Thank goodness for Siri AI, because if the only updates with macOS Golden Gate were the other ones shown at WWDC, this would be the weakest release in history.

As it is, the new macOS Golden Gate is a significant and even dramatic update, but solely because of how useful Siri AI is. True, there is more to the update than Apple said, but all it mentioned was a Liquid Glass refinement, improved curves on windows, and a reworking of the sidebar.

If that sounds like only an incredibly little difference from macOS Tahoe, it’s actually even smaller than you think. That Liquid Glass refinement is a slider to let users control how translucent it is, but it works across such a narrow range that it’s not worth bothering with.

So Siri AI is the star and even in its very first form, it is already so very close to excellent. Every year there comes a moment when the previous macOS seems amazingly old, and this time it’s when you first use Siri AI.

This slider in macOS System Settings controls Liquid Glass, but don’t expect to see much difference.

It’s the feature you immediately adopt and that when you turn to a Mac without it, you miss it. Siri AI truly is a dramatic improvement, although it is far from perfect.

macOS Golden Gate beta review — Siri AI wins

I did wonder whether it would be hard to use the new Siri AI because I’m so used to how it used to work. I’m used to asking one thing at a time, then muttering when Siri gets it wrong, and asking it again, then sarcastically saying thank you.

With the new Siri, though, the first thing I thought of was to ask about a concert I booked a year or more ago. I didn’t remember the date, and I could have searched my calendar, but I also wasn’t sure whether the tickets were being kept at the box office.

So I just asked Siri when I am seeing Dar Williams, and also where the tickets are. It pretty immediately showed me the date, the venue, and the email that had the tickets in.

It took Siri AI thirty seconds to check my calendar and find a specific email buried deep in my archive.

Just as I could have searched my calendar, of course, I could have searched my emails but I didn’t know if the tickets were there. Plus you know how long it takes to find anything in Mail, so having this close to instant result is a genuinely useful boon.

Similarly, as much as I like Apple Maps, I find it a bit irritating when I’m just looking up a place instead of trying to find a route. But then also when I want a route with multiple stops, it’s not as if it’s hard, but it’s now so much easier to ask Siri AI.

Consequently, I asked it for a route to a venue I have to speak at, arriving at a certain time on a specific day, and also including a stop at a colleague’s home to pick up various things for the event. It just did it.

I have a long drive ahead of me. But Siri AI made finding a multi-stop route very quick.

Or rather, it eventually just did it. No question, Siri AI is superb, but sometimes it has frozen on me, sometimes it has said it can’t do something. It has taken me three goes on occasion, but it has then worked.

macOS Golden Gate beta review — Siri AI failings

Part of the problem is that Siri AI is now in Spotlight. In most ways, that is superb. Instead of being off in some separate Talk to Siri feature, it’s now right there where you might spend much of your time anyway.

But as you type, Spotlight will go through figuring out whether you’re looking for a document, or an application. Sometimes it is poor at realizing that you want to ask Siri AI a question.

For some reason, though, there is a solution. Once you’ve typed your question, you can hold down the Command key and that tells Spotlight you want to Ask Siri.

I have not one thin clue how I stumbled across that, but I’m using it a lot now and it never fails. And I am also using Siri AI much more than I expected. If I want anything that is on my Mac, I’ll ask Siri AI and while this might just be that it’s a new toy, it really feels as if it’s already part of my workflow.

However, if I ask for something that requires what Apple calls “World Knowledge,” Siri AI stops being excellent. It becomes much more like any other AI, and sometimes it isn’t as good as them.

So for instance, when I start researching an article, I will now routinely do a search for every time I’ve written on AppleInsider about the same topic before. Google was never all that use for this, but Claude AI is excellent at surfacing them.

Siri AI is not. It doesn’t always find the articles I want, and sometimes it will find some but not include any links. I’ve seen this with all AI chatbots and am used to sighing and typing “prove it.”

But in the last such search I did with Siri AI, it did provide links but the first one I tried went to the wrong site. It was the right topic, but the article shown wasn’t on AppleInsider and wasn’t written by me.

That is typical of AI search results. Only, that same search did surface notes I’d made on the topic for a previous podcast recording. I’d entirely forgotten those, and Siri AI found them.

If something is on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad, then Siri AI is superb. If it’s on the web, it’s not always so hot.

macOS Golden Gate beta review — more Apple Intelligence

It used to be that there was a section in System Settings called “Siri and Apple Intelligence.” That has now changed to just Siri.

So it appears as if there is no longer a switch to turn off Apple Intelligence. It’s not clear yet whether turning off Siri will do that too.

