Technology

Plus: A nominee to lead CISA emerges, Elon Musk visits the NSA, a renowned crypto cracking firm’s secret (and problematic) cofounder is revealed, and more.

Plus: iRobot unveils its new robo vacs, JBL pimps its most beloved speakers, a bright future for TCL TVs, and more.

The latest Android 16 beta build focuses on stability ahead of the official launch in June.

The old “teach a man to fish” proverb, but for AI chatbots.

This week has been a rollercoaster in the world of tech. Twitter shut down thanks to its biggest outage in years, giving us all a moment of peace, Google unveiled Gemini-infused robots, which feels like the start of a robot revolution, and we tested Apple's new Macbook and iPad Air.

To catch up on all that and more, scroll down for our in case you missed it and catch up on the week's seven biggest tech news stories.

Once you're caught up on the week's news, check out our picks for the 7 new movies and TV shows to stream this weekend (March 14).

X had its biggest outage in years

(Image credit: X / Future)

The social media giant formerly known as Twitter has had a tumultuous few years – but even compared to Elon Musk’s takeover in 2022, this week was a turbulent one. X was taken completely offline several times on Monday, with Musk later claiming that this was due to a “massive cyberattack”.

Given X is attacked “every day”, according to Musk, this enormous outage was explained by the culprit having “a lot of resources”. Cue some inevitable political finger-pointing and a lot of people discovering what DDOS stands for (spoiler for your trivia quiz, it’s ‘Distributed Denial of Service’). X is back to its old self now with its trademark mix of memes and outrage, but it might not be long before its next big outage.

• Read more: X is back – here's what we know about the 'massive cyberattack' that caused Twitter to go down multiple times

We saw Sony’s next-gen TV tech in action

(Image credit: Sony)

OLED is generally regarded as the best-performing TV tech, and for good reason, since OLED TVs deliver perfectly uniform pictures with “infinite” contrast and rich color. OLED’s primacy has mostly gone unchallenged, but a new RGB LED backlight technology for TVs that Sony just announced could finally make mini-LED TVs competitive.

Sony’s “next-generation display system” replaces the quantum dot layer used for higher-end mini-LED TVs with a “high density LED backlight” with individual control over the red, green and blue primary colors. Its benefits include high brightness, extended color, and OLED-like contrast, and Sony also claims it can be cost-effectively scaled up to larger screen sizes than OLED TVs, which max out at 97 inches.

TV makers regularly issue chest-beating announcements of new tech in development, but in this case, TechRadar was invited to Sony’s headquarters for a preview, and it’s every bit as good as they claim. Watch your back, OLED!

• Read more: I saw Sony’s next-gen RGB mini-LED TV tech, and OLED TVs should be worried

We reviewed the new MacBooks and iPads

(Image credit: Future)

Apple recently launched some new tech and we’ve had the chance to try it all out. Long story short, it’s all great.

The iPad Air with M3 earned four-and-a-half-stars thanks to its new chipset offering a solid power boost without a price bump. The screen is just as vibrant as ever, the battery life and audio are great, and thanks to support from the new Magic Keyboard, it’s more laptop-like than ever before. Our only gripe is Apple's new slate is a little too similar to last year’s model in the camera and display department – with still only a pair of 12MP snappers (one facing each direction) and a screen lacking smooth ProMotion refresh rates you’ll still only get on more premium models.

As for the new MacBook Airs with M4, they wowed us yet again as not only do they boast excellent performance – helped by the upgraded chipset they just received – but they’re less pricey to boot. Instead of $1,299 / £1,399 / AU$2,199 you can pick the laptop up for $1,199 / £1,199 / AU$2,099 cementing this sleek machine as one of the best value for money laptops on the market.

• Read more: I tested the 11-inch iPad Air with M3 for five days, and it stretches the value even further
• Read more: I've reviewed the Apple MacBook Air 15-inch (M4) - and it remains the best 15-inch laptop I'd recommend for most people

iRobot replaced almost its entire Roomba range

(Image credit: iRobot)

This week we learned that iRobot was scrapping almost its entire range of Roomba robot vacuums, and replacing them with four shiny new models. It's a bold move, but feels necessary given how far the brand was starting to slip behind competitors.

New features include LiDAR navigation (at long last), spinning mop pads, a cool design aesthetic, and a naming system that actually makes some sort of sense. Perhaps the most interesting model is the Roomba 205, which boasts a dust-compacting onboard bin, and looks perfect for those with small homes who don't have space for a bulky dock.

