I’ve attended many press events over the last few years, but none of them feels like the one I’m heading to now.

I’m currently sitting in Heathrow airport waiting to board a flight to San Francisco. From there, I’ll be shuttled off to Cupertino, a city deep within Silicon Valley and west of San Jose. It’s also the home of Apple and, more specifically, the ginormous Apple Park campus, which was officially opened in 2017.

The relentlessness of tech launches in 2026 has resulted in this being my third trip of the year to California, but I’ve never been to Cupertino or Apple Park. As noted in a recent newsletter, this is the tech press event equivalent of Willy Wonka’s golden ticket and, after more than six years of toiling away reporting on everything Apple has launched during that time, I’ll finally get to see Tim Cook walk out on stage and introduce the keynote (presumably the last time he’ll be doing so).

If you want to get the inside track on what this adventure is like from my side of the fence, give me a follow on Instagram - I’ll be peppering it with stories from California for the rest of the week!

I’ve flip-flopped on the iPhone Air more than anyone I know. But this time, I think I’ve finally landed on a side of the fence, and it has had some interesting side effects on how I interact with phones.

Everyone has a foldable now, apart from the elephant in the room. But Motorola has taken a slightly different approach to the likes of Samsung and Oppo and I think it absolutely works, although it might feel a bit dated to some. Check it out!

A quick reminder that my new newsletter is now live in collaboration with journalist Alistair Charlton! It features exclusive insights into the automotive industry from us, cool second-hand cars we’ve found, news, and, most excitingly, contributions from our readers!

We want to create a community of car lovers (motorcyclists welcome too!) that meet via email every week. So sign up, have a read and consider contributing, see you there!

👉 WWDC 2026: What To Expect - All you need to know ahead of this week! →

👉 Siri in iOS 27: Is Apple’s Chatbot Coming? - This is the big one that Apple needs to deliver on, and all the rumours suggest they will be… →

🔌 We Need to Talk About FERRARI LUCE! (Shmee150) - I was on the same press trip as Tim for the Ferrari Luce launch and what followed in terms of comments has been eye-opening, even for a seasoned troll destroyer like yours truly. Tim’s video is an eloquent, thought-provoking take on the entire affair. Much needed.

✏️ Jony Ive Explains How He Designed The Ferrari Luce (Cleo Abram) - Cleo does a superb job of speaking to the guy who is largely responsible for the look and direction of the Ferrari Luce.

🎸 Fender Commits Brand SUICIDE (Tim Pierce Guitar) - I don’t think I’ve ever shared any of Tim’s content on this newsletter, and this isn’t representative of what he usually does. But he sums up the Fender debacle perfectly.

Thanks for reading this week’s newsletter. Expect a full debrief of WWDC coming to your inbox soon!

~ Mark