Cullen Thomas

Color me a virtual-reality optimist. Alongside writing for iPhone Life, I’m a video game developer, 3D artist, and sci-fi author. I own a Meta Quest 3 and use it all the time to play games and view 3D models as I work. My first experience of VR on a Valve Index is a cherished memory—it was so much fun to explore video game environments as if actually visiting them! When Apple announced its premium augmented reality headset, the Vision Pro, I was about as excited as anybody could be. That is, until I tried it.

Apple has retired the decade-old Lightning cable from every product in its lineup. As our existing devices age out of use and we update to new devices with USB-C, we will finally recycle our tangled drawers of old Lightning cables, only to invest in a new collection of USB-C cables to tangle in our drawers. Despite this inconvenience, we’re excited to make the switch. Here are five reasons this change is welcome, plus one thing to bear in mind.

At Apple’s September 2023 announcement event, the tech giant revealed the capabilities of its new Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2. The yearly update to both devices improves the processor to a new S9 chip, which will include AI processing cores for the first time on an Apple Watch. These cores enhance the function of every task that relies on artificial intelligence, from processing photos, to interpreting voice commands, to more accurate typing with autocorrect. Those cores will allow Siri to process some commands on the Apple Watch, without needing to communicate with an iPhone or the cloud. The new chip also enables a whole new gesture the user performs on their watch-arm, without touching the screen. Here’s everything you need to know about Apple’s latest generation of Apple Watches.

Apple has announced its long-awaited mixed reality headset at this year's World Wide Developers Conference. The headset, which is essentially a lightweight and specialized Mac that you strap to your face, represents Apple’s entry into the world of virtual and augmented reality, which, despite much potential, has remained a niche market dominated by gamers. Apple hopes to bring that world mainstream the same way that they made personal computers mainstream with the Mac, and smartphones with the introduction of the iPhone. Whether they will succeed remains to be seen, since the device will not reach audiences until 2024, and even then comes at a steep retail price of $3,499 that puts it out of reach of most. Nevertheless, the Vision Pro represents Apple’s first new product type since the launch of the Apple Watch in 2015, and many expect it could, like the iPhone and the Mac, change the world.