iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Has Apple ever said what the AI in Siri AI stands for? Is it Siri Apple Intelligence or Siri Artificial Intelligence? Will it be Siri SI now? 🤔

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 29/09/2026

I don't. 😆 Really though, I find that I play games in fits and starts. I suddenly have a run where I can start Cyberpunk (again) and throw a dozen hours at it and then something happens and I don't play anything for weeks. Then I usually restart Cyberpunk because I can't remember what's happening.

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 29/09/2026

WWDC is a dev conf too, but it's really just a chance to preview stuff so guess this isn't too different.

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 28/09/2026

For those who missed it earlier - my iPhone 18 Pro Max review.

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 28/09/2026

Suck it, insomniacs. (It's usually MUCH lower 😂)

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 28/09/2026

OK, so after a week with the iPhone 18 Pro Max I think I finally understand why everyone was so obsessed about the iPhone mini and it going away. Not because I want one, I'm not an animal. But because of a year with the iPhone Air. My longer-form thoughts coming *somewhere* soon.

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 26/09/2026

In case anyone was wondering, the iPhone 18 Pro Max takes a good photo. So does Cooper 😍

A brown dog standing on a stone surface in a grassy area. The dog has its tongue sticking out. There are two black objects and a white object with a black base in the background.

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 26/09/2026

iCloud Photos is great and all, and I like having all my photos and videos with me all the time. But why oh why does it take so, so long to upload new stuff? It'd be quicker to mail a USB stick to Apple Park.

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 25/09/2026

Maybe it's just poorly worded. Same as the hed that's plain wrong. He wasn't sent off for a goal celebration. He was booked for it. He'd already been booked prior — that's why he got sent off. Words mean things.

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 25/09/2026

I know the BBC is under pressure right now, and its sports coverage particularly so. But, I don't know, maybe the guy got his second yellow for one of those things he did and you just said he should get a yellow for. Maybe it's just badly worded. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/...

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 24/09/2026

I was pleased to see @scottstein.bsky.social point out that Meta still hasn't addressed the privacy aspect of its new glasses, etc. Of all the companies trying this stuff, Meta surely has the least goodwill among skeptical users. And it's doing nothing to change that from what I've seen.

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 24/09/2026

If you think I'm letting Meta's AI anywhere near me or my kids, cute Tamagotchi or otherwise, you sir haven't been paying attention.

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 23/09/2026

Look, I'm not saying Xiaomi's software copies iOS. All I'm saying is I watched more of this video than I'd like to admit while thinking it was an iPhone Duo. That's all. 👀

x.com

Ben Geskin (@BenGeskin) on X

Yeah, this is totally awesome 😍 My own Xiaomi 18 Fold is here! Day one starts now, and I already really like it.

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 23/09/2026

It's the year 2026 and "Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite Extreme Gen 6" is a name that's somehow made it from whiteboard to the public. Did the branding team get replaced by a chatbot?

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 22/09/2026

Say what you want about Xbox, but those folks sure do know how to celebrate a birthday 🎉🙃

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 22/09/2026

We saw it at the weekend, really enjoyed it. So different to any RE movie before.

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 22/09/2026

I think this is key, and speaks to why execs inside Xbox can think everything is going great when the rest of us see chaos and scattershot approaches to things. There *has* to be a plan, with a targeted end goal. Whether it's a good one is another matter entirely, of course. I wouldn't bet on it.

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 22/09/2026

Xbox is having another "This Is All Totally Fine" days, then. What a complete clusterfuck.

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 22/09/2026

There's a tonne of gatekeeping going on from people who, not too long ago, would have gone absolutely mental about it happening to them.

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 22/09/2026

Anyway. I've had a chance to unbox the iPhone 18 Pro Max and whatnot. And having used the iPhone Air for a year, I can honestly say I'd forgotten how big and heavy these Pro Maxes are. This is even bigger and heavier than my old iPhone 15 Pro Max, so it's a double whammy. The Air has ruined me.

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 22/09/2026

It's all very unbecoming. It's like some corners of gaming press is obsessed with building people up and giving them a voice ….. so long as they're in the right circles. Some are worse than others. Some, in particular, seem to only take joy in tearing others down. I'm not sure they even like games.