They might not be the flashiest innovations we've seen in the market of late, but we think iRobot has nailed what customers are actually looking for in a robot vacuum. Here's hoping it can help the original robovac brand catch up to the competition.

• Read more: iRobot is overhauling its robovac range, and for the first time in years I'm excited about a new Roomba

New limited Ray-Ban smart glasses disappointed us

(Image credit: Ray-Ban / Meta / COperni)

Meta launched new Ray-Ban smart glasses this week – well, it launched a new design of glasses, which are available for a limited time in collaboration with fashion brand Coperni.

They’re undeniably stylish with a translucent black frame (which lets you see their inner workings) and mirrored lenses, but beyond the Coperni logo stamped at the end of each arm there’s nothing particularly special about this limited run. What’s more not only are these specs more limited than Meta’s previous clear frame drop – only 3,600 Coperni smart glasses are available instead of 7,500 like before – they’re also pricier.

Meta’s glasses normally start at $299 / £299 / AU$449, and its last limited drop was $429 / £429 (it wasn’t available in Australia). These Coperni specs are selling for $549 / £519 / AU$859. Some commenters on the original story love the design, but for us it’s not enough to justify the hype and cost of Meta and Ray-Ban’s first-ever smart glasses collab.

• Read more: The new Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses design is an expensive disappointment

Disney+ is making Andor free to stream on YouTube

Did you miss out on seeing what’s come to be considered as the best Star Wars show ever made? Well, you don’t have to worry about having FOMO anymore because Disney has decided to publish the first three episodes of Andor on YouTube for free.

It has also made the entire first season of one of the best Disney+ shows available on Hulu in the US ahead of the highly-anticipated premiere of Andor season 2 on April 22, giving any non-Disney+ subscribers even more ways to get in on the action.

That’s a smart move to hook more fans on the show and if you’ve become one of them (welcome) then you’ll no doubt want to take advantage of this great streaming deal that brings down the Disney+ and Hulu bundle cost back down to its awesome Black Friday price – come join the rebels!

• Read more: Disney+ is making Andor free to stream on YouTube, and now you have no excuse not to watch the best Star Wars show

Google Gemini just got physical

(Image credit: Google)

Google Gemini is one of the most powerful AI platforms, but up until this week, it was mostly about text, images and did not connect directly to the physical world. That changes with Gemini Robotics and its counterpart, Gemini Robotics-ER (embodied reasoning). Together, these platforms will connect the dots between Gemini’s powerful models and robots.

The long-term goal is humanoid robots running Gemini models (many major robot companies, like Boston Dynamics, are already on-board) to assist them in interacting with the real world, and especially unfamiliar situations. Our personal favorite was a pair of robot arms that quickly figured out how to slam dunk a toy basketball without any specific training. The race to our robot revolution is accelerating.

• Read more: You should prepare for a robot revolution

I spent nearly a decade with iPhones until I switched to the Google Pixel 6a in 2022, and have not looked back. Android sucked me in. But I was curious about how the Apple experience has changed since I left, so I decided to go back to iOS with the iPhone 16e.

Apple's latest is the exact iPhone I wanted three years ago, leaps and bounds ahead of the iPhone SE it replaces. It’s not a 'budget' phone, but it’s far from being a flagship, too.

Among its rivals, it holds up exceptionally well in benchmarks, but has significant tradeoffs compared to some phones that are half its price.

Having been out of Camp Apple for so long, I’ve seen what it’s like on the other side – and coming back, I’m both impressed and puzzled with the hands-on experience.

(Image credit: Zachariah Kelly / TechRadar)

There is an assured certainty and comfort when the manufacturer has complete control over an ecosystem – ie, having hardware, software, cloud and content management (via apps like Home and Music) talk to each other seamlessly. And when this comes from Cupertino, it's more about the experience rather than the performance of the device.

It’s also why the Google Pixel range remains my most recommended Android family of devices, and that's despite Samsung offering better tech on all fronts and at all price points – Google’s range feels more like Apple. The Pixels feel more mastered and uniform: again, because it's about the experience rather than the performance.

The iPhone 16e makes the experience more accessible than the standard range, offering shaved-off specs at a lower (but still considerable) price.

