Reading up on iPhone

The open web is disappearing as AI chat interfaces replace search and browsing, driven by convenience, following a historical pattern of interface shifts.

Apple's revamped Siri is good enough for consumers who mainly use iPhones to waste time, securing the iPhone's centrality, while Microsoft pushes thin-client agents for enterprise.

Enabling four specific iPhone privacy and security settings—Stolen Device Protection, iMessage Contact Key Verification, iCloud Advanced Data Protection, and Lockdown Mode—immediately reduces risk from device theft and targeted attacks.

Meta launches Instants, a new iPhone app and Instagram feature for ephemeral photo sharing that disappears after friends view it.

The iPhone and mobile banking, not ATMs, caused the steep decline in bank teller employment by reducing demand for physical branches.

The ATM initially complemented bank tellers, increasing their numbers through Jevons effect, but the iPhone's mobile banking later replaced the branch paradigm, causing teller employment to collapse.

After 12 years as a WSJ columnist, Joanna Stern reflects on the consumer-tech shifts that reshaped daily life, including phones becoming everything, cars becoming computers, and AI becoming the new interface.

The FBI was unable to extract data from a Washington Post reporter's iPhone because it had Lockdown Mode enabled, according to court documents.

AI companies are outbidding Apple for components like chips and memory, squeezing Apple's profit margins and potentially raising consumer prices.

A new iPhone call-screening feature, now accessible to all users, is frustrating wealthy and powerful people accustomed to being answered.

The article predicts that 2026 will bring a revamped Siri, foldable iPhones, brain implants, and electric supercars, while AI creates challenges in healthcare and cybersecurity.