Happy Friday! I’m just starting this week’s newsletter with a reminder to enter our latest giveaway. You could win a HP EliteBook 840 laptop as part of Back Market’s Obsolete Computer initiative. For more details on how to enter, click here!

Remember the iPod Sock from 2004? I bought a cheapo knock-off version, because the Apple one was, obviously, stupidly expensive. But it served a purpose really well back then and, for me, added to the allure of Apple’s music machine.

Twenty years on from the iPod Sock, we now have the iPhone Pocket. Although Apple hasn’t confirmed the lineage, it’s clearly there - this is absolutely, one-hundred percent, the successor to the iPod Sock. And it’s getting a bit of a kicking online. Mainly because it costs over £200 (for the long-strapped version) and appears to be nothing more than a really long knitted sock with a hole cut out for an iPhone.

I’m not in the business of apologising for Apple, but I am old and stupid enough to look at things with a slightly less Reddit-influenced mindset than some of the people I see in my comments threads. The iPhone Pocket exists for a reason. Apple will not have entered its production lightly; it will have been researched, planned, and costed out. The audience will have been defined and tested for its spending power. This limited run of iPhone Pockets will sell out - fast.

I was going to make this week’s Tech Diary video about the iPhone Pocket… but realised that it would only really work if I had one. And I’m not buying one because I’m not the audience, but I did put my thoughts to paper for you to read here. Instead, I decided to have a heart-to-heart about the OnePlus 15’s camera system.

OnePlus has been around for a while now, and they have barely put a foot wrong. The OnePlus 13 was an excellent phone, one of the best of 2025, in fact. But now, very oddly, we have its successor, the OnePlus 15, in the same calendar year. Quite why this has happened is a mystery, but boy is it a good phone…

The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is a very hard device to review simply because it is very similar to the Ultra 2 and, if we’re being honest, pretty similar to the Ultra 1. So instead, I thought I’d take a different angle and test out Apple’s main claim that it has a 36-hour battery life by comparing it to some of the best-performing competitors.

As far as comparisons go, this one might be the most pointless. But, if you are looking at buying a MacBook Pro, it does reveal that there is basically only one sensible option. →

In case you missed it, I’ve written about the iPhone Pocket with some thoughts that don’t necessarily agree with all of the negative press we’ve seen this week… →

iPadOS 26: Try the Precise Cursor 👉

If you pair a mouse or trackpad with your device, you’ll get access to the updated arrow-style cursor, which is far more accurate than the previous circular version. You can tweak its look and behaviour under Settings → Pointer.

🎵 This AI Song Just Went Number 1...FOR REAL (Rick Beato) - Thankfully, all is not what it seems (and I’m not talking about the AI artist).

🎧 AlphaTheta XDJ-AZ: The Standalone DJ System We Always Wanted (Passionate DJ) - Lots of researching going on over here…

🎙️ Is the iPhone Air honeymoon already over? (Not PC with Mark and Rob) - Shameless plug (and a big guest)!

Thanks for reading this week’s newsletter. It’s a busy one next week with Black Friday on the way. Don’t forget to enter the giveaway!

~ Mark