This Week at Mark Ellis Reviews

👋 Happy Friday! WWDC managed to be simultaneously underwhelming but exciting in some very specific ways. I’ve put my personal opinions together in this week’s Tech Diary video and compiled an easy explainer for every major announcement at WWDC below to get you up to speed! Aside from Apple stuff, I also compared the Sony XM4, XM5 and XM6 headphones to work out if you actually need the latest cans. Let’s dive in!

FIRST THINGS FIRST

The real story behind WWDC

Over the last few years, I’ve rushed out reaction videos to most of Apple’s big events. And, most of the time, it was a complete waste of time. In YouTube land, people just aren’t particularly bothered about that stuff, unless they are die-hard Apple supporters (or haters).

So, this year, with a second channel building a beautifully attentive audience, I thought I’d wait a few days and then unleash my thoughts there, instead. You’ll find the result of that in this week’s Tech Diary video, which was filmed, inexplicably, from behind the wheel of a mystery car.

I won’t give away the game here - because I want you to watch that video, obvs - but what I will say is that this was one of the most highly anticipated WWDCs in recent memory for yours truly, and the result was a lot better than I expected it to be. More importantly, I think it revealed what Apple has been trying to say about the explosion of consumer-facing AI tools ever since WWDC last year.

I don’t think they can say what they want to say, though (if I’m actually on the money with this, of course - it’s just a hunch, after all), which is why I thought I’d say it for them on YouTube. For the LOLs, clickz, and dollar dollar dollar, of course. Come on - I’m a YouTube creator.

WWDC ROUNDUP

All The Hits, Misses and Mixed Bags

Before I dive into the specifics, if you haven’t heard by now, Apple is renumbering its software updates across the board to coincide with the year after their first release. Everything, from iOS to visionOS, will now be followed by the number 26 this time around.

🎯 Liquid Glass - Hit (I Think)!

The name for Apple’s new system-wide design language. All operating systems have been given a lick of paint (or glass) in a fairly subtle way. Now, things like the Safari toolbar or quick menus will be translucent, with a frosted glass-like quality to them. Elements like the lock screen clock or media buttons will be embossed and show light reflections, whilst also dynamically responding to whatever is behind them.

 🎯 Spotlight - Hit!

In macOS Tahoe, you will be able to perform actions on certain documents or apps directly from the Spotlight menu, without having to open anything in a new window. For example, if you want to remove the background from an image within a document, you can use Spotlight to do this without first downloading the image and editing it in Photos. It essentially makes Spotlight a ‘doing’ tool rather than a ‘searching’ tool.

🎯 iPadOS - Hit!

My personal favourite announcement was the genuine overhaul to iPadOS. No longer is it iOS with some extra tweaks. No, iPadOS 26 will now basically be maOS on an iPad. That means things like a top menu bar, fluid window resizing, windows that stay open when minimised and Mac-like file management. It’s a huge change and one that reinvigorates the iPad’s usability. I’ll be making use of this one for sure!

🤔 watchOS - Mixed Bag

There wasn’t much in the way of watchOS updates. The major thing was a new wrist flick gesture to get rid of notifications or incoming calls which looks genuinely useful. But in another case of Apple delivering something no one asked for, we have Workout Buddy, a generative voice that encourages and updates you during a workout. Maybe I’ll like this more once I use it, but for now it’s just more AI fluff.

🤔 tvOS - Mixed Bag

Apple didn’t necessarily drop the ball here. The karaoke feature, where you can play music and display lyrics on your TV via an iPhone, is a great little addition. But that was basically it, besides a new profile management system. Where is the hardware update to Apple TV?! It’s well overdue and I thought maybe we would see it here.

👎 Apple Intelligence - Miss

I actually think Apple’s subtle shift away from focusing on AI is a welcome move. But that doesn’t mean the Apple Intelligence updates at WWDC can’t be criticised. Most of them were perfectly fine, like the addition of Apple’s own Circle to Search feature or open access for developers to work with Apple Intelligence models. The problem is that most of this stuff is years behind the curve compared to Android or just outright useless, case in point: being able to combine two emojis into one. Who cares?! And don’t get me started on Siri...

👎 homeOS - Miss

There were fairly strong indications that homeOS might appear at WWDC, but it didn’t. Apple has neglected smart home integrations for too long and risks losing out big time to competitors. The HomePod, Apple’s single piece of smart home tech, lags behind Alexa and Google Home and suffers from a lack of third-party integrations. Now was a good time to bring together some form of ‘Home’ operating system, maybe next year?

FREE EBOOK

Excel Quick and Easy: Usually $12.00, Free For A Limited Time

BYTE-SIZED NEWS

This Week’s Top Tech Headlines

👉 Samsung Teases Galaxy Z Fold 7 with AI Camera Revolution and Sleeker Design
The AI stuff has leaked into the foldables now too…

🗣️ Siri Overhaul Now Expected in Spring 2026 To Deliver More Natural Assistance
This update can’t come soon enough…seriously though, maybe sooner than this time next year?

HAVE YOUR SAY

Here are the results from last week’s poll, which inspired this comment from one of you: “Natural language Siri - at the moment it's as dumb as a rock!”. Couldn’t agree more.

Interestingly, there is actually a healthy appetite for some AI integrations and manufacturers probably know this already. If you give people genuinely useful AI that is simple to use and unobtrusive, then people will like it. But go any further than that and it’s a turn off. Will they listen to these sentiments? Probably not!

Next week, my first-ever gaming device review is hitting the channel, which I am very excited for, so I want to know which platform is your go-to:

ICYMI

Sony XM4 vs XM5 vs XM6: The Ultimate Headphone Comparison!

I’ve compared the XM6 headphones to a few competitors now, so it’s time for the big one. Which one of the three is actually the best buy? Can you still get away with picking up a bargain by choosing the XM4? Should anyone even consider the XM5? All of these questions are answered in this video!

NEED TO KNOW

Tip Of The Week

👉 iOS tip: Use your iPhone camera to capture and interact with text. Launch the camera app and aim it at the text you want to work with. A square icon with three lines will show up in the lower-right corner—tap it to extract the text. From there, you can choose to copy it, select everything, look it up, translate, or share it.

Remember, there are over 100 of these kinds of lesser-known but highly useful tips in my free iPhone tips eBook!

TOP FINDS

What I Watched On YouTube This Week

Of course, I watched The Next Drive, my own new YouTube channel, again this week. I’ll stop plugging this soon, I promise, but I think you’ll like the latest video, which is all about Apple CarPlay Ultra.

🗣️ WWDC INTERVIEW: Craig & Joz on Why Siri's Not Ready, AI Vision and iPadOS Shocker! (Tom’s Guide) - I still don’t know who Tom is, but he’s definitely one-upped Mr Gruber this year, thanks to this interview. I’ve only just spotted it, so will be watching later, but I have a feeling you’ll be interested, too…

🔎 WWDC 2025 Impressions: Liquid Glass! (Marques Brownlee) - MKBHD’s take on Apple’s new design language is definitely worth a watch. I hadn’t considered the readability aspect of Liquid Glass, until now.

🤥 Sony XM6 better than Airpods Max?! (Patrick Rambles) - I’m not just featuring this today because of a certain little reference at the start of the video. Honest.

Thanks for reading this week’s newsletter. As mentioned above, next week is my first gaming review video, so make sure to stay tuned!

~ Mark