It is clearer that Apple is trying to put some water between Siri and the rest of Apple Intelligence, because there are AI features that are separate. At present, you have to join a waitlist to get Siri AI, but even before you get the new Siri, there are many Apple Intelligence features in macOS Golden Gate.

For instance, if you open an image in the Photos app, choose Edit, and then click on Tools, you now get the options to reframe or extend the image that Apple demonstrated. With the right sort of image, extension is excellent.

The original photograph of me looking grumpy for no reason.

I took a close-up shot of myself against a wooden background, and in moments that background was far wider. Not only did it successfully duplicate the background, it also edited it. So seeing that there was light on one side of my face, it lit that edge of the frame as if there were a window just out of shot.

It also interpreted my stony face as being annoyed, so it gave me folded arms. That felt weird, but it didn’t look wrong.

Reframing of that same image worked, too, or at least mostly. It’s a more limited tool than it seemed in the WWDC keynote, but it did allow me to tilt my head and whole body back, as if I had taken a low-angle shot.

The same shot but with the background greatly extended. Sometimes when I try this, Photos also adds in folded arms.

If I shifted the frame to the left or right, it also worked. But along the way it briefly gave me an extended neck.

So it really does depend on your image, because you are as likely as not to get terrible distortion.

Still, I often create poster images for various projects and being able to extend the background will be a boon. It will mean I can have space to add a headline, for instance.

Photos can now turn the subject to the side, although apparently it can’t make me more cheeful.

That will be an occasional thing I do, it hasn’t so immediately become part of my daily workflow as Siri AI has. But then there is one other macOS feature that has definitely changed how I work, at least most of the time.

It’s the new natural language Shortcuts, the way that you can describe what you want and the Shortcuts app will create it for you. When it works, I cannot see any reason you’d make Shortcuts any other way.

If only it worked all the time.

macOS Golden Gate beta — Shortcuts are mixed

If you open the Shortcuts app on Mac, iPhone, or iPad now, you get a prominent New Shortcut button. Choose that and you are asked to describe what you want.

On the Mac, you practically have to dodge around that button to get anything done manually. It is that prominent and Apple is clearly pushing this verbal Shortcuts.

The prompt for you to describe a Shortcut you want is even more prominent the first time you open the app,

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But then this is a change that will surely introduce more people to Shortcuts, and it’s only one extra step to go around it to manually writing them as before.

However, the results might also put newcomers off because Shortcuts now has that AI-style certainty of what it’s doing, even when it’s wrong. When it is right, though, it is very impressive.

On my iPhone, for instance, I asked for a Shortcut that would change my wallpaper at 6pm every weekday, and as well as doing that, it also set up the automation to run it.

Then on the Mac, I have long wanted a Shortcut that would do some work on my AppleInsider podcast notes. During the show, I’ll tap on my Stream Deck Pedal whenever there’s to be a new chapter, for instance, and I have that send the current time to a note.

But it’s the current running time in minutes, and I then edit in Final Cut Pro, whose time is in hours, minutes, and seconds. So I keep having to stop to think whether 119 minutes is really one hour 59 minutes, or whatever.

I’ve wanted that shortcut that would take 119 minutes and write it out as 01:59:00, and it has always defeated me. Not any more. I asked Shortcuts to do it, and it did.

Note the large icon to the rear where Shortcuts says what it has done, and then in the foreground, what it’s actually produced.

I then asked for various refinements to get the result copied to the clipboard, and it did that, too.

It is really very good, and so very easy that I initially thought there was no possibility that I would ever again want to write a Shortcut by hand. I was an immediate and total convert to the new way of doing them.

That didn’t last.

For years, I’ve also wanted a Shortcut that would switch Tab Groups in Safari and it’s always been impossible on the Mac. You can do it on iPhone and iPad, there is a Shortcuts action to do it, but it’s always fallen over with an “internal error” on the Mac.

So when Shortcuts next asked me what I wanted, I told it, and it did it. It stopped to ask me which Tab Group I wanted, then it presented me with the finished Shortcut including a full description of what it does.

It doesn’t work. It isn’t even close.

If you go into the Shortcut manually, you can see that instead of anything to do with Tab Groups, it’s trying to turn on Do Not Disturb. It doesn’t even reference the specific Tab Group it asked me about.

Incidentally, if you write a Shortcut manually and include the action to change Tab Groups, it still fails as it now has for years and years. There is progress of a sort, though, as in macOS Golden Gate, instead of an unspecific “internal error,” it says it cannot communicate with the app.

Which is a clue both to my problem and to where Apple is putting its attention. Because what’s probably happening is that behind all of this verbal and even manual Shortcut writing, the app is using AppleScript. This is the decades-old automation that can let you do just about anything on a Mac.

