new Instants tool is a brazen copycat of Snapchat and BeReal, but at least it keeps things real

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Instagram has never been shy about borrowing ideas, and its latest move makes that clearer than ever. The platform just globally launched Instants, a new feature that lets you share disappearing, unedited photos with your Close Friends or mutual followers.

The standalone Instants app is now available on iOS and Android, which opens directly to the camera when you log in with your Instagram account.

Introducing Instants: the newest way to share photos in real time with your Close Friends (or mutual followers) that disappear after 24 hours and can’t be edited, so you’re sharing your most authentic moments. You can access Instants through @instagram or the new Instants app.…

— Meta Newsroom (@MetaNewsroom) May 13, 2026

How does Instants actually work?

You can also access this tool directly from the Instagram inbox. Just tap the mini photo stack in the bottom right corner of your DM inbox to open the Instants camera.

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Either way, you snap something in real time and send it instantly. No uploads from your photo gallery are allowed, and you cannot edit the image before sending. Recipients can react with emoji, reply, or fire back their own Instants.

No one can take screenshots on Instants, and photos vanish after being viewed once, and anything unopened disappears after 24 hours. In fact, anything unopened disappears after 24 hours.

If you accidentally send something, there is an undo button to take it back before anyone sees it. Your sent photos are saved in a private archive that only you can access for up to a year. You can also compile them into a recap to post to Stories later.

So which app did Instagram copy this time?

Honestly, take your pick. The disappearing photos and one-time viewing are straight out of Snapchat‘s playbook, which has offered ephemeral photo sharing since 2011. The no-edit, share-as-it-happens format is pure BeReal, an app that briefly took the world by storm by pushing users to post unfiltered photos at random times of the day.

Instants also draws comparisons to Locket, a widget-based app focused on sharing candid photos directly with close friends. But this isn’t new for Instagram because Stories was a direct lift from Snapchat, and Reels borrowed heavily from TikTok. Instants continues that tradition without much apology.

But here’s the thing – it might actually be useful

For all the eye-rolling the clone label deserves, Instants taps into something real. Instagram has spent years drifting toward influencer content, brand deals, and algorithmically pushed posts from strangers.

Instants pulls the app back toward what it was originally built for, sharing genuine moments with people you actually know. In a feed full of perfectly lit brand content, a little unfiltered reality is hard to argue with. Whether anyone actually needs it is another question, especially when BeReal never quite held on and Instagram Stories already does the job for most people.

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When it comes to academic authorship, are women at a disadvantage?

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Mary M Hausfeld of the University of Limerick explores how the process by which researchers receive credit for their work can be more complicated for women.

Scientific discoveries rarely happen alone. Modern research often involves teams spanning institutions and even countries. Yet when research is published in academic journals, credit is reduced to a list of names – a list that can shape careers.

Authorship is a key signal of expertise. It influences hiring, promotion and funding decisions. Despite this importance, the process for determining authorship is often far from transparent.

In principle, authorship should reflect intellectual contributions. In practice, decisions about who becomes an author and whose name appears in the most prized position – often first or last – are negotiated within research teams. My research with colleagues has found that women report more negative experiences around authorship decisions.

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Norms vary widely across disciplines, and unclear standards combined with power dynamics can create problems, especially for women researchers.

One of these is ghost authorship: when researchers who meaningfully contribute do not receive authorship. Another is gift authorship: when individuals who do not meaningfully contribute are included as authors.

Deciding who gets credit for a research project is complicated, even when everyone has positive intentions. These collaborations can span years, and individual roles often shift over time. Students graduate, researchers move institutions and projects evolve. As a result, authorship decisions are often shaped not just by contributions, but by a set of informal or ‘hidden’ rules that are rarely made explicit.

These hidden rules can include power dynamics between senior and junior researchers. Junior researchers, such as PhD students and postdocs, often depend on supervisors for funding and future opportunities. This can make it difficult to raise concerns about authorship.

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The standards for determining contributions may be ambiguous. While there’s recently been more discussion about the different ways someone can contribute to a project, authors may disagree about which contributions matter most. For example, how should writing the paper be weighed against collecting or analysing the data?

Fear of reputational harm could also discourage open discussion about credit. Because researchers are concerned about being labelled ‘difficult to work with’ they may avoid raising concerns about authorship, even when the stakes are high.

