Apple Watch Series 5 Ceramic Edition - is it worth buying in 2026? Full hands-on.

There’s only one 6 year old Apple Watch worth buying, and even then it’s only for the die-hard Apple fan:

Apple Watch Edition, Series 5 Ceramic.

It came in two sizes, 40mm and 44mm, equivalent to today’s Apple Watch SE 3. If you’re OK with the thicker bezels on the SE 3, you’ll be fine with a Series 5. I’ve been using mine over the past few days, and it still holds up really well today - much better than the Series 3. Of course, the Ceramic Edition has some perks, with the main one being the premium pearly white finish that is smooth and scratch resistant. You get the bonus of a sapphire display which is also scratch resistant.

It better be sapphire when you consider this bad boy was $1,299 at launch.

Ceramic Edition Series 3 and Series 5.

Fun fact: the larger Series 3 case (left) has a slightly smaller screen than the smaller sized Series 5.

The downside - both ceramic and sapphire are more shatter prone, so you don’t want to daily this watch or use it for workouts since replacement units can cost up to $800. If your battery has less than 80% health, it is worth the additional $99 to get it replaced since more than likely, Apple will simply swap out the device, giving you a new watch for an additional $99. Hurry up though, because the Series 5 is now vintage. Apple’s definition of vintage per Apple:

Products are considered vintage when Apple stopped distributing them for sale more than 5 and less than 7 years ago. […]

Owners of iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch, AirPods, Apple Vision Pro, and Beats products may obtain service and parts from Apple service providers for a minimum of 5 years from when Apple last distributed the product for sale.

Service and parts may be obtained for longer, as required by law or for up to 7 years, subject to parts availability.

In less than two years (if not sooner), the Series 5 will become obsolete, ceasing all repairs and service.

If you’re still interested, I’ve done some testing to see if it’s worth it for you.

Initial boot up

Once again I did a boot up test to see how quickly it can ping my iPhone Air. With this test you get a feel for how quickly the watch connects to the phone. From the Apple logo boot up screen to a successful phone ping I got the following times:

• Series 3 - 8 minutes, 50 seconds

• Series 5 - 1 minute, 53 seconds (1st attempt)

• Series 5 - 2 minutes, 27 seconds (2nd attempt)

• Series 5 - 2 minutes, 27 seconds (3rd attempt)

• Ultra 3 - 1 minute and 6 seconds

2.5 minutes is perfectly acceptable for a 6 year old watch, especially compared to the extremely sluggish Series 3.

Size comparison

When you compare the Series 5 to any modern Apple Watch of the same size, the size is very similar, and almost unnoticeable to the naked eye. It’s when you get to full-screen watch faces that you notice the bigger bezels. Not a huge deal if you ask me, especially if you use darker watch faces.

Each small Apple Watch generation body style. Left to right: 38mm Series 2, 40mm Series 5 Ceramic, 41mm Series 9, 42mm Series 10. The Series 5 display is smaller, but not by much.

The Series 3 bezels are ancient (far left), making the Series 5 (2nd from left) more acceptable. The Series 10 (far right) looks like it has a bigger bezel than the Series 9 to its left, but it’s actually more complicated.

What bands look best on the Ceramic body?

The great news is most bands look amazing on the white ceramic body, the only exception being silver bands. It’s not ugly, but it definitely has a retro Nike type of vibe.

It kinda works if you really try hard.

Not a fan of this look though.

Honestly, any band from Apple that doesn’t have silver lugs looks amazing with Ceramic. Sorry Grand H owners.

I have a plethora of sport bands but none that are punchy except for my purple band, making the watch more spunky and fun. Lighter colors give it a more adventurous look, while darker colors scream business casual. The ultimate flex is the black link bracelet, giving you that nice contrast at the upper echelon of business casual, leading to big merger acquisitions on the golf course.

Spunky.

Business casual.

Vacation.

Bruce Wayne on the golf course.

Hardware

If you want to know the look and feel of the Series 5, look no further than the new Apple Watch SE 3. It has the same exterior hardware when it comes to screen size and dimensions. The one difference? I’ll pull up what I said about the Series 3 Ceramic Edition since it applies here:

The Ceramic models have a distinct lip or “shelf” between the display and the body, resulting in a break in the fluid feeling when you slide your finger off the screen and onto the body. This was a limitation of the Ceramic manufacturing process because even the entry-level aluminum and mid-tier stainless steel models had the seamless feel and look between screen and body. As beautiful as the Ceramic Edition is, it’s a shame they couldn’t make it as seamless considering the original $1,299 price tag.

Series 3 Ceramic’s bigger shelf vs the more flush display on the aluminum Series 3.

Series 5 Ceramic maintains the bigger shelf vs the Series 5 Stainless Steel. Both displays are Sapphire, so the only variation here is the body.

Battery

The Series 5 was the first Apple Watch to feature an Always On Display (AOD), making it a game changer for many. I tested the battery with the AOD on the smaller 40mm size, and got pretty good results. I have a replacement watch from Apple so I also had 100% battery health.

