The UK government will offer to buy AI chips directly from British technology companies in a bid to keep them in the country. Technology Secretary Liz Kendall will outline plans for “strategic purchases” of semiconductor equipment from UK-based firms at London Tech Week this week, the Telegraph reported. The initiative includes access to taxpayer-backed funding and investment in skills to retain workforces in Britain.

The announcement is part of a broader AI hardware plan that targets 5% of the global chip market, which would translate to roughly £37 billion in revenue and tens of thousands of jobs. The government has already committed £100 million through ARIA’s scaling compute programme, including £50 million for a scaling inference lab where British startups can test and demonstrate that their hardware works.

The urgency is clear. Britain keeps losing its best chip companies to foreign buyers. SoftBank acquired Graphcore in 2024. Qualcomm bought Alphawave IP for $2.4 billion last year. Arm, the UK’s most valuable chip designer, chose New York for its main listing in 2023. Each departure weakened the case that Britain can retain a semiconductor industry of its own.

“This is far too important a technology to depend entirely on other countries, especially in areas like defence, financial services and health care,” Kendall said in a speech at Bloomberg in January, when she announced £1 billion in funding to expand the UK’s AI research compute capacity by 20-fold.

The chip purchases would make the government a customer, not just a regulator, giving British firms guaranteed demand. Six UK companies have already gained access to government-funded supercomputers to advance their AI models, with the government retaining a right of first refusal for future investments. Fractile, a British inference chip startup that recently raised $220 million and is reportedly in talks with Anthropic, is among the firms the strategy aims to support.

The plans also respond to concerns about foreign dependency in government procurement. A recent parliamentary report warned that US firm Palantir should not play such a significant role in the UK public sector, and flagged a growing reliance on Microsoft and AWS. The HMRC’s £175 million AI contract with London-based Quantexa was an early signal of the government’s preference for domestic providers.

Whether strategic purchases alone can prevent the next Graphcore from being sold abroad remains an open question. Britain has the engineering talent and the research base. What it has lacked is the domestic demand and patient capital to keep companies scaling at home instead of selling to SoftBank or Qualcomm at the first serious offer.

It’s no longer coming to the PS5.

I love testing new apps on my iPhone. Every year, new apps get installed and removed, with very few sticking around for the long haul. Despite my habit of testing and switching apps regularly, some have stuck around, which is a testament to their quality. 

These are also the most used apps on my iPhone and the first ones I install whenever I set up a new iPhone from scratch. Here are 5 iPhone apps I cannot live without in 2026. 

Arc Search: browse smarter, not harder

Arc Search is a mobile browser that has completely changed how I search on iPhone. As soon as you launch the app, you’re greeted with a search bar and a keyboard, ready to go. I use the browser app on my iPhone for quick searches, which makes it perfect for that. 

The standout feature here is the built-in ad blocker. It automatically blocks trackers on any website, providing me with a clean browsing experience. 

Another feature I love is the Browse for Me. I type a query and hit Browse for Me, and Arc pulls the top results from the web and gives me a clean, summarized answer. Think of it as skipping dozens of tabs’ worth of reading in one shot. It works really well for things like sports stats, quick recipes, and travel recommendations.

The tab switcher is also a joy to use. Tabs appear in a card layout similar to the iOS app switcher, and you can swipe to close them just as easily. If you want a fast, smart browser that gets out of your way, Arc Search is the one to beat.

Get Arc Search

Craft: the notes app that keeps up with you

My life revolves around three note-taking apps. Apple Notes is for storing quick notes, Obsidian is for my knowledge-work notes, and Craft is for everything else. On my iPhone, I use Apple Notes and the Crafts app the most. 

What makes it stand out from other note-taking apps is how good it feels to use. The writing experience is smooth, the documents look great, and the app has enough depth to handle everything from quick daily notes to full project planning.

Craft lets you organize everything with folders, spaces, and tags, so you can create whatever structure works for you. You can also embed tasks directly in your documents, making it easier to keep your ideas and to-do list in the same place. 

The app also recently added a Kanban feature, making it perfect for tracking tasks in a project. I also love how the app looks. Its use of colors, templates, and fluid animations makes it a joy to use. 

Get Craft

Apple Reminders: the task manager hiding in plain sight

Most people skip Apple Reminders in favor of fancier apps, and I totally understand why. For a long time, I did the same. But Apple has quietly turned Reminders into one of the most capable task managers on the iPhone, and I’ve been using it as my daily driver for a while now.

You can create time-based and location-based reminders, and even message-based reminders that ping you when you’re texting a specific contact. Smart lists let you create custom views of your tasks using filters like tags, priority, and due date. 

You can also share reminder lists with others, add sub-tasks, attach photos, and even use Siri to add tasks with your voice. All of this, and it’s completely free. If you’re in the Apple ecosystem, you should definitely give this a try before paying for a third-party task manager. 