Gifts and ghosts

To see how these decisions play out in practice, my collaborators and I surveyed more than 3,500 researchers across 12 countries – one of the largest studies of its kind. We asked researchers about their experiences with disagreement about authorship, comfort discussing authorship in their teams and experiences with problematic authorship practices.

We found that questionable authorship practices are remarkably common. In our study, 68pc of researchers observed gift authorship, and 55pc of researchers observed ghost authorship.

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While experiences of authorship were similar across researchers in the natural sciences and social sciences, another pattern emerged. Women researchers reported experiencing more problematic authorship practices in collaborations. They encountered more disagreements over authorship decisions and felt less comfortable raising authorship concerns.

This is especially concerning given what researchers call the “leaky pipeline” in academia – where women are more likely to leave the field or are less likely to progress to senior positions over time. These patterns suggest that the hidden rules of authorship affect women and men differently.

Why it matters

These numbers aren’t just statistics. They represent missed opportunities, strained collaborations and careers quietly knocked off course. Authorship plays a central role in research careers, and even small differences in recognition can accumulate over time. When credit is uneven, opportunities become uneven. This shapes who stays in academia and whose ideas define a field. Over time, this may also push talented researchers away from academic careers or worsen existing inequalities like the leaky pipeline.

Universities rely on collaborative environments that are not only productive, but also fair. Addressing issues with authorship and its hidden rules is essential to continue moving toward better science.

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In a separate study of US PhD-granting universities, my colleagues and I found that fewer than 25pc had publicly available authorship policies. Even when policies did exist, they rarely offered guidance on how to handle concerns or resolve conflicts. Clearer institutional guidance and accessible dispute resolution procedures would provide researchers with a framework to more effectively navigate authorship.

In addition, authorship training can encourage earlier and more open conversations about authorship within research teams, particularly for junior researchers who may feel less comfortable raising these issues. Promoting more transparent documentation of individual contributions can help ensure that authorship reflects the work that was actually done, even as roles evolve over the course of a project. Training would clearly benefit early-career scholars, but would also be important for more senior academics who supervise doctoral students and help shape research norms.

When authorship is transparent and openly discussed, it can empower stronger research teams, more equitable career progression and greater trust in the scientific process. Science is a team effort, and our systems for giving credit should reflect that reality.

The Conversation

By Mary M Hausfeld

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Mary M Hausfeld is an assistant professor in management, at the University of Limerick. Her research focuses on leadership, diversity at work and research methods. Hausfeld is especially interested in the conceptual and methodological gap between what leaders do and how they are evaluated. Her work has been published in outlets including Journal of Management and others. Before joining UL, Hausfeld served as a post-doctoral research associate and head of education at the Center for Leadership in the Future of Work at the University of Zurich. Hausfeld earned her PhD in organisational science from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

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Xbox Project Helix console could ditch the disc drive and go fully digital

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Xbox’s next-gen console might be going fully digital. And if the latest leaks are accurate, Microsoft could finally be preparing the move it almost made more than a decade ago… before the internet collectively lost its mind.

Could Xbox Project Helix completely ditch physical discs?

According to a new report from Windows Central, Xbox is reportedly working on something called “Project Saluki,” which appears to be a new Game Pass initiative designed specifically for the Chinese market. While details remain limited, the report suggests it could involve multiple regional Game Pass tiers and reward systems tailored around China’s unique gaming regulations, spending habits, and player preferences. Considering how important cloud gaming and subscription-based access have become in China, this could be part of a much bigger push for Xbox in the region.

That said, the more interesting part of the report revolves around references discovered inside the Xbox PC app pointing toward a mysterious “Positron” initiative tied to a possible Disc-to-Digital system. Naturally, this has sparked speculation that Microsoft’s upcoming next-gen console, currently known as Project Helix, could launch without a built-in disc drive altogether.

The leaked references suggest Microsoft may be exploring a way for physical game discs to be converted into digital licenses tied to a user’s Xbox account. If true, the idea seems aimed at easing players into an all-digital future without completely abandoning existing physical libraries overnight. Interestingly, Microsoft explored similar concepts during the Xbox One era, but backlash around digital ownership and always-online systems forced the company to back away at the time. The difference now is that the market has changed dramatically, with digital purchases and subscription gaming becoming the norm for a huge portion of console players.

And honestly, Microsoft has been building toward this for years anyway. The Xbox Series S launched as a fully digital console back in 2020, followed by the all-digital white Xbox Series X refresh in 2024. At this point, a disc-less Project Helix would feel less like a surprise and more like the next logical step in Xbox’s long-term Game Pass-focused strategy.