But AppleScript works by every app providing access to its features, specifically by providing what’s called a dictionary. You can open the Safari dictionary in Script Editor, and if you do, you’ll see that there’s nothing there to do with tab groups.

So it appears that Apple’s newest natural language Shortcuts tools fail because Apple’s oldest automation technology hasn’t been updated.

It would also appear that Shortcuts has that curse of AI, that inability to say it can’t do something. Except sometimes, it will say exactly that, such as when you try to use it to fix irritations with the Phone app.

macOS Golden Gate beta — Phone app

With macOS Tahoe, Apple brought the Phone app to the Mac and it seemed like it was going to be so useful. If someone calls, you would just answer it on the Mac as you work. If you need to call someone, you would just do it on the Mac without getting out your iPhone.

I had issues that my Mac Studio wasn’t displaying the phone call notification fast enough to stop people hanging up on me. But even if the on-screen notification had appeared at the same time as the ringing sound begins, the green answer button wouldn’t always react to a click.

Nobody can hear you when you use the Phone app on the Mac, unless you know to look under the Video menu to choose the same audio source you’ve already set everywhere else.

What I’d really like is a keystroke to answer a call, and then another keystroke to end it. There is no such keystroke, and while you can add your own to just about anything on the Mac, you can’t with the Phone app.

You also cannot write or describe a Shortcut that answers for you. If you could, you could attach that Shortcut to, say, a Stream Deck button, but you can’t.

And this is one case where the new Shortcuts says no. “I can’t create shortcuts for physical actions like answering a phone call,” it says.

So there is some error-trapping in the new Shortcuts, but it doesn’t know to say it can’t do other things, like the Safari tab groups.

But then maybe we shouldn’t expect the Phone app to be useful, because with macOS Tahoe, it seemed as if Apple abandoned it part way. By default, for example, no one could hear you when you used it to make or answer a call, which seems fundamental.

It turns out that regardless of any Sound settings you have, you have to expressly tell the Phone app to use a given microphone. And you tell it this via a menu called Video.

A phone app has a video menu. That hasn’t changed with macOS Golden Gate.

macOS Golden Gate beta — visual changes

Something that has changed with the new macOS is how the Mac looks. It’s so subtle with adjustments such as the Liquid Glass slider that it might as well not be there, but it is.

It’s not much more pronounced with app icons, but it does make a difference. App icons in the Dock do seem to pop, and it means that transparent ones are clearer, too.

There’s also how menus have shed their mass of icons. With macOS Tahoe, every menu item had its own icon and the result was a mess, but calmness has now been restored.

All of which is good and all of which is welcome, but overall this really would be an incredibly slight update if it weren’t for Siri AI.

Still, up to now, Siri has felt like it was really just for the iPhone and maybe also the iPad. With the Mac, because your hands are already on the keys, it seemed quicker to just type instead of interrupt your work to talk to Siri.

Now Siri somehow feels much more a part of the Mac, and that by itself means that macOS Golden Gate is a significant update.

macOS Golden Gate beta — Pros

• Siri AI for any information on your Mac is fantastic
• Natural language Shortcuts are usually brilliant
• Photos app improvements can be superb, depending on the image
• Minor visual updates are welcome

macOS Golden Gate beta — Cons

• Siri AI World Knowledge is poor
• Liquid Glass control is very limited
• Natural language Shortcuts is sometimes just wrong
• Years-old Shortcuts error remains
• Phone app still feels abandoned

macOS Golden Gate beta review rating: 4 out of 5

• Microsoft is changing the way that Windows 11 updates are delivered
• The likes of .NET, driver or firmware updates will be bundled together with the monthly update
• This change is now in testing, alongside a lot of work to make Windows 11’s default apps better

Windows 11 is getting some more very useful changes, including an improved process for updates and a raft of tweaks for the default apps in the OS.

Microsoft has just released a new preview in the Experimental channel (build 26300.8687) which packs the changes for Windows Update (which were announced as incoming a while back in April).

The iPhone Fold has been on and off for years, but now the supply chain is suggesting that Apple will announce it as expected in September 2026, yet not actually ship it for several months.

There are at last positive signs from Apple that it is preparing an iPhone Fold, but there have also been multiple reports that it is delayed. Now according to Economic Daily News, the CEO of Apple lens supplier Largan Precision has hinted at delays.

“Some new opportunities will be announced in the third quarter,” Enping Lin said at a shareholders’ meeting (in translation), “and some will be moved to the beginning of next year.”

