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Unpopular opinion: I like the iPhone Air

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I have to admit I rock an iPhone Air, and I know others who have recently bought the Air as well. I feel the rumours of its demise are probably exaggerated.

For years, ultra-thin smartphones have been plagued by the same unavoidable trade-off — the slimmer the device, the worse the battery life. Apple appears to be setting its sights on changing that narrative entirely with the upcoming iPhone 18 Air, and the approach they are reportedly taking is unlike anything we have seen from the company before.

According to recent supply chain leaks, Apple is developing a new high-density battery system designed specifically for the Air lineup. Rather than simply shrinking an existing battery to fit a thinner chassis, the goal is to pack significantly more energy into a much smaller space. On its own, that would be impressive. But Apple is reportedly going further by pairing this with the new A20 chip, built on an advanced 2-nanometer process.

What makes the A20 particularly exciting in this context is not its speed, but its efficiency. A more efficient chip draws less power and generates less heat, which matters enormously inside a device with very little room for thermal management. Speaking of which, heat remains one of the biggest unsolved challenges in the iPhone 18 Air’s development. Reports suggest Apple is still actively testing different cooling solutions, and that the phone’s launch timeline could depend entirely on whether that problem gets resolved in time.

Beyond the hardware, Apple is also said to be optimizing iOS itself, along with OLED display efficiency and adaptive refresh rate technology, all with the specific goal of reducing the power demands of on-device AI features.

Taken together, this is no longer just a story about a beautifully thin phone. The iPhone 18 Air is shaping up to be Apple’s most comprehensive battery efficiency project to date, and if it delivers on its promise, it could fundamentally change what consumers expect from slim smartphones going forward.

iPhone Ultra Leaks

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iPhone Ultra Leaked: 10 Game-Changing Features You Need to Know

Apple’s long-awaited foldable iPhone is almost here — and it might be worth the wait.

Apple’s first-ever foldable smartphone, the iPhone Ultra, is reportedly arriving at Apple’s September event — just four months away. Early prototypes have already been spotted in the wild, and the feature list is nothing short of impressive. Here’s a breakdown of all 10 leaked features that could make the iPhone Ultra one of the most significant Apple launches in years.

1. Ultra-Compact, One-Handed Design

Unlike the tall, narrow foldables we’ve come to expect from rivals like Samsung’s Z Fold series, the iPhone Ultra takes a wider, shorter approach. The result? A device that’s surprisingly easy to use with one hand when folded — reportedly feeling closer to the beloved iPhone Mini than a bulky Pro Max. It even fits comfortably in a pocket.

2. Massive 7.8-Inch Display When Unfolded

Unfold it, and the iPhone Ultra transforms into a near-iPad experience with a rumored 7.8-inch display — nearly as large as the iPad Mini’s 8.3-inch screen. The extra real estate makes it ideal for gaming with on-screen controls and for watching 16:9 video. Wide-aspect-ratio movies will still show black bars, but for most content, this is a major upgrade.

3. Pro-Grade Cameras (Minus the Telephoto)

The iPhone Ultra packs four cameras total — two on the back — and the extra-thick camera bump means no compromises on quality. Both the main and ultrawide lenses are expected to match the iPhone 18 Pro Max spec-for-spec. The much-rumored dynamic aperture feature is also expected to debut here. The only catch: no telephoto lens.

4. The World’s First Crease-Free Foldable Display

This is arguably the headline feature. Apple has reportedly developed a unique metal plating and liquid metal hinge system that eliminates the crease that plagues every other foldable on the market — including Samsung’s latest. If this holds up, the iPhone Ultra’s internal display will offer a seamless, immersive viewing experience no competitor can currently match.

5. A20 Pro Chip — The First 2nm GAAFET Processor

The iPhone Ultra will be powered by Apple’s new A20 Pro chip, built on TSMC’s cutting-edge 2-nanometer GAAFET process. This next-gen architecture solves power leakage issues that have limited smaller FinFET chips, delivering big gains in performance-per-watt. It’s also rumored to feature eight cores for the first time — borrowing mid-performance cores from the M5 Pro — plus improved AI and graphics performance.

6. The Biggest Battery in iPhone History

Despite being the thinnest iPhone ever at just 5.28mm when unfolded (thinner than the iPhone Air at 5.6mm), the Ultra is expected to carry a 5,400–5,800 mAh battery — the largest ever in an iPhone. Apple achieves this through high-density battery cells that pack more capacity into a smaller physical footprint.

7. A New, Fully Customizable AI Button

The action button is reportedly gone, replaced by a redesigned, fully customizable button that incorporates camera control functionality. It’s said to support a new Siri AI camera mode when pressed and held within the camera app, while still functioning as a standard camera shutter. Swipe gestures on the button are going away, however.