So turning to the iPhone 16e, knowing how comfortable I’ve gotten with the Android ecosystem, I’m left asking if this is enough. Many of the spec choices are baffling, but others are still ones that I wish more Android manufacturers would learn from.

An Androider’s take on the iPhone 16e

(Image credit: Zachariah Kelly / TechRadar)

I’m impressed with how well Apple continues to make all this stuff simply work together – from FaceID biometrics to allowing purchases and app downloads, to the instantly recognizable and understandable Home, Lock and Control Center screens, they all make for an experience that’s instantly operable.

Performance is in line with the base iPhone 16 (which I consider to be Apple’s best handset in years) and far ahead of similarly positioned Android phones. It's great for a mixed use of gaming, social media, messaging and note-writing.

Coming from Android, I'm also drawn to the simplicity. The cuteness of FaceTime, the ability to share contacts with a tap of an NFC sensor between iPhones, and the more user-friendly approach to home screen customization (focused on colors instead of palettes) give off a great feeling of coziness. It’s cute, it works, and it’s fun!

(Image credit: Zachariah Kelly / TechRadar)

What on Earth is up with this screen, though? 60Hz on such a pricey unit, and the same goes for the standard iPhone 16. This is grating as I don't like the scrolling and app-opening experience.

That makes the 16 and 16e seem like they perform worse than they do, and look less smooth than much cheaper Androids.

There’s nothing stopping these phones from operating a 120Hz display like the Pro counterparts, apart from Apple’s unwillingness to provide such screens. It breaks the seamlessness I referred to earlier.

Moving on: something I’ve been quite jealous of while using an Android phone has been Apple’s Action Button. I love the idea of an extra button with customizable functionality, but I'm not sold on its usability. I wish it had more than just a 'hold to open' trigger, but rather more like the stand-by button that works with a single or a double press.

(Image credit: Zachariah Kelly/TechRadar)

I still appreciate the Action Button though. An extra physical control on Android handsets would enable so much flexibility, say to quickly open a messaging app, use Google Lens, or quickly pull up your favorite contact list.

Finally, and this is a gripe specific to the iPhone 16e, but only offering a single camera at this price point feels like a huge step backwards for Apple. There are competing phones available at half the price of this handset that have two lenses, enabling more impressive zoom capabilities or greater detail up close.

Don’t get me wrong; the iPhone 16e can produce great photos, but a native zoom that maxes out at 2x is meager compared to what the Pixel 8a and Galaxy A56 are capable of – at a lower price point.

'e' is for...

When I first saw this phone's name, I assumed that the 'e' meant 'essential'. There's no official word from Apple on what it means, but I think I may have hit the mark.

Firstly, it's price tag – while still expensive, it strips back some non-essentials from the premium range but includes the Apple A18 chip, an IP68 resistance rating, an extremely impressive 30-hour battery life, and even Apple-specific features like its advanced biometric FaceID sensor and Action Button. In other words, the 'essentials'.

(Image credit: Zachariah Kelly / TechRadar)

It fits the sweetspot between the now grandfathered SE and the base model 16 – more expensive than the former but offering the essentials of the latter, probably filling a crucial marketshare goal. I can absolutely see it being a hit in markets like India, where Apple has only just managed to become one of the country’s top five smartphone brands.

Paradoxically restrictive and freeing, the iPhone 16e is a comfortable phone. It’s the right pick if you’ve been holding out for an entry-level device to upgrade to in the Apple family, but it’s not great value if you’ve broken out of the Apple ecosystem.

(Image credit: Zachariah Kelly / TechRadar)

At this end of the phone market, Apple has the competitive edge on raw benchmarking performance – but its rivals are far less expensive with cameras easily outpacing the single lens on the iPhone 16e.

Performance benchmarks be damned, the Samsung Galaxy A56 and Google Pixel 8a feel much more general purpose and suitable for day-to-day use, with more impressive cameras to boot. Not to mention the larger screens on both.

It’s an awkward spot for Apple to place such a great phone – it’s more powerful, but it’s not as practical as cheaper rivals. That said, it will be a brilliant handset to pick up on sale, otherwise its standard price is perhaps a little too high.

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Stay in style while adding mild compression for improved blood flow with the best compression socks on the market.

• New dual-core MEGA.mini architecture boosts performance while saving energy
• Dynamic core allocation optimizes workloads
• Mega cores for complex tasks and mini cores for routine processing

At February 2025's International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), researchers unveiled a new MEGA.mini architecture.