By itself, that’s a slim comment to base speculation on, but Enping Lin also specifically referred to new devices. “The fourth quarter of this year will be busier than in previous years due to the scheduling of customers’ new machines,” he said.

Then there have been separate comments by Ruan Chaozong, general manager of Xinrixing, a firm now said to be making bearings for a folding iPhone. Ruan is reported to have said that Xinrixing is only waiting for Apple to decide on its shipping date.

It’s still all far from a concrete leak, but these two different firms are both alluding to some device being rescheduled. More, the fact that one is a manufacturer of bearings, and the other is known for iPhone lenses, makes it sound likely that the new device is from Apple.

Given that and the history of reported delays since the iPhone Fold is believed to have entered manufacturing testing, the rumors seem reasonable.

We’ve been here before so often

There do seem to have been more reports of a September 2026 launch for the iPhone Fold than for any previous year. Yet there have been such rumors every single year since at least 2019, when Samsung launched its first folding phone.

This time the volume of rumors is higher, but they also tend to be contradictory. A possible consensus seemed to be emerging in April 2026 when it was claimed that the iPhone Fold would take longer to ship than expected.

In that case, the rumor was that Apple would announce the iPhone Fold at its September 2026 event, but not ship until October. Even then, it might only ship in small quantities, which is what Apple did with the original AirPods.

Although around the same time as those reports, there were also ones that said no, production issues were delaying the iPhone Fold until 2027.

If it really is delayed until 2027, that might account for how there have been fewer believable leaks of components than might be expected.

Separately, Apple has already been reported to be planning at least one folding iPhone in 2027 and 2028. However, that’s expected to be a second-generation, bezel-free, and perhaps a flip model iPhone Fold.

Walking the floor at the world’s largest high end audio show, HIGH END, in Vienna last week, it was easy to get jaded. Hey, here’s a $120,000+ pair of speakers. Ooh, look: a $160,000 pair of speakers. OMG, what is this? a 3.6 Million dollar speaker system? Yep. And that one weighed almost three tons. Not exactly practical for most living spaces.

But walking into the secondary exhibition halls, connected to but separate from the main Austria Center Vienna (ACV) space, who do I see but SVS? Had they also crossed into the 6-figure system pricing territory? Nope. In fact, their highlighted product was the new 3000 Micro R|Evolution subwoofer which we previously saw in prototype form at CES 2026 and again in final form at AXPONA. It’s a compact powerhouse capable of reaching all the way down to 20 Hz, for the remarkably reasonable price of $999.

When I first entered their stereo listening room, I thought they were playing music through their Ultra Evolution Pinnacle floorstanding speakers. At $4,998/pair, they’re certainly not “cheap” but they look and sound like something that should have an extra 0 at the end of that price tag. Deep, extended bass, precise imaging, solid vocal presence – overall a supremely musical experience. But it turns out, they were actually playing music through their Ultra Evolution Bookshelf Speakers ($1,199/pair), supplemented with that 3000 Micro R|Evolution sub I mentioned earlier for a total speaker price of $2,198 including the subwoofer.

The blend between the bookshelf speakers and the sub was so seamless that I thought it must have been coming from the integrated towers which were located right next to the bookshelf speakers. And the soundstage was so wide as to be coming from well beyond both pairs of speakers. But I went up close to verify that we were actually hearing all this great sound from those two little guys and the compact sub in the middle. I’m not sure how many orders these folks got during and after the show. But I’m sure many European show attendees were as impressed as I was by what they heard.

SVS also had a small (5.2.2-channel) Dolby Atmos home theater system set up, featuring the company’s Ultra Evolution Titan towers, Ultra Evolution Center, a pair of Ultra Evolution Bookshelf speakers in the back, two Ultra Evolution Elevation speakers on the ceiling for height effects and two of the larger PB-3000 R|Evolution subwoofers, subs. SVS always manages to put on an impressive home theater demo, but this year things were improved by the ability to run the long-awaited Auto EQ room correction software on the two subwoofers. This helped them to dial in the bass response for the showroom, making it sound more like a professional movie theater with even bass response throughout the room (but without the sticky floors).

Also on display in the booth was the company’s upcoming R|Evolution Soundbar, which comes with one of the company’s powered subwoofers pre-paired for quick set-up. This sub is no joke – it features a 12-inch driver and 600 watts of amplification. SVS reps tell us the same can hit that magic 20 Hz low bass response, but we’re not sure how many dB down it will be at that frequency.

Since we first saw this bar at CES, they’ve added DTS:X decoding to the Dolby Atmos that we already saw and heard. The system will have optional rear speakers to those who want their sound a bit more immersive than what Dolby Atmos virtualization can do from a single bar. Pricing on that system has not yet been finalized but SVS says it should be around $1,500 for the soundbar+sub bundle and $1,800 for the bar+sub+rear speakers bundle. The soundbar is expected to being shipping toward the end of this year.

