Four Winners and Losers of Apple's 2025 - 512 Pixels

Apple’s year is just about done, so it’s time to pick some high and low points. Winners: UI Experts on Social Media macOS Tahoe, iOS 26, and their cousins will go down in history for being the releases that introduced Liquid Glass. One of Apple’s stated desires with this design language was to unify its platforms with one universal look and feel, as shown off in the image at the top of the company’s press release about Liquid Glass: Liquid Glass created a tidal wave of opinions about Apple losing its way, forgetting about accessibility, and trying to distract from its AI woes. Now that iOS 26 is rolling out to the masses , we’re back at it, with folks posting screenshots and links to their Substack. Apple tweaking the design as updates to the OS Class of 26 come out is only pouring fuel on the fire. I like Liquid Glass and I’m well aware of its issues, but the whole thing is just exhausting. Loser: Apple’s AI Efforts The further we get from WWDC24, the more bonkers it seems that Apple announced so many Apple Intelligence features that were nowhere near ready . The company clearly felt pressure to jump into AI features but wasn’t ready. In the time since, the company has been shuffling teams around and publishing research , but the features that have shipped are fairly lackluster. The promised next-generation Siri is still not here, and if reporting is to be believed , Apple doesn’t yet have its own technology to power it. Yikes. Winner: The iPhone Lineup The current slate of iPhones is super impressive. The base iPhone picked up some amazing features, including an always-on display and ProMotion. It’s the best no-adjective iPhone Apple has ever shipped. The iPhone Air is an amazing feat of engineering. I’ve been using one as my daily for a while now, and cannot believe how much I love this phone. I was rather cool on it in my review due to the trade-offs its thin design demands, but every time I pick it up, I smile. In that review, I wrote: One look at the iPhone 17 Pro should tell you that Apple is very willing to make an iPhone with the opposite trade-offs than the Air. Apple seems more willing than ever to offer its customers options, and I don’t think we should do anything to discourage that, even if it leads to hard decisions when standing in the Apple Store. The iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max eschewed the previous jewelry-like design of previous Pro models and traded it out for something much more utilitarian. It’s chunky and bold, all in the name of housing Apple’s best camera system in the device. It has a bunch of features that mere mortals will never use, but for pros making content with their phones, this one is a real winner. PLUS IT COMES IN ORANGE. I mean... come on! Losers: Aficionados of Large Desktop Macs It’s a...

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