595: Everything is a Backdoor

The worst Apple platform features of the year, the tech gifts we're buying for our family, Bluetooth's Auracast feature, and the emoji we desperately need.

Gadgets we wish we owned, our favorite tech or software of the year, our best tips for helping aging relatives with tech, and our thoughts on John Giannandrea's retirement from Apple.

Repairing technology, our Apple dream accessories, how we save links for later, and whether we pay much attention to "year in review" features.

Black Friday tech deals we're eyeballing, Meta features that should go retro, whether decentralized internet was better, and how we troubleshoot tech issues.

Our mobile ID usage, the oldest tech we regularly use, smart TVs and spying, and our favorite pre-smartphone phones.

Using agentic AI features, iPhone upgrade methods, Apple Podcast app updates in iOS 26.2, and whether you'll tone down Liquid Glass in version 26.1.

What we use our Apple Watches for, moving to a new HomeKit home, the tech we use while cooking, and a new humanoid robot for the home.

Voice commands we use regularly, whether robotic pets benefit society, recent tech features that surprised us, and our e-reader and page turner preferences.

Apple's M5 updates and whether we use AI locally, media that's brought us joy recently, whether the Vision Pro update changes our minds, and the Apple services and products we would rename.

Whether color e-ink displays feel compelling or like a fad, our impressions of OpenAI’s Sora and text-to-video tech, how we manage Mac menu bar icons, and whether we’ll use the new resizable Slide Over feature in iPadOS 26.1 and for what purpose.