Check out SVS’s own live stream (previously recorded) where they give a quick booth tour from High End 2026.

The Bottom Line

Once again, SVS holds the line on pricing with one of the most impressive budget systems we heard at the HIGH END show. Those looking for an alternative to overpriced soundbar-based systems can put together a fine-sounding two channel or even 5.1.2-channel system featuring the Ultra Evolution Bookshelf and new 3000 Micro R|Evolution subwoofer with enough cash left over for a decent AV Receiver to power it all.

Price & Availability

Related Reading

The plane will soon be ready to fly over US communities.

“Battered by years of mass layoffs, California tech workers were hoping the job market would rebound this year,” reports the Los Angeles Times. “But things are getting worse.”

The class divide is widening in Silicon Valley as a tiny group of employees is landing unprecedented packages for AI skills, while many others struggle to find work. The have-nots are doing everything that used to guarantee great jobs — refreshing resumes, optimizing LinkedIn profiles and doing interviews — but companies are much more picky these days. The tech jobless are rethinking their lives. Some are taking pay cuts, others are leaving tech. Some are going back to study or launch startups. Some have retired….

Since 2022, more than 815,500 tech workers have been laid off, according to Layoffs.fyi, a website that tracks job cuts. The tsunami of pink slips surged in 2023, when companies that had gone on hiring sprees during the COVID-19 pandemic began to cut back. From January to April, U.S. tech employers announced 85,411 job cuts this year, up 33% from the same period last year, according to global outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The Public Policy Institute of California estimates that the number of information jobs — which includes jobs in hard-hit Hollywood as well as tech — tumbled 17% between the middle of 2022 and this February. The San Francisco Bay Area has been hardest hit, the institute said in a recent report, with the number of jobs declining by 0.4%, compared with 7.5% growth over a similar time span before COVID-19 slammed into the U.S. economy.

Tech layoffs are also spilling over into other industries. Automaker General Motors laid off roughly 600 workers in its information technology department, and Walmart is reportedly laying off or relocating roughly 1,000 workers in its technology and products teams. Recruiters say companies have become much more selective, requiring AI skills, combining different positions and interviewing more people for each job. “You’re seeing elongated hiring cycles,” said Robert Lucido, senior director of strategic advisory at Magnit, a California company that helps tech giants and other businesses manage contractors, freelancers and other contingent workers. “There’s more opportunity to fill the need that they truly want.”

Paul Flaharty, district president at staffing firm Robert Half in Los Angeles, said companies are laying off workers, but also creating new roles tied to AI initiatives. “For individuals that are displaced, it’s really important that they find ways to upskill themselves so that they can make themselves as attractive as possible for these new jobs that are being created,” he said. Kira Martins was already taking on more work in a small team at Snap — the parent company of disappearing messaging app Snapchat — when she was laid off in April. The company said the layoffs were to cut costs as it focuses on profitability, noting how employees are using AI to “reduce repetitive work, increase velocity, and better support our community, partners, and advertisers….” Martins, a 36-year-old Los Angeles resident, views AI as a tool and is optimistic about finding her next role. People still need to decide how to use AI and check the work it generates, she said. “In tech, you want to be a first adopter, because if you don’t move quickly, it’s very easy to become irrelevant,” she said. “Everyone’s kind of hopping on the AI train.”
A former Google worker (laid off more than a year ago) says he’s still job hunting, according to the article, and “he’s learned it’s not enough to just apply in this competitive market. Workers really need to network and leverage their connections to get seen by hiring managers and stand out.”

But when 64-year-old product manager Bruce Bowers lost his job at Oracle — along with thousands of others — he just started his retirement early.

Following a consultation, the UK is banning young people under 16 from social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced. “This is a line in the sand,” the PM said in a speech at his Downing Street residence. “Tech giants had their chance and failed, but we’re stepping in to protect children, back parents and set a new normal for future generations.” The government aims to pass the legislation by the end of this year and start enforcing it in the spring of 2027.

The plan includes not only a ban from major social media platforms, but also restrictions on gaming apps as well. Those include barring children under 16 from chatting with strangers, live streaming or using romantic chatbots. “These restrictions… go further than any other country,” the government press release states. 

The UK will follow a similar model as the social media ban in Australia. Platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X will be required to disable access for under-16 users by default. Chat apps like WhatsApp or Telegram will note be affected. The government is also looking at limited restrictions for youths under 18, like overnight curfews and breaks in infinite scrolling. 