Project Helix may finally push Xbox into its all-digital era

Reports around Project Helix already suggest Microsoft is positioning the next Xbox more like a hybrid gaming platform, blending console simplicity with PC-style flexibility through support for Xbox libraries, Windows features, Steam, and cloud gaming. In that kind of ecosystem, physical discs start feeling increasingly outdated. Even PlayStation reportedly now sees most game sales happening digitally, while Xbox has spent years pushing Game Pass, Cloud Gaming, and Play Anywhere.

Ironically, Microsoft almost tried this exact shift back during the Xbox One era, when digital licenses and always-online requirements triggered massive backlash. But the market has changed dramatically since then. Today, most players already buy their games digitally, which makes a disc-less future feel far more realistic. It would not be surprising if both Xbox and Sony eventually ship fully digital next-gen consoles, potentially with optional external disc drives similar to the PS5 setup. The difference is that Sony benefits from Blu-ray ownership, while Xbox would still have to deal with licensing costs.

Of course, players are not exactly going to celebrate the death of physical games overnight. Going digital is easy for Microsoft. Convincing gamers that they are not losing ownership, flexibility, or preservation in the process is the harder part, especially at a time when Xbox is already trying to rebuild momentum against Sony. That said, these leaks are still very early, and even the original report suggests details are still being pieced together, so for now, this entire situation should be taken with a healthy amount of caution.

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European Union moves to crack down on addictive social media designs targeting children

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Von der Leyen stated that the EC – one of the European Union’s highest governing bodies – is taking action against TikTok and Meta’s social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. The video-sharing platform and Meta’s services are said to rely on engagement-driven features such as endless scrolling, auto-play, and…
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John Roberts Is The Driver Who Wants Credit For All The People He Didn’t Run Over

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from the unkicked-puppies dept

John Roberts has a point: the Supreme Court—even this Supreme Court—sometimes gets things right. Maybe one could even fairly say it often gets things right. After all, just recently it produced good decisions in Case v. Montana, Cox v. Sony, and First Women’s Choice Centers v. Davenport, and arguably even Chiles v. Salazar, along with plenty more that have quietly taken their place in the annals of American jurisprudence with little fanfare but the staying power we look to the Court’s opinions for, to continue to speak well into the future about the contours of our law. These were decisions where there was significant accord among all the justices because the legal questions before them were just not that hard to resolve. Either statutory language, constitutional text, or previous precedent required certain results, and Roberts is correct: this Court is fully capable of producing them.

The issue, however, is that it doesn’t always. And when it doesn’t it is not because it’s getting tripped up by close calls where either the precedent or guiding text isn’t clear, or the facts are so unfortunate that they obscure what the law requires. The issue is that the law is as equally clear in cases where the Court produces deviant results as in the cases where the Court gets things right; it just doesn’t care to follow it consistently. If it wants a different result than what the law directs then that is the result it will find the votes for.

Roberts is of course also right that non-lawyers often can’t tell what the law indeed requires; the general public is much more likely to judge a decision based on how it affects the interests they favor. Which is why Roberts has a fair point to think the Court may be unfairly criticized in decisions like Chiles, First Women’s Choice Centers, or even 303 Creative, cases where interests many understand to be harmful to others nevertheless apparently prevailed. It is difficult, for instance, for non-lawyers to see how a win for those who discriminate is nevertheless a win for those who are discriminated against, because while a win for the former may seem like a loss for the latter in the short term, it’s the rationale being upheld by the decision that will ultimately amount to a more important gain for the vulnerable in the long term.

But one reason people are struggling to see these controversial but correct decisions as fortifications of their own future freedom is because they don’t believe that when their interests are at stake the Supreme Court will still apply the same principles this time in their favor. They fear that the Court will instead find a way to advance the interests it prefers, and it’s a fear that is eminently reasonable. The hypocrisy the justices regularly display in their jurisprudence when one of their favored interests is at stake forecloses any rational person having any faith in them as neutral jurists ably applying the law, even if it’s true that sometimes they are.