Pocket Casts: the best podcast app, full stop

I have tested most podcast apps on the App Store, including Apple’s own offering, and Pocket Casts is the only one I always come back to. It features a clean interface, excellent playback controls, and it syncs your listening progress and your queue across all your devices. 

The filters tab lets you create playlists based on your own rules, and you can even use Siri shortcuts with them. The discover section also does a solid job of helping you find new shows. 

It also offers a generous free tier. If you listen to podcasts regularly, Pocket Casts is worth every penny.

Get Pocket Casts

Delta: your childhood game console, on your iPhone

If you grew up playing Nintendo games, you are going to love this one. Delta is a free game emulator on the App Store that supports NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS games. It’s polished, well-maintained, and incredibly easy to use.

You get save states, fast forward, cheat code support, and the option to connect a game controller for a proper gaming experience. Delta is perfect for people like me who sneak in a quick game while waiting for a coffee order or standing in a queue. And for those stolen moments, it delivers more fun than any other gaming app on the iPhone.

Get Delta

I love all these apps on my iPhone, and if you have never tried them before, you should definitely check them out. Also, if you haven’t read it, check out my favorite Mac utilities article to discover some awesome apps for your Mac.

Apple’s Home Hub could arrive in late 2026, smart glasses in late 2027, and a tabletop robotic arm sometime in 2028. These were all expected sooner, but Apple’s delayed AI upgrades created roadblocks.

In the Apple leaks world, unannounced products that get release windows pushed internally still get labeled as “delayed.” Apple engineers clearly had a release date in mind, and even had a target set, but other product divisions can get in the way.

According to the latest “Power On” newsletter from Bloomberg, three unannounced products waiting on AI upgrades equate to “so many Apple product delays.” These unreleased, unannounced products include the rumored Home Hub, smart glasses, and a robotic arm upgrade to the Home Hub.

Had Apple Intelligence performed as expected and rolled out completely through 2025, the report suggests that the Home Hub would have arrived sooner, the glasses would have been released in early 2027, and the robotic arm could have arrived in 2026 or 2027.

This lines up with previous reporting, however, it is amusing how it is being pitched in this newsletter. Since the robotic arm is technically an accessory or second iteration of the Home Hub, we’re only talking about two product lines affected by AI delays.

The line between being wrong and delay

Just to break down this bit of data further, the rumored Meta Ray-Ban glasses being “delayed” from early 2027 to late 2027 may not even be a delay. Leaker Ming-Chi Kuo was first to say that late 2027 was the goal, and it wasn’t until more recently that Gurman switched to that timeline.

Apple Glasses are coming, just later than what was previously reported

As I’ve reported previously, whatever source Gurman has for the Vision Products Group seems to be a rather poor one. He has consistently missed on nearly every product scheduling leak about Apple Vision Pro and other details relating to the team.

So, this second of two “delays” is actually a course correction. That means the “so many Apple product delays” is actually just one delay — the Apple Home Hub tablet.

That product has reportedly been ready to go for some time, but it makes sense that Apple wants its AI to be better before launch. It can’t afford to have another product built around Siri to be perceived as bad simply because Siri is bad.

There is no mention of Apple’s work on an AI pendant here, which theoretically is also waiting on Apple’s better AI tools to progress. However, it may be too early in development for even Gurman to claim it was delayed.

Apple’s busiest release cycle yet

Apple is clearly building up to enter the smart home market in force with its own product lines. They’ll include the Home Hub tablet, security camera, and doorbell.

That launch could occur at any time, really.

iPhone Fold could arrive as Apple’s most expensive handset yet even as the world struggles with pricing and supplies

The more interesting story is the one that wasn’t printed here because it can’t be used to suggest some kind of Apple failure. The market for memory and computer parts has become overrun with AI company demand, which means we may not see the remainder of M5 upgrades this summer.

While WWDC is a software-focused event, the company hasn’t shied away from revealing product upgrades and even chipsets at the event. However, the supply chain is so depleted that even Apple has to take a back seat.

Each year we get new advanced pieces of Apple Silicon like the M5 family, five new iPhone models, multiple Mac laptops and desktops, AirPods, Apple Watch, iPads, and sometimes even Apple TV and HomePods. Then there’s the routine upgrades to every operating system Apple develops each year.

Oh, and I guess iPhone Fold might actually be announced in September after a full revitalization of the company’s AI efforts.

We should all be critical of Apple when necessary. But taking a reader question like “Why are there so many Apple product delays lately?” and producing one actual delay in the response is a bit much.

Apple Intelligence was unfortunately delayed in its fullest realized form in early 2025. That created a ripple effect across other potential releases and product strategies.

But this idea that keeps getting pushed of an Apple in conflict, struggling to get products out of the door, directly contradicts the results we can see with our eyes. In a world where consumers have been beaten down with AI at every turn, Apple is thriving with almost zero presence in the space.