• Day 1 - 100% at 9AM…24% at 10:15PM

• Day 2 - 94% at 7:26am…8% at 10:39PM

You can easily get a full day, but you will have to strategically charge the watch if you like sleep tracking, which this watch supports. I say strategically because the Series 5 does not support fast charging. Going back to sleep tracking, it’s nowhere near as robust as more modern watches, and you won’t get sleep apnea notifications nor a sleep score if that’s your thing. Expect a solid day of battery life for casual use, and 24 hours (or more) on Low Power Mode, with even better numbers if you’re going for 44mm.

Performance

I was surprised by the performance considering this watch is over 6 years old. I never noticed any lag or hiccups during my casual daily use, mainly replying to messages or using voice activated Siri to turn on and off lights. If you’re a power user, you might run into some slowdowns, especially if you use cellular or On-device Siri frequently. Sorry, no 5G here.

The Series 5 ended software updates with watchOS 10 as its last major release, so you do get the same controls as current Apple Watches, without the hiccups and slowdowns of Liquid Glass on watchOS 26. Some of my favorite features on watchOS 10 are still supported:

1. Configuring a specific watch face with specific Focus Modes.

2. HomeKit compatibility.

3. ECG and heart rate notifications.

4. Fall detection.

5. Menstrual cycle tracking (for the ladies of course).

6. Auto workout detection - I was standing up and patting my baby girl’s back, and the watch thought I was starting an elliptical workout.

Here’s a full feature list comparing it with the SE3 and Series 11.

Unique quirks

Besides being the last generation of Ceramic Apple Watches, the only other quirk you will notice is some older watch faces that were removed with future updates. Of course that also means you won’t have many of the newer watch faces. I ain’t going to lie though - most of these now extinct watch faces are not worth bringing out the pitchforks for, except for the Explorer watch face, and maybe Numerals.

Full list of watch faces available on watchOS 10.

Explorer was a Jony Ive favorite…

That pollen colored band 😮‍💨. Source: Hodinkee

At least with Numerals, you can tell what hour it is without having to guess.

How much do they cost today?

The market is highly varied online, with eBay being your main source to purchase one. People are asking anywhere from $300-$2,000 depending on size, condition, battery health, and other accessories that are bundled together.

The best strategy - buy one for cheap with a battery health lower than 80%, and take it to Apple to get the battery replaced for $99. You’ll most likely end up with a brand new watch with a new battery from my personal experience and also from others on reddit. I was fortunate enough to get a free replacement, which I explained in detail.

Who should buy the Series 5 Ceramic Edition?

You know who you are if you’re trying to get a Ceramic Series 5. You can get an infinitely better Apple Watch by buying an SE 3, but that’s not what you’re here for.

You want the Ceramic finish.

You want the luxurious feel.

You want a different look on your wrist.

If you’re that type of enthusiast, you won’t regret it. It’s a weekend watch, and if you get one with good battery health, it can still last you for another 5 years.

How I got a free replacement for my Series 5 Ceramic Apple Watch.

Initially purchased on eBay, I was ecstatic to get a Series 5 Ceramic Apple Watch for around $350. It was the smaller 40mm variant which was fine since that’s my preferred size and I have invested in too many small bands.

After a few days, I noticed something that wasn’t noticeable from online photos: a greenish tint on the display. It was very obvious and disappointing at the same time. The display was never repaired or replaced per the seller (I believe him) and it was just a bad example. I compared it to my wife’s sapphire display on her Series 5 stainless steel.

A true apples to apples comparison in more ways than one.

The photos speak for themselves.

Wife’s stainless steel (left) vs green tinted Ceramic (right).

That premium look just isn’t there with the greenish display.

I double checked the “edit color” screen, and these were both the same color.

I was able to call Apple Support, and I explained the situation. I didn’t want to spend $800 for a repair, since it’s really a manufacturing defect. Once again, the OLED display should not look this bad after a few years especially when my wife’s display is equally old. Even my Series 3 display looked amazing by comparison. I was able to convince the Apple rep that it shouldn’t cost me the “other damage” price of $800 since it’s not really damaged by the user. I got quoted a much lower and reasonable price ($150). My goal was not to get a free repair because I know the watch is out of warranty and I just wanted to pay a fair price for what was most likely a manufacturing defect. Plus, this way Apple at least makes some money instead of nothing because I don’t think anyone will pay $800.

When I submitted the watch for repair, I got it back with a standard repair note that (roughly) said, “we didn’t find anything wrong with the watch.” I had a feeling this would happen. I called Apple again and we went through diagnostics, resetting the watch from scratch, and unsurprisingly the display had the same issue. Now I was getting quoted $849 (probably included tax and shipping), but I told him about my initial $150 quote. He said to take it into an Apple Store and have the technicians look at it and they can better estimate a cost to repair.