Inspired by Arm’s celebrated "big.LITTLE" paradigm, this universal generative AI processor, discussed at length in 'MEGA.mini: A Universal Generative AI Processor with a New Big/Little Core Architecture for NPU', an academic paper presented at the conference, promised a revolutionary approach to neural processing unit (NPU) design.

Arm's big.LITTLE architecture has long been a staple of efficient mobile and embedded systems, balancing high-performance cores with energy-efficient ones to optimize power usage. The MEGA.mini project seeks to bring a similar dual-core philosophy to NPUs, which are essential for running AI models efficiently.

MEGA.mini: A game-changing NPU design

This approach will likely involve pairing high-capacity "Mega" cores for demanding tasks with lightweight "Mini" cores for routine processing. The primary goal of this design is to optimize power consumption while maximizing processing capabilities for various generative artificial intelligence (AI) tasks, ranging from natural language generation to complex reasoning.

Generative AI tool workloads, like those powering large language models or image synthesis systems, are notoriously resource-intensive. MEGA.mini's architecture aims to delegate complex tasks to Mega cores while offloading simpler operations to Mini cores, balancing speed, and power efficiency.

MEGA.mini also functions as a universal processor for generative AI. Unlike traditional fastest CPUs that require customization for specific AI tasks, MEGA.mini is being developed such that developers can leverage the architecture for different use cases, including natural language processing (NLP) and multimodal AI systems that integrate text, image, and audio processing.

It also optimizes workloads, whether running massive cloud-based AI models or compact edge AI applications, assisted by its support for multiple data types and formats, from traditional floating-point operations to emerging sparsity-aware computations.

This universal approach could simplify AI development pipelines and improve deployment efficiency across platforms, from mobile devices to high-performance data centers.

The introduction of a dual-core architecture to NPUs is a significant departure from conventional designs — traditional NPUs often rely on a monolithic structure, which can lead to inefficiencies when processing varied AI tasks.

MEGA.mini's design addresses this limitation by creating cores specialized for specific types of operations. Mega cores are engineered for high-performance tasks like matrix multiplications and large-scale computations, essential for training and running sophisticated large language models (LLMs) while mini cores are optimized for low-power operations such as data pre-processing and inference tasks.

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Registering a domain can be done with just a few simple clicks in 2025, but it hasn’t always been that way. Rewind to March 1985 and the internet’s first .com domain name was registered: Symbolics.com.

What makes this date particularly noteworthy is the fact that the World Wide Web didn’t even exist at that point, and it would be six years until the web came onto the scene and changed our world forever.

Put simply, the creation of Symbolics.com marked what many would regard as the beginning of the dot-com era; the embryonic phase of a tectonic shift in global business, commerce, and society in general.

Symbolics.com

So who was behind the registration? As the name obviously suggests, it was created by an organization called Symbolics Computer Corporation. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the company specialized in the development of Lisp machines - early general-purpose computers running on the list processing (Lisp) programming language.

Registering a domain was no easy task during this period. The Domain Name System (DNS) was very much still in its infancy, and registrations were processed manually by the Stanford Research Institute (SRI).

To secure the domain, Symbolics was required to submit a paper request via fax machine or mail to the institute. Thereafter, it was a waiting game until it was processed and approved.

A far cry from the simple click-and-go experience of your modern web user.

A long road since the first domain name registration

It would be an understatement to say the web has come a long way in the 40 years since the Symbolics registration. It’s now an ever-present aspect of our daily lives, defining how we access information, shop, communicate with friends and family, and crucially, how we work.

We’ve seen the impact of IT downtime in the last few years, and it’s safe to say that moving back to pen and paper and fax machines on a full-time basis simply isn’t an option.

From that first registration, the number of domains globally has surged steadily over the years. As of the end of 2024, the number of domains registered globally stood at 364.3 million, according to figures from DNIB.

For context, in 2014 the number of domains registered globally stood at around 250 million. This continued growth over the last decade hasn’t been restricted to business-related domains, either. Anyone can create one easily and at a fairly reasonable price.

From microbusinesses and blogs to professional portfolios and artistic showcase sites, millions of people globally have some form of website and associated domain.

Where is Symbolics now?

Today, a quick visit to Symbolics.com will take you to what is essentially a web-based museum. In 2009, the domain was acquired by Aron Meystedt, a startup investor and founder of Napkin.com.