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Roberts only has himself and his Court to blame for so many having that view. They have made it impossible for anyone to believe the Court will uphold principle and precedent because of how often it has not. It is happy to change the rules that we must all play by whenever it suits it, redrawing the rights we depend on as well as the ability to use the courts to shape them. And it’s not just laypeople who’ve noticed the problem but legal professionals. It’s lawyers, including members of the Supreme Court Bar who practice before them. It’s law professors, including those who have been teaching new generations of law students what were supposed to be timeless principles of American jurisprudence, which the Court so regularly and casually upends. It’s legal commentators, including those who specialize in watching this court. It is people who are experienced, if not expert—and if not at least as expert as anyone on the Court—in the American legal tradition who are calling foul. They are noticing how the Court keeps inventing arbitrary and imaginary rules, if not also facts, in order to arrive not where the law points but where the conservative justices steering the Court’s majority instead prefer to go.

It might be one thing if it were the rare case here and there in its busy docket where the Court has simply been sloppy in its jurisprudence. But the cases where the conservative majority has refused to produce jurisprudentially conservative results, instead elevating preferred outcomes over precedential reasoning, are hardly the exception; at this point it has become the apparently deliberate rule that when certain issues are on the table—partisan politics, reproductive freedom, LGBTQ+ rights, race relations, to name just a few areas where the conservative justices have particularly strong views—the Roberts Court will eagerly jump in to advance them, regardless of whether either substance or procedure—or consistency—even invites such an intervention, let alone their favored result. In fact it is fairly shocking to encounter the rare occasion where the Court has instead restrained itself—although it is certainly glad to when other interests the conservative majority is less dogmatically interested in advancing are instead on the table.

Furthermore, that its docket is so busy is entirely because the Court has abdicated any pretense of restraint, greedily helping itself to matters that historically would have been regarded as unripe for its consideration. In fact, it is a bit rich for Roberts to complain how the Supreme Court is being unfairly disrespected given the extent to which its new practice of aggressively insinuating itself in substantive adjudication of matters before there even is a lower court ruling or record ready for review has itself undercut the respect due the lower courts. What the Court has been doing, particularly with its Shadow Docket, goes far beyond the appellate review it is normally entitled to do. Not only does the Supreme Court’s incessant snatching of matters away from the lower courts prematurely arbitrarily diminish the lower courts’ power to render considered opinions on the questions before them, but it has also been having the practical effect of undermining their ability to speak with any authority on the law at all, let alone enforce it. Would only Roberts shed the same tears for the insult the lower courts have actually suffered as he does for himself as the cause of it.

Instead, and apparently without any capacity for introspection or self-reflection, he protests that the criticism increasingly directed at the Court is not also increasingly deserved. We should, he insists, be judging his Court based on what it gets right. But we do not celebrate a reckless driver for all the people he didn’t run over, or careless chef for all the diners he didn’t poison, or distracted doctor for all the patients he didn’t kill. In the American legal tradition we judge harshly those who cause injury to the public well-being, especially with behavior beyond the bounds of what law allows.

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And with the Roberts Court there is so much to judge.

Filed Under: consistency, john roberts, partisanship, supreme court

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Apple TV exec leaving to start his own production company

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Morgan Wandell, who has been with Apple TV since before its launch, is now departing the streaming service in favor of launching his own production company.

In 2017, Apple poached Wandell from Amazon Studios to join its team at Apple Worldwide Video. When Apple TV launched in 2019, his title became Head of International Content Development.

While at Apple, Wandell developed and oversaw production of “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters,” “Tehran,” “Disclaimer,” “Masters of the Air,” and “The New Look.”

Now, it seems as though he’s got other plans. Wandell plans on leaving Apple TV to found his own production company, Kismet.

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Kismet will develop and produce premium scripted series for the global marketplace. Its offerings will focus on high-end culturally rooted storytelling.

While he is technically leaving his executive role behind, it seems that he may not be leaving Apple TV entirely. He’s currently in talks with Apple to stay on as a producer on some of his existing projects.

“Helping to build Apple TV’s international slate has been the privilege of my career,” Wandell told Deadline.

“I’m deeply grateful to Jamie [Erlicht], Zack [Van Amburg], and all my colleagues at Apple, and to the extraordinary creators we’ve partnered with around the world. It was a hard personal decision to make this leap from a company as terrific as Apple, but I have always wanted to build a company of my own.”

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Matt Cherniss, Apple TV’s Head of Programming and Domestic Development, will take over the Monarch franchise and other series that were under Wandell’s purview. Cherniss currently oversees other hit series, such as “Ted Lasso,” “Severance,” “The Studio,” and “Pluribus.”