Starmer acknowledged that kids will find ways around the ban, but said that wasn’t a good excuse for not enacting a law. “We don’t say, ‘Oh, look, a teenager managed to get a drink somehow, so let’s not bother banning alcohol sales for children,” he said. “Our laws are rules, but they’re also an expression of our values. They shape the social contract, and so this will change the conversations that parents have and the expectations of children over time.”

In January, the UK government launched the “Growing up in the online world” consultation into social media for kids, requesting feedback on whether and how to enforce that limit. The country’s ministers also went to Australia to study the effects of that nation’s social media ban, which went into effect on December 10, 2025. Only a month after it was enacted, Meta had shut down as many as 550,000 Australian accounts to comply with the law. 

The results of the UK consultation showed that nine in 10 parents supported a minimum age of 16 for accessing social media apps, the government said. At the same time, the PM added that the ban doesn’t mean the UK is anti-tech. “I do not accept, and I will never accept that you can’t be both pro tech and AI, and at the same time say we must protect our children,” he said in the speech.

Creation of detailed rules and enforcement of the ban will be conducted by the UK’s tech regulator Ofcom in consultation with lawmakers. “So far, Ofcom has driven some of the strongest changes of any online safety regulation in the world, from widespread age checks to grooming protections for children. But the industry needs to go much further to make people safe,” Ofcom said in an official statement. The government has yet to release details on ID or other enforcement mechanisms. 

Whether at soccer games, violin recitals, or princess/pirate-themed birthday parties, I’ve yet to rub elbows with a fellow dad who doesn’t like movies (and home theater, for that matter). So, in commemoration of pops everywhere, eCoustics proudly presents our first-ever Father’s Day roundup of exceptional 4K Blu-ray discs that any interested offspring (or concerned spouse) can feel great about wrapping and leaving on the breakfast table next to his French toast and macaroni-art card.

Some of these titles carry a distinctly paternal theme, while others are simply terrific, gift-worthy releases just right for that special man in your life.

Steven Spielberg: The Spotlight Collection (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment)

There have been boxed sets dedicated to a single director before, even one for Mr. Spielberg himself. This one’s different. The eight films here arrive in SteelBook cases adorned with vintage poster artwork, tucked inside a coordinated metal box. They’ve been curated from multiple studios and are presented on 4K disc, as well as Blu-ray and digital. Most importantly, every movie in this set is a total banger, representing a total of 29 Oscar wins against 58 nominations, and no fewer than three of these were the highest-grossing motion picture of all time, at one point or another. Together, they provide an overview of a career like no other, displaying singular dominance across the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, and beyond:

• Jaws (1975)
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
• Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
• E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
• Jurassic Park (1993)
• Schindler’s List (1993)
• Saving Private Ryan (1998)
• War of the Worlds (2005)

Not coincidentally, many of these movies are movies about dads: some flawed (Roy in Close Encounters, Ray in War of the Worlds), some selfless (Martin in Jaws), some not related to those they protect but still stepping up.

As you can see, Close Encounters, Schindler’s List, and Saving Private Ryan are three-disc affairs, with platters dedicated to extensive legacy bonus content, and Jaws is the 50th anniversary edition with the exclusive Blu-ray of the Definitive Inside Story documentary. Jurassic Park is the new version that was introduced last year with Dolby Vision HDR, a superior color grade, more restrained noise reduction, and a modern Dolby Atmos mix, on a BD-100 disc.

No doubt timed around the release of his latest, Disclosure Day, this incredible limited edition is, in fact, timeless. As seen here in his finest works, Steven has a way of pushing limits, breaking new ground, and taking us places we’ve never been before.

Where to buy: $199.99 at Amazon

Jackie Chan’s Breakout Hits! 4K (Arrow Films)

Taken together, these extraordinary films tell the story of a quintessential movie star. With a commitment to his craft that routinely put his life on the line, Jackie Chan blended superlative martial arts moves with a unique gift for physical comedy, yet he was unable to crack the Hollywood mainstream, instead tanking with would-be vehicles like The Big Brawl and The Protector. Six undeniable hits soon showed the world what he could do, aided by the era’s burgeoning home video market, the nascent internet, and a hunger for alternative entertainment, ultimately leading to Rush Hour, its sequels, and spawn.

The box kicks off with Jackie’s masterpiece, Drunken Master II, the sequel to a movie not enough people saw (a lot like Mad Max/The Road Warrior) and renamed for a time as The Legend of Drunken Master for the U.S. The daring stuntwork and plentiful, stylized choreography, within a serio-comic period setting, make this tale of a lovable yet imperfect hero who unlocks nigh-unbeatable fighting skills when he consumes alcohol irresistible. The rest are a bit more accessible, contemporary urban action thrillers that pit Jackie against New York street gangs and mobsters, warhead-stealing terrorists, drug dealers, and assassins.