Meystedt has maintained the site since then, offering users a glimpse into historic events and milestones over the course of the web’s development. It still attracts tens of thousands of curious visitors each year, including myself while researching this article.

Aside from the interesting facts and tidbits available on the site, there is another interesting feature: an AI-powered domain name quality scoring tool.

It’s fantastic that, 40 years on from its creation, the world’s first domain has jumped on the AI bandwagon. Nonetheless, it is a handy tool and has been used by thousands of people to evaluate domain name strength and quality.

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In my years as a gamer – stretching back to childhood afternoons blowing desperately into dusty Nintendo cartridges – I've watched countless tech innovations appear, dazzle briefly, and fade quietly away. Remember motion controls? Great for Wii bowling, less great for just about everything else. VR keeps promising to be revolutionary but always feels like it's still waiting in the wings. But artificial intelligence may have something that lasts longer.

That's probably why Microsoft is working on an AI "Copilot for Gaming," that will aid future Xbox players. But there’s no need to wait if you want to bring the power of AI to your next gaming session. ChatGPT can be a surprisingly pleasant companion on your gaming journey, here are a few ways I've deployed it to make playing video games more fun.

Game guide AI

(Image credit: Insomniac Games / Sony)

There was a time when official game guides were thick, glossy artifacts full of art and obscure easter eggs or enormous and often funny digital books written by paid games journalists. But these days, official guides are rare, and the investors in online guides mostly rely on messy wikis. The information you want is probably out there, but rarely in a cohesive and useful format.

Recently, while swinging through the streets of New York in Spider-Man 2 on my PS5, I decided to see if ChatGPT could recreate something resembling those classic guides, one that could chart every side mission, collectible, and hidden secret. I used the Deep Research tool to really delve into the internet and come back with more than just a single mission tipsheet. I asked the AI to "Create a personalized, comprehensive guide for completing Spider-Man 2 on PS5. Make sure it includes information on collecting suits, getting upgrades, and finding side-missions, so I don't miss anything."

Five minutes later I had a thorough game plan, with not just everything I should look for, but even what to prioritize at different stages of the story. I got optimal routes for collectibles, tips for efficiently earning upgrade tokens, and suggested combat approaches tailored to different types of encounters. I didn't need or want to follow its suggestions slavishly, but if I ever got confused or realized there was a blank in my costume options, it was right there to steer me to the solution.

Real-time guidance

(Image credit: Nintendo)

Open-world games offer freedom to do anything, but a sprawling fantasy RPG can sometimes almost be annoying if you simultaneously love them but also get impatient with them. While wandering the vibrant landscapes of Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, I stood atop a floating island and felt stuck despite the options for shrines, side quests, and mysteries scattered across the horizon.

Just to break the paralysis, I asked ChatGPT, "I'm feeling unsure what to do in Tears of the Kingdom. Should I prioritize shrines, exploration, or push forward with the main story?" I soon had a nice breakdown of possible rewards, pacing, and general vibe of the options, and I immediately had my next four hours filled with fun rather than dithering from my island.

Game mechanics education

(Image credit: Warner Bros.)

Complex game mechanics are part of the fun of a video game, but sometimes they're a little too difficult to work out from a game's own description. I don't like switching to easy mode on games even in a game with that option, but that can leave me stuck failing over and over. Hogwarts: Legacy is no one's idea of an ultra-hard pro-gamer only game, but that doesn't mean the mastering spell combos, potions, and talent trees doesn't take at least some practice.

Frustrated after a particularly disastrous duel, I turned to ChatGPT for help. My prompt was: "I'm struggling with the spell system and combat combos in Hogwarts: Legacy. Can you clearly explain how I can combine different spells effectively without making it feel like studying for finals?"

Happily, ChatGPT didn't just mock me, but explained some intricate mechanics in simpler ways and suggested strategies to improve. The advice included showing the synergy of some spells, combos to try for different enemies, and other variations to try. Suddenly I was a capable wizard, rather than another confused Muggle.

The next game

(Image credit: Sony Santa Monica)

Ever stare at your gaming library or scrolled endlessly through digital stores, unable to choose a new game? ChatGPT can be your guide on that too. After completing God of War: Ragnarok, I was keen to find something similarly exciting. Online guides helped, but I didn't want to waste time or money so I asked ChatGPT for help with the prompt, "I loved God of War: Ragnarok, particularly the story, visceral combat, and mythology connection. Can you recommend something similar for my next game?"