Jay Hunt, Apple TV’s creative director, Europe, will see her role expand to oversee international and local-language originals. She is in charge of British staples “Slow Horses” and “Hijack”, among others.

Before his tenure at Apple, Wandell worked as Head of International Series and Head of Drama Series at Amazon Studios for four years. Before that, he acted as Senior Vice President of Drama at ABC studios, overseeing series including “Lost,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Brothers and Sisters,” “Ugly Betty,” and “Criminal Minds.”

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Microsoft reveals another way it’s making Windows 11 faster, with more performance boosts promised for the likes of File Explorer

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  • Microsoft is working to make WinUI 3 speedier
  • This is the contemporary framework for the user interface of the OS
  • With WinUI 3 being employed more widely across Windows 11, and tweaked for better performance, it’s another key way in which the OS could be made faster

We’ve learned more about Microsoft‘s efforts to make Windows 11 faster, discovering another front that the company is working on to ensure the operating system becomes more performant in terms of core interface elements.

Windows Central reports that the big drive for better performance — which is part of the broader campaign to fix Windows 11 — doesn’t just involve transitioning elements of the Windows 11 interface to use WinUI 3, but actually speeding up WinUI itself.

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AI customer service bots get rolled back at 74% of firms

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AI rollback rates hit 81% at firms with mature guardrails, suggesting enterprises are struggling to manage the systems in production, says Sinch

If you’re thinking you can replace your human call center staff with a server farm of bots, think again. Nearly three-quarters of enterprises that deploy AI customer communications agents later roll them back or shut them down, according to new research suggesting the systems are far harder to manage reliably in production than the AI hype implied.

Swedish comms-as-a-service firm Sinch surveyed more than 2,500 AI decision makers from various countries and industries for its AI Production Paradox study. The starkest finding is undoubtedly the 74 percent rollback or shutdown rate for deployed AI customer communications agents tied to governance failures, but that’s not the only sign enterprise AI deployments are falling short of expectations. 

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AI rollback rates, which Sinch told us specifically refer to AI projects that were deployed and pulled from live service rather than projects that failed before launch, actually rise to 81 percent among organizations that it describes as having “fully mature guardrails.” That, says Sinch Chief Product Officer Daniel Morris, suggests governance alone is not fixing the problem. 

“The most advanced organizations aren’t failing less; they’re seeing failures sooner. Higher rollback rates reflect better monitoring and control, not weaker performance,” Morris said in a press release. “If governance was the fix, the most mature teams would roll back less, not more. Our data points to a deeper issue.”

According to the findings, 84 percent of AI engineering teams are spending at least half their time on safety infrastructure, leaving little time to develop AI. This is exacerbated by the fact that most firms said spending on AI trust, security, and compliance ranks ahead of AI development itself.

“When 75% put trust, security, and compliance in that top three — ahead of AI development itself at 63% — that’s a finding about where the priority sits within their AI customer communications programs,” a Sinch spokesperson told us in an email. In other words, it seems like most organizations realize that their biggest issue with AI isn’t getting it working properly – it’s getting it to just work safely in the first place. 

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“The operational cost of running AI safely at scale is much larger than most organizations expect,” the Sinch representative explained.

The numbers don’t change based on organizational size or budget, either, Sinch told us. 

“The rollback rate holds consistently across every region and every industry in the study, which suggests size isn’t a meaningful protective factor,” the company said. “Rollback isn’t a symptom of under-investment or being too small to afford proper guardrails.” 

Of course, as a business communications service provider, Sinch linked its results back to AI customer service agents not being properly deployed on comms infrastructure designed for AI agents, a problem it’s naturally positioned to offer a fix for. 

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Regardless, that three-quarter rollback figure doesn’t seem too out of place when you consider recent customer service automation news. 

As we’ve reported on multiple occasions, replacing customer service staff with AI hasn’t gone to plan for many businesses. Gartner said in June 2025 that half of organizations expecting AI to significantly reduce customer service headcount would abandon those plans by 2027. Sinch’s numbers suggest the problem may extend beyond staffing cuts to the AI agents themselves. Not that far-fetched when Gartner was already warning last year that fully agentless contact centers were not practical in the real world.

“Our vendor evaluations reveal that a agentless contact center is not yet technically feasible, nor is it operationally desirable,” Brian Weber, VP analyst in the Gartner Customer Service & Support practice, told The Register, adding that unexpected costs and unintended results were contributing to abandonment plans – just like what Sinch is reporting now. ®

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