Let’s see what they’ve cooked up for WWDC and how that might shift Apple’s position, for better or for worse.

Public sector

Years into a major IT overhaul, MPs say the department still lacks reliable view of what is happening across the asylum system

The UK’s long-running asylum IT overhaul may finally have put the 25-year-old Case Information Database (CID) out to pasture, but Parliament says that officials are still relying on spreadsheets and disconnected systems to keep track of asylum cases. 

A new report from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) found asylum data remains scattered across multiple systems, making it difficult for officials to track cases, spot emerging backlogs, or understand where pressure is building across the wider system.

As of December last year, the Home Office was still heavily dependent on CID, a decommissioned platform dating back to the turn of the century, while attempting to move asylum operations onto Atlas. The PAC’s findings suggest the migration has not solved a more familiar government IT problem: getting different systems to share information.

The committee said that there is still “no single, reliable view of cases across the asylum system.” While the Home Office told MPs it has now fully moved to Atlas for asylum case management, officials noted that the transition has been complex, involving legacy data migration, functional improvements, and staff training.

MPs also heard that some Home Office staff continue to maintain their own spreadsheets alongside official systems. The committee warned this can leave multiple versions of the same information in circulation and contribute to ongoing data quality problems.

One of the bigger gaps sits between the Home Office and HM Courts & Tribunals Service. The two are working to link their case management systems, but MPs said current data-sharing arrangements still make it impossible to follow an individual case through the entire asylum process.

The report also echoes earlier National Audit Office findings that a reliable single record for each asylum seeker is still unavailable. Information on issues such as repeat appeals and absconders remains incomplete, inconsistent, or unavailable, while MPs said officials struggled to provide some key figures with confidence.

The committee concluded that departments still lack the integrated data needed to understand how people move through the asylum system or whether attempts to fix one bottleneck are simply creating another elsewhere.

What’s more, without reliable data, MPs said that they cannot properly assess whether the asylum system is improving or whether taxpayers are getting value for money.

“Departments still lack integrated, system-wide data and agreed performance measures needed to manage the asylum system effectively,” the PAC report states. “Until these gaps are addressed, senior leaders cannot fully understand where pressures are building or assess whether interventions are working as intended, and Parliament cannot obtain robust assurance on progress or value for money.”

The old database may be on the way out, but MPs are not convinced the underlying data problems went with it. ®

offbeat

If you thought driverless cars were bad, imagine a 200,000 ton container ship

Britain’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) says it helped to develop a code of safety for future remotely operated and autonomous cargo ships.

The executive body, responsible for maritime law and safety policy, represented the UK’s interests in working groups during development of the first non-mandatory International Code of Safety for Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS Code).

This code, set to be published by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) on July 1, is the first stab at a global regulatory framework covering uncrewed cargo ships.

It will be followed by a mandatory MASS Code based on reviews of this set of regulations, slated for adoption in 2030, for entry into force on January 1, 2032.

Autonomous vessels are already being tested out. In Norway, for example, a ship called the Yara Birkeland is used to carry chemicals and fertiliser from an industrial plant where they are produced to the deep-sea container harbor at Brevik, from where they are shipped to customers around the world.

Yara Birkeland is the world’s first fully autonomous and electric zero-emission container ship, but is relatively small at about 80 meters (260 ft) long and a weight of 3,200 tonnes.

A scoping exercise by the IMO to help inform the regulations identified four degrees of autonomy – inspired by those applicable to self-driving cars.

Degree one has seafarers on board to operate and control shipboard systems and functions, although some operations may be automated. Degree two is a remotely controlled ship with crew aboard, able to take control if necessary. Degree three covers a remotely controlled ship without any crew, and Degree four is a fully autonomous ship.

The IMO said it identified a number of high-priority issues, cutting across several instruments, that must be addressed at a policy level in future. These involve the development of MASS terminology and definitions, particularly in clarification of who is responsible for the ship in Degrees Three and Four.

Others include actions normally be carried out by the crew, including firefighting, cargo stowage and securing, maintenance, watchkeeping and implications for search and rescue. The latter is a legally binding duty that applies to all vessels, without exception.

“The maritime industry is inherently global, so progress towards a harmonised regulatory framework is vital to support consistency, fairness and – most importantly – safe operations internationally,” said MCA assistant director for Future Technical Standards Leanne Page.

“We’re very proud to have played a leading role in reaching this major milestone.”

The next step is building a framework for an experience-building phase, the MCA says, to inform development of the mandatory MASS Code.   

Both the MCA and the UK’s Department for Transport will continue industry consultations to provide further information and guidance on this new non-mandatory MASS Code. ®

You may have heard that wired headphones are back in fashion (though in truth, they never went away), but plugging an in-earphone along is not going to deliver the best sound.

iFi Audio has a fix for that.

They’ve launched Go Link 2 Max at High-End Vienna, a USB-C dongle that can transform “your phone, laptop, or PC into a powerful high-resolution audio source”.