8. Touch ID Returns (In the Power Button)

Face ID is out on the Ultra — the device is simply too thin to fit the sensor array. In its place, Apple is bringing back Touch ID, integrated into the power button, similar to how it works on recent iPads. It’s a trade-off that won’t please everyone, but it’s a necessary compromise given the device’s radical thinness.

9. Best-Ever iPhone Speakers

Apple has rethought the speaker layout entirely. When unfolded, the top speaker sits on the left side of the device while the bottom speaker sits on the right — placing them diagonally opposite each other. Combined with spatial audio software tuning, this creates a wider, more immersive surround sound experience. The top speaker also benefits from extra enclosure space on the side without a camera bump.

10. Apple’s New C2 Modem with Millimeter Wave 5G

The iPhone Ultra will be the first iPhone to feature Apple’s in-house C2 modem, replacing Qualcomm’s chips entirely. Built on a more efficient process, it promises better 5G performance, lower heat generation during navigation and streaming, and support for mmWave 5G. Overheating during GPS use has been a persistent complaint — the C2 aims to fix that for good.

Final Thoughts

The iPhone Ultra is shaping up to be one of Apple’s most ambitious products ever — blending the portability of the iPhone Mini with an almost-iPad-sized display, pro-grade cameras, record battery life, and innovations like the world’s first crease-free foldable screen. September can’t come soon enough.

Which of these 10 features are you most excited about? Let us know in the comments below.

Apple Watch Ultra (Hands-On Fitness)

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My hands-on experience with the Apple Watch Ultra & Series 8. How does it look and feel next to the Series 7, WHOOP Strap, and …

Google updates YouTube app for Apple TV to online backlash

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Yesterday Google unveiled a major update to their YouTube App for the Apple TV. It’s a major change in that it abandons the long used design philosophy that their Apple TV app used in favor of their more standardized Android based design.

The overwhelming public reaction to this abrupt design change has been mostly negative and quite loud in the online community. The app has abandoned what was a design UI that was uniquely suited for the apple TV and its remote, and replaced it with what seems to be a port of the Android TV app.

In doing so a lot of functionality has been lost to the point of making the app almost unusable on the Apple TV. Some examples:

– The subscription list is sorted in alphabetical order and can only be swiped through horizontally. So if you have 200 subscribed channels and you want to get to the last one you will literally have to left swipe through all 200 of them.

– Categories and suggested content have been pushed right up front in an apparent effort to force users into contnet they are not choosing for themselves. Never heard of Logan Paul? Well you will be forced to be acquainted with him and others like him soon.

– Silly auto preview. Do I really need to have a preview of a video that may only have a short run time? this works on Netflix where the preview is a trailer of a much longer feature, but this is just sill the way it is implemented here.

– No 4K after all. All this ridiculousness and there is still no accommodation for 4K content on Apple TV. Google is adamant about the VP9 codec rather than the h.264 that pretty much everyone else uses.

So there is lots of talk at public forums such as Reddit and Mac Rumours on this and most Apple TV users are aghast. What do you think of these changes?

How much do the top YouTubers make? Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) may have accidentally leaked his earnings.

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How much do the top YouTubers make? Certainly many are curious about this and being that we are constantly watching his channel and others like it we certainly have wondered from time to time how these creators are doing with ad revenue.

Yesterday in his “What’s on my phone: 2018!” video Marques Brownlee aka MKBHD may have leaked out a clue. At about 3:40 in his video he opens the YT Studio app on his phone and you can briefly make out his channel stats and his income for January 2018 (EDIT – it like the screen has been completely obscured now in the video.

A few keen eyed types have taken the screen shot and cleaned it up to find it says $30729 in ad revenue. Is that what anyone had expected? I have to admit that I would have thought it would be more, and that his ad revenue alone would be close to $1 million a year.

We are big fans or Marques and feel that he is quite possibly not doing this by accident and indeed may be sending some sort of message about YouTube after the Adpocalypse and the bloodbath that it has been for smaller creators.

Do you need a replacement for your earbuds? Look at the Urbanears Sumpan

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So you have lost the EarPods that came with your iPhone and you don’t want to buy them again, or maybe you are looking for something new with a different sound signature. Our friends over at Stoodo took a look at these and shot them out against some other more expensive options such as the Apple AirPods and the Beats X. For even less than the price of replacement set of EarPods you can get a pair of these.

Sumpan at Amazon: Urbanears Sumpan Earbuds

Got the winter blues? Check out the Apple spicy orange iPhone case!

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A lot of the colors that Apple has chosen for their Silicone case line in the past have been pretty unusual and often unappealing. The sort of colors that look like they have been selected by a committee to be completely unoffensive and to not suggest any sort of emotion at all. The only color that is an exception to this and has really any sort of impact has always been the Product Red. However this year Apple has updated with a really great dusky orange color that adds some brightness and emotion to their case line and really helps deal with the winter blues. They’ve done a great job with selecting a color that is bright and fun but dusky and smoky enough to not end up looking like safety orange.

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