Arrow has magnificently encapsulated this pivotal five-year period with its own new 4K restorations from the original negatives, all in Dolby Vision, with an assortment of best-available audio options for each, from mono up to 5.1, different languages, and optional subtitles, of course. The original Hong Kong theatrical release dates are noted:

• Drunken Master II (1994; three versions on one disc; released in North America as The Legend of Drunken Master in 2000)
• Rumble in the Bronx (1995; released in North America in 1996; two versions on two discs)
• Thunderbolt (1995; two versions on one disc, one in HD only)
• Police Story 4: First Strike (1996; released in North America as Jackie Chan’s First Strike in 1997; two cuts on two discs)
• Mr. Nice Guy (1997; released in North America in 1998; three versions on two discs)
• Who Am I? (1998; two versions on two discs)

Stick with the “Hong Kong” cuts to see the movies as intended, favoring story and character over faster-paced action, although comparisons between versions are fascinating. In some cases, large scenes were removed, or the entire musical score changed, and the dubbing can sometimes impart an unfair B-movie feel.

A new expert commentary is provided for each film, in addition to a new six-part documentary, new discussions of Jackie’s career before and after, and archival featurettes and interviews with collaborators and film historians, some quite extensive, spread across the set. Spend the time exploring, and we’re treated to some rare and unusual tidbits, such as seldom-seen network TV scenes with dialogue heard nowhere else. Inside the rigid box, we’ll also find a 160-page perfect-bound book, a set of 24 miniature lobby card reproductions, and a two-sided poster with classic Drunken Master II artwork.

Where to buy: $219.95 at Amazon

Hearts of Darkness & A Filmmaker’s Journey

So much has already been said about Apocalypse Now, perhaps the wildest movie shoot of all time, and the brilliant companion documentary that followed 12 years later, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse. Be apprised: this super-deluxe new edition is quite different from the previous 4K release of Hearts of Darkness. That disc’s sole extra, a 37-minute “making of,” is included again here on both the 4K disc and the newly supplied 1080p Blu-ray of the doc, along with a 2007 Eleanor and Francis Coppola audio commentary, plus a recent program dedicated to Eleanor, who passed in 2024. The 1080p Disc Three is where things get really interesting: a menagerie of four of her short films from 1976 and her making-of documentaries of feature films directed by both husband Francis and daughter Sofia. The handsome four-panel, clothbound polyptych houses the discs, as well as a colorful softcover photo scrapbook spanning her storied career.

Shane. Giant. Gunga Din. A Place in the Sun. You know his movies, but too few know the name of the man behind the camera. To chart the canon of George Stevens is to understand the odyssey of this uniquely gifted American filmmaker, how history and his own experiences helped to shape some of the most enduring films of the 20th century, from the escapist Fred-and-Ginger romp Swing Time to the heartbreaking The Diary of Anne Frank and beyond. This documentary by his son, George Jr., skipped Blu-ray and went straight from DVD to 4K.

The result? The numerous film clips, home movies (including some of the only color footage chronicling the later days of World War II), and modern-day (1984) interview footage with a Hollywood who’s who now look outstanding. For further context and praise, three new featurettes from notable fans Christopher Nolan, Guillermo del Toro, and Martin Scorsese share their love of Stevens’ Shane and The Greatest Story Ever Told.

Hearts of Darkness and A Filmmaker’s Journey are a disparate pair, but they’re quite possibly the two finest movies-about-movies ever made.

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Where to buy: $30.11 at Amazon (George Stevens: A Filmmaker’s Journey)

Where to buy: $69.99 at Lionsgate Unlimited (Hearts of Darkness: The Art of Eleanor Coppola 4K Collector’s Edition)

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Sangster Directs Hammer 4K (Severin Films)

After a prolific run as Hammer Films’ go-to screenwriter, penning some of the seminal horrors that made the studio famous around the world, Jimmy Sangster returned in the early ’70s to make his only three feature films as a director. (Not the “father” of Hammer, but definitely a chief architect… or a cool uncle.) This informal trilogy marks a deliberate move away from the more traditional, neo-classic monster mashes and into edgier fare conceived to cater to changing audiences of the era.