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 22/09/2026

I've also noticed a weird situation where gaming media, especially those who have gone indie, talk down about freelance writers in a way that I don't really see in the tech verticals. If they see a piece by a freelancer, it's automatically less valuable. Doubly so if it isn't a name in their clique.

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 22/09/2026

I think a lot of people have been quick to assign malice to a quote in this piece, which seems unfair. Loose wording, poorly chosen phrasing, sure. But to call the writer a scumbag is reactionary in a way that is unhelpful. Piling on without knowing any of the details is incredibly toxic.

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Reposted by Oliver Haslam

Daryl Baxter @darylbaxter.com · 21/09/2026

To kindly add - to the AI-decomps and ports too. I've seen a couple of articles about the Star Wars Trilogy Arcade Dreamcast port, and not one mention of it being heavily AI-assisted - not even in the headline. Let's do better.

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 21/09/2026

We just had to have our 18 year old cat put down and then this arrives. Quite the rollercoaster. Think setup time is going to have to wait. Amazingly, this is the first pet we've lost 😔.

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 20/09/2026

I've been saying this for years, so let's not pretend it's new. There's one in particular whose videos really should have an ad label on them. If someone is grinning and gushing like crazy, you can't trust what they're saying.

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 18/09/2026

I was writing about Screen Time simply not doing what Apple thinks it does for iMore almost four years ago. It fixes one thing and breaks three more and, for a company that sells devices based on this stuff, it's time it got its act together. Even with that screen, half the buttons don't work. 🙄

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 18/09/2026

Funnily enough, this *just* appeared for me but, like you, actually getting everything updated is usually a three-month task littered with lots of "yeah I'll do it later" and such. This needs to be so much better.

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 18/09/2026

Some Apple Watch Series 12 reviews really tell on who didn't pay attention to the reviewer's guide or listen to their briefing properly…

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 17/09/2026

I'd have been writing that from three cities over. No thank you. Mac's haunted.

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 17/09/2026

In the end, I had to open the calendar on my screen so Siri AI could see it and then it worked fine. Then it had the gall to say "oh in future just ask me to add stuff to that calendar and I'll do it." Siri, I will stab you and I will be justified.

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 16/09/2026

It's been remarkable, and the kind of thing that gives clubs like Wednesday hope that things can get better down the line. I want European nights back at Hillsborough some day.

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 15/09/2026

I've heard of one (1) of those people and now I don't think I'm allowed to play GTA 6.

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 15/09/2026

Morals of the story: Cats are dicks, PC OEMs are dicks, and I should have listened to the boy (but I'm definitely not a dick.)

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 15/09/2026

A week later, I wonder why I can't hear the fans while he's playing a game. Then I wonder why it's so, so hot to the touch. Then I figure out there's some Lenovo software that overrides Windows. And a two-key keyboard shortcut cycles through DIFFERENT performance modes. It was on battery saver 😑.

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 15/09/2026

The boy complained his Windows laptop was slow when playing games after the cat jumped on it. Me, an intellectual, told him that couldn't be the case. Windows was set to performance mode. He must be imagining it. There are no shortcuts she could have pressed….

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Reposted by Oliver Haslam

Daryl Baxter @darylbaxter.com · 15/09/2026

This took a *long* time to curate. Any shares of the below would be much appreciated.

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 15/09/2026

I follow two people in the gaming journalism space whose entire day seems to revolve around belittling anyone else in the industry who they don't seem worthy, or just generally being dicks. And, yet, they consider themselves to be beyond reproach. Amazing scenes in an industry on its arse.

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 14/09/2026

You'll laugh, but have you checked the Ethernet port is still the primary connection type in macOS? Wouldn't be the first time something's moved of its own accord and you're actually on WiFi even though it's plugged in.

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 14/09/2026

On a purely personal level, ignoring the *issues*, this kind of feature has the potential to be live-changing for a lot of people. I can't remember what anyone tells me, and I usually realise that about 5 minutes after I was told it. This feature addresses that.

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 14/09/2026

The Siri Live Rewind thing on the Apple Watch is causing a whole thing online, and I get it. Though it's important to remember this is nothing new — apps have been doing this, and worse, for a while now. Apple doesn't record the audio, and it doesn't attribute anything said to anyone, at least.

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Oliver Haslam @oliverhaslam.com · 14/09/2026

Also, is this percentage counter new to the RC?

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