My iPhone 16 Pro battery isn’t great. And yet it’s also healthy, according to the Settings app. Still, it’s disappointing that I often head towards the end of the day with the phone gasping for a charge. Which is why, for once, a spec on an Android phone excited me, leading me to write I want Apple to squeeze a OnePlus 15 battery inside my next iPhone.

Mac icons are now dreadful. So says Paul Kafasis, who systematically dismantles Apple’s new design style, ably supported elsewhere by John Gruber. Honestly, I’m not sure what’s going on at Apple right now. The broader issues with Liquid Glass don’t say good things about taste, usability and basic objectivity. These icon changes starkly show all these problems in microcosm, with most of them being significantly worse from aesthetic and usability standpoints.

The customer experience is all-important. So says Ken Segall, who argues Tim Cook’s Apple increasingly crosses a Steve Jobs red line. The whole ‘What would Steve Jobs do?’ thing is dangerous territory. A company has to move on when a founder is no longer around. But I’ve long felt Apple too often shifts under Cook from ‘be the best’ to ‘be least worst’ regarding customer experience. Infesting Maps with ads, which Segall suggests is rumoured, would be another step into the bad space.

The App Store is now online. This one deserves a finally. When you look up an app in Safari on Mac, you no longer get a preview page that immediately attempts to load the Mac App Store – and, in my case, then causes a vestibular trigger that makes me dizzy. You can now search and browse categories. But can you buy anything online and, say, load an app on to your iPhone, ready for when you next use it? No. Incredible. I mean, it’s not like you’ve been able to do that on Google Play for years and years.

A Vectrex Mini is coming. I wrote about this for Stuff, and it’s a mini console I never imagined would happen. The Vectrex is also a console I always craved but never bought. These days, they are expensive units – and also fragile. Not an ideal combination. The Mini lacks a CRT, which has made some folks grumble. Although not to the degree it impacted the Kickstarter, which was fully funded in 15 minutes. And from an authenticity standpoint, the Mini will at least get physical overlays that ape the originals (with a digital fallback if you use a game where you don’t have an overlay). Even better, the unit turns into a gloriously geeky desk clock when idle. So, yes, I want one.

I updated some Apple articles: iOS 26 tips (Stuff) and my iPhone and iPad buyer’s guides (both TapSmart).

Star Trek Lego is boldly going, etc. I covered the new set for Stuff, cramming in as many puns as I could get away with. Engage! Etc.

A Roblox gardening game is getting a movie. Being old, I don’t care. And I figured this was a good excuse to point back to an old column about putting these retro games on the big screen instead.

November 10, 2025. Read more in: Weeknotes