• The Horror of Frankenstein (1970)
• Lust for a Vampire (1971)
• Fear in the Night (1972)

The Horror of Frankenstein is marked by a cynicism in Victor not previously seen, this time with David (Darth Vader) Prowse as The Monster. You can imagine what happens when a resurrected vampiress infiltrates an exclusive all-girls finishing school to prey on her classmates, or you could just watch the blood-and-boobs gem Lust for a Vampire. Fear in the Night is the sole contemporary entry, with Peter Cushing playing against type, creepy and weak, while Joan Collins laid the groundwork here for her on-screen bitch persona that would define the ensuing years. It’s not horror in the expected sense, more of a confined emotional cruelty that feels a lot like the British version of a giallo. The films are rated R, R, and PG here, and all “X” in the U.K.

Severin Films has brought them together with 4K scans by StudioCanal, in Dolby Vision and crisp mono for the bunch. Every movie carries two audio commentaries, one with Sangster himself, part of a new/archival bonus complement topping 19 hours, spilling onto a seventh disc. This handsome collection also includes the must-read 312-page Horror! Lust! Fear! Sangster, packed with essays, interviews, comic adaptations, and more.

Where to buy: $189.95 at Amazon

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Hamilton 4K (Disney/Sony)

I never properly appreciated history or hip-hop, but Lin-Manuel Miranda’s monumental stage biography of the ten-dollar founding father cured both shortcomings in just 161 minutes. Filmed over three nights in June 2016 at NYC’s Richard Rodgers Theatre, the program captures the live performance of the original Broadway cast at their absolute peak. Hamilton is eminently rewatchable for the incredible talent on display (I’m still noticing nuances in the choreography), but also to parse the rapid-fire lyrics and their inspired rhymes. The high-bitrate Dolby Vision/Dolby Atmos is a marvelous upgrade over the compressed Disney+ stream, so we’ve never seen it looking or sounding this good in the home.

No digital copy here (this erstwhile streaming exclusive did lead to a 641% spike in D+ subscribers, after all), but we are given a new featurette alongside an earlier cast reunion. Disc Two carries the sing-along version with on-screen lyrics, since everyone has a favorite tune or three, but good luck keeping up. From there, it’s some lovely physical treasures: colorful art cards, an understated fabric poster, and the sheet music for the prologue/opener.

Where to buy: $77.99 at Amazon

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Audition 4K Limited Edition (Arrow Films)

Dads come in all shapes and sizes. Take Aoyama, a gentle, middle-aged widower who has spent the last seven years completely dedicated to raising his teenage son, putting his romantic life on hold until his son gives him the green light to start dating again. Unsure of how to re-enter that world, Aoyama and a friend concoct a highly questionable plan, holding a fake casting call to find the perfect woman. All goes well… until it begins to shift into one of the most disturbing psychological thrillers ever put to film, before giving way to outright body horror. You’ve been warned.

While Takashi Miike is the famously prolific, chameleon-like director of over 100 eclectic films, his restrained filmmaking style and powerful social critique help make 1999’s Audition his true masterpiece. Arrow knows it, and its 4K is newly restored from the original Super 16mm negative, with restored lossless stereo and 4.0, plus 5.1. The bonuses are a happy combination from its 2019 special-edition 1080p Blu-ray and new goodies: two commentaries, interviews, a booklet, and reversible sleeve art.

Where to buy: $49.99 at Amazon

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The Black Belly of the Tarantula 4K Limited Edition (Celluloid Dreams)

Celluloid dreamer Lucas Henkel, along with his father Guido (no, not Sarducci), has been saving worthy motion pictures from obscurity and celebrating them with a unique brand of curation, restoration, and illumination. In Tarantula, we meet a world-weary inspector (the always wonderful Giancarlo Giannini) who must track down a killer with a flair for arthropodology. The murderer is picking off Rome’s wealthy elite: blackmailing them, paralyzing them, then forcing them to witness their own brutal murders. Look for Bond girls past and future in director Paolo Cavara’s (Mondo Cane) top-tier giallo, favoring a police-procedural vibe over the genre’s typical surrealism, set to a seductive, mesmerizing Ennio Morricone score that also induces anxiety when it needs to.

Available directly from Celluloid Dreams, this three-disc limited edition features a new 4K restoration from the camera negative, presented in both the intended theatrical full-frame and 1.85:1 aspect ratios, as well as the international and “grindhouse” versions. Guido steps up to the mic for a new audio commentary on the 4K and HD Blu-rays, in addition to new and archival interviews and a pair of deep-dive video essays on Disc Three.

La tarantola dal ventre nero arrives in a fatbox (no Italian translation available for that word… yet) with reversible disc case artwork, a fantastic 80-page companion book, plus a set of 16 black-and-white publicity photos. Orders also include a set of full-sized color repros of the original fotobuste (lobby cards), suitable for framing.

Where to buy: $65.95 at Celluloid Dreams

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