ChatGPT recommended options like Horizon: Forbidden West and Ghost of Tsushima, explaining how each matched my preferences. ChatGPT didn't just throw random ideas my way, it had an explanation for each. Ghost of Tsushima turned out to fulfill my interests perfectly.

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• Nokia 5G 360 Camera is a IP67-rated camera that excels in tough regions
• Real-time RXRM software boosts remote monitoring and teleoperation efficiency
• Released in January 2025, it's now gone on to win 3 iF Design awards

Nokia has revealed its 5G 360 Camera, and the company's proprietary Real-time eXtended Reality Multimedia (RXRM) software powering it, has won 3 iF Design awards.

The "world-firs"t" 8K 5G-enabled 360-degree camera, combined high-resolution, low-latency 360° video streaming with 3D OZO spatial audio.

Tougher than ever

Nokia originally touted the Extreme Temperature variant of its 5G 360 Camera as being engineered for harsh environments (with an IP67 waterproof rating), and coming with robust data privacy features that make it ideal for critical industrial use.

Key to that has been the RXRM software, which aids real-time remote operations by enabling the remote monitoring, inspection, and operation of industrial equipment. Its APIs allow customers to integrate 360° video and 3D OZO Audio into AI tool platforms, supporting analytics, overlays, and extended reality applications.

At the time, Sami Ranta, General Manager of RXRM at Nokia, said “Nokia RXRM allows industrial customers to enhance their business processes, saving costs from product support to field operations. Adding a 5G-enabled industrial camera product to RXRM now offers a complete solution for real-time remote use cases such as situational awareness, remote monitoring, teleoperation and stadium scale sports and entertainment events.”

RXRM has demonstrably enabled safer and more efficient industrial processes by delivering real-time, actionable insights.

Finnish company Callio Pyhäjärvi was an early adopter of RXRM technology at Europe’s deepest mine, the Pyhäsalmi Mine, which has now been transformed into a multidisciplinary environment for research, training, and remote operations, demonstrating that the 5G 360 camera's ability to transmit video and audio over private and public wireless networks has been pivotal for high-risk industries in enhancing operational efficiency, reducing risk, and enabling remote control.

"Previously, existing cameras have been unable to meet the challenges posed by the harsh conditions of mining operations in Callio Business Park," noted Sakari Nokela, Callio Pyhäjärvi's Chief Development Officer. "With the trusted Nokia product reliability and security, this camera effectively addresses a critical gap in the market.”

In case you missed it, Nokia's 5G 360 camera is certainly a bit beyond even the best business webcams available, streaming ultra high-definition 8K video (for the best 5K and 8K monitors out there) with near-zero latency, coupled with spatial audio, over 5G, Wi-Fi, and Ethernet.

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Now you'll have more ways to play games you love.

Most quotes about disappointment focus on the bright side: "Disappointment is a detour on the road to success," said Zig Ziglar. Maybe he's right but when the disappointment leads to an immutable fact or harsh realization, there may be no coming back from it. The Siri Intelligence delay and subsequent fallout is that kind of disappointment and became a wake-up call of sorts as everyone is reassessing their Apple point of view.

I'm sure by now many of you have read the various analyses and excoriations of Apple's failure to deliver on its Apple Intelligence and Siri promises. My favorite, by far, is Daring Fireball's epic "Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino" exploration of what went wrong and how "Apple pitched a story that wasn't true."

Our own John-Anthony Disotto calls Apple Intelligence "a fever dream" that perhaps Apple might like to forget. Fast Company's Harry McKracken is a bit more measured and while he thinks Apple might've failed to "emotionally bond with Siri" he writes that he'd rather see a "great" Siri than one that arrives "on time."

In some ways, they're all right. Apple is the most credible tech company on the planet. It did over-promise and create this mess, and sure, I'd like to see the very best Siri possible and, honestly have no choice but to wait for it.

But my disappointment is rooted in something far deeper and more disturbing than just Siri.

The long wait for a smarter Siri

(Image credit: Apple)

I've been chatting with Siri for almost 15 years and, in the early days, was impressed with its almost conversational capabilities. I wrote in detail about its numerous brain transplants and speech updates. Even as Alexa overtook it, I knew we were still in the horse-and-buggy stage of AI and I waited patiently for the magic I knew only Apple could bring.

