Apple
Critic’s Notebook
What Do Commercials About A.I. Really Promise?
If human workers don’t have to read, write, or even think, it’s unclear what’s left for them to do.
Persons of Interest
Do Androids Dream of Anything at All?
We have tended to imagine machines as either being our slaves or enslaving us. Martha Wells, the writer of the “Murderbot” series, tries to conjure a truly alien consciousness.
On Television
On “Hacks” and “The Studio,” Hollywood Confronts Its Flop Era
The industry has long loved to tell stories about itself—but, in 2025, the self-satirizing has an air of crisis management.
On Television
“Disclaimer” Is a Baffling Misfire from a Great Auteur
Alfonso Cuarón’s foray into television is a work of such vacuity that even Cate Blanchett can’t salvage it.
Infinite Scroll
The End of the iPhone Upgrade?
I do not need an iPhone 16, which is a testament not so much to the device’s failure as to its resounding success.
Infinite Scroll
Apple Is Bringing A.I. to Your Personal Life, Like It or Not
The iPhone maker’s introduction of Apple Intelligence marks a step into a new technological era—call it the domestication of generative A.I.
On Television
Why Can’t We Quit “The Morning Show”?
Apple’s glossy experiment in prestige melodrama is utterly baffling—and must-watch TV.
Cultural Comment
The Ascent of the Supermodel
A four-part Apple TV+ series, “The Super Models,” traces the transformation of Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford, and Linda Evangelista into a new cultural category.
Infinite Scroll
The Birth of the Personal Computer
A new history of the Apple II charts how computers became unavoidable fixtures of our daily lives.
On Television
“Severance” Is Sci-Fi for the Soul
The dystopian drama on Apple TV+, primarily directed by Ben Stiller, takes the conceit of leaving one’s work at the office to its ultimate conclusion.
A Reporter at Large
How Democracies Spy on Their Citizens
The inside story of the world’s most notorious commercial spyware and the big tech companies waging war against it.
On Television
The Comforts of “WeCrashed” and the Modern Grifter Series
One might think of scam-trepreneur shows as the new crime procedurals: viewers know where the story starts, as well as where it ends.
Infinite Scroll
Have iPhone Cameras Become Too Smart?
Apple’s newest smartphone models use machine learning to make every image look professionally taken. That doesn’t mean the photos are good.
A Critic at Large
When “Foundation” Gets the Blockbuster Treatment, Isaac Asimov’s Vision Gets Lost
The TV version of the classic sci-fi saga sidelines its source’s most pressing questions about power and precarity.
Infinite Scroll
How Epic Games Made a Dent in Apple’s App Store Domination
In a calculated bit of legal trolling, the video-game company has landed a victory with major implications for users and developers alike.
On Television
“Ted Lasso” Can’t Save Us
In Season 2, our eponymous coach is withering, bucking against the themes of therapy and self-help—a welcome contrast to his belief in unabating optimism.
Theatre Geeks
Cecily Strong’s Theatre-Geek Love
The “S.N.L.” cast member talks about “Schmigadoon!,” the TV series she stars in with Keegan-Michael Key, her new pandemic manicure table, and doing mushrooms in the desert with body glitter.
Currency
What’s Next for the Campaign to Break Up Big Tech?
A judge recently dismissed two antitrust cases against Facebook. But what appeared to be a setback for the effort may actually provide a road map for how it can succeed.
The Age of Spandex
Rose Byrne Channels Jane Fonda
From a café in Sydney, the Australian actress, who plays an aerobics guru on the Apple TV+ series “Physical,” discusses Vegemite, spandex, and her preference for Iyengar yoga.
Dispatches from a Pandemic
The View from London During the Coronavirus Pandemic
The city looks not so much post-apocalyptic as post-capitalist, as if the fever of consumption that characterizes it had finally burned itself out.