My patience began to wane during the early days of the AI revolution as OpenAI and ChatGPT took the world by storm and then Microsoft supercharged awareness with Bing AI and eventually Copilot. Apple seemed to be sitting on its hands as Google and Samsung showed off impressive native AI feats in apps, on the web, and in Galaxy and Pixel phones, respectively.

WWDC 2024 changed all that and gave me hope that Apple was in the AI race, but there were worrisome signs even back then that because, well, it was Apple, I chose to ignore or forgive.

Conversations with Siri: Me: "Why?" Siri: "I don't know. Frankly, I've wondered that myself." #apple #iphone4sOctober 17, 2011

Chief among them was that Apple was quickly ceding key AI elements to the competition. The integration of ChatGPT and Google for complex natural language prompts was seen as a win, but it was also Apple throwing up its hands and saying, "Here. You handle this."

Anything more complex than "Hey Siri, play my Pump Up playlist" is handed over to ChatGPT. Essentially you are leaving Apple land for a world managed by an open source AI platform, albeit arguably the best one in the world.

I cut Apple slack because of the big promise: Siri would get better and not by a little bit. It would be the intelligent assistant you dreamed of. An AI that, with your permission, could see all on your best iPhone and on its screen. It could take action based on your written or spoken prompts, and keep the conversation going so you got the best result out of Apple's ecosystem and all your data that's embedded in it.

I believed because, like so many others, we believe in Apple.

When they were magical

(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff)

Apple is a special company. It all but appropriated the word "magical." Nobody launched products like Apple. No company has the aura. Its chief executives are mythical creatures. CEO Tim Cook is a bona fide celebrity and his warm Alabama cadence can lull you into submission: yes, Apple will do that.

But the hard realization is that Apple is just another tech company and one that is facing perhaps its most difficult technical challenge.

Yes, I appreciate the transparency. I've worked on many projects that took longer than I anticipated. It's hard to tell your boss: this will be delayed. For Apple, it had to share the news with almost a billion users.

Over the years, I've seen Apple fail or underdeliver and watched how it's held to an almost higher standard than others. Its efforts to bring us the thinnest phone ever resulted in the possibly bendable iPhone 6 but Apple recovered with a stronger iPhone 7 and future designs that almost challenged you to bend them.

Apple's not great at apologies. 15 years ago, the late Steve Jobs held an apology, non-apology press conference to explain away "Antennagate." For those who don't recall, that was when the iPhone 4 came out and some people reported connectivity issues that may have been related to their hands covering the ill-positioned antennas on the outside of the phone. The company initially said we were holding the phones wrong, and then Jobs held that press conference to clear the air. Sort of. He never exactly apologized and did his best to minimize the issue and encourage reporters to move on.

It's not that Apple is incapable of admitting fault.

The art of the apology

(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff)

Back in 2017, Apple invited me to Cupertino to talk about a Mac Pro do-over. This was unheard of. Not only was Apple saying it made a mistake, it was detailing where it went wrong and how it planned to recover and deliver a new Mac Pro for its devoted creative and development customers.

Oddly, what I did not take away from that day is that Apple is fundamentally a company like any other, with hits and misfires, and delays and struggles.

Similarly, I did not take Apple Intelligence promises with a grain of salt. Even as the company slowly stepped its way through delivering fresh AI updates, I waited patiently – and confidently for the big Siri update. I did have some frustration and tried, in my own way, to cajole Apple into action.

Even though Apple operates in secret, rumors and leaks are surprisingly precise about future activities. And for the longest time, they had the big Siri reveal pegged to iOS 18.4. When that didn't come, I was confused. And when Apple admitted that the update would be delayed to "in the coming year" I was surprised and upset.

That's when it finally sunk in.

My understanding of Apple as this precise and near perfect and well-oiled machine was, if not wrong, artificial. Yes, it is a massive and highly accomplished company with a spectacular campus that has done more to change the world than most, but it's also a gigantic enterprise of regular people operating in a demanding corporate bureaucracy trying to solve difficult engineering and programming challenges. Some of that is in evidence if you go by the latest Apple leak from Bloomberg, which describes an internal Apple meeting that sounds very much like your typical frustrated tech company leadership.

I don't know what went wrong, if it was the scale of the problem, the lateness of Apple's AI start, or someone inside over-promising about what they could deliver and when, but I should not have been so surprised.

Apple's not special. It's just a great company that often delivers great things. And sometimes it doesn't and we have to accept that.

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