The closest Apple Store to me was an hour away, so I made the next logical move:

Fly cross-country to Cupertino myself to get this resolved.

My brother was there attending to some business, so I visited him and made an experience out of it, of course visiting the Apple Park Visitor Center as a side quest. Maybe going to an Apple Store in Cali would resolve the issue faster especially when they can see both watches side by side?

When I did show the Genius both watches, he immediately saw the difference and started tapping away documenting everything on his iPad. After he was done, he said I had to call Apple to get the process resolved since they have “special access” that in-store employees don’t have to submit a replacement. I went back to the Airbnb and called Apple, trying to be a bit more aggressive yet also not trying to be a douchebag.

Now they instructed me to go back to the store and have them send it out for repair. Finally, we’re getting somewhere (or so I thought). This is where my second mini side-quest took place.

A few weeks later back home, I got the watch back, and it was the same watch with no display replacement, with the same, “we found nothing wrong” note. I called again and was frustrated because no one was acknowledging the issue, even though it was proven with photos and shown to an Apple rep. Finally this Apple rep on the phone gave me some UPS instructions that sounded extremely shady, but at this point I had nothing to lose (besides the watch!).

I go to UPS and give the guy the Ceramic watch, and only the Ceramic watch. These were the instructions from the Apple rep. He put it in a baggie, wrapped it up, slapped three separate labels on the package, and off it went. A week later, I got a legitimate replacement watch this time, with no green screen tint, at no cost to me, (minus a few hours of phone time).

I wasn’t trying to get a free replacement, but they probably hooked me up because of all the rigamarole I had to go through. The new display speaks for itself:

At first glance, the new Ceramic (left) has the same color temperature as my wife’s even though the ambient sensor isn’t picking up the light in the room…

and it’s barely noticeable in this photo, but when you go off-axis…

my wife’s display (right) looks green now compared to my “new” Ceramic??

What is up with the off-axis green screen tinting?

Rating all three displays, I would say my first ceramic was definitely the worst, my wife’s stainless steel is 2nd, and my new replacement is top-tier. I would consider this variation based on three factors:

1. A normal variance where Apple gets displays from different suppliers who have a range of tolerances, even for color temperature. I’ve seen this on modern iPhones that shift color temperature off-axis. The problem is when it is just stupidly green, like my first Ceramic watch (1st photo in this article).

2. It could be due to the display being six years old, and on OLED displays, blue pixels do degrade faster than green and red pixels, causing a greenish tint.

3. One of the suppliers for this display, Japan Display Inc., was new to OLED technology, potentially having inferior OLED longevity compared to LG or Samsung.

iPhone Air parts to be scrapped due to poor sales.

Kudos for Apple to try and make a new product category, but it isn’t what the people wanted.

Tim Culpan:

Apple and its suppliers are currently tallying up the cost of severely miscalculating consumer enthusiasm for last year’s iPhone Air. Weighing 12 grams less but with a slightly larger screen than the iPhone 17, Apple made the bet that customers would be willing to pay $200 more for, well, “air.” […]

Apple and its suppliers are now stuck with components for up to 1.5 million units of iPhone Air, my sources tell me, even after the order came down in October to cut back production. What’s worse, some of that cannot be repurposed and instead may need to be scrapped, I am told. To be clear, that doesn’t mean 1.5 million iPhones will be scrapped, merely some of the components specific to the iPhone Air.

The three main components discussed are the titanium frame, the 6.5-inch screen size, and the binned A19 Pro chip:

The titanium frame is specific to the iPhone Air in both size and materials, with the other two models using aluminium. Excess inventory here cannot be repurposed but can be recycled. In fact, 80% of this inventory is already recycled, so Apple and its suppliers will recoup some of the cost.

The OLED “Super Retina XDR” screen is basically the same across all models, but the Air’s 6.5-inch size is mid-way between the 6.9-inch and 6.3-inch versions. I am told that displays which have already been cut, framed and put onto modules will need to be scrapped, though some of that will also be crushed, separated, and recycled.

Possibly the biggest hurt could be with the chips. Apple uses the same A19 Pro CPU in the Air as it does with the iPhone 17 Pro. But the Air has only 5 GPU cores — as does the base iPhone 17 — while the iPhone 17 Pro has 6 GPU cores. (To be blunt, this is merely chip binning, not a new chip).

As a result, the unused Air chips cannot be put in the the lower-end base iPhone 17 nor in the higher-end iPhone 17 Pro. They cannot be repurposed. Even worse, the Air has 12GB of DRAM while the baseline iPhone 17 has just 8GB, according to TrendForce. So, any processor modules which have already had their DRAM fused onto the CPU would also result in wasted DRAM — unless Apple and TSMC find some magical way to “unfuse” the memory from the base die.

I agree with Tim that the Air wasn’t a mistake, and Apple broke the mold by trying something new instead of rehashing the same boring set of phones each year. Apple doesn’t spray and pray, but the ability to be more bold with their hardware decisions is welcome.

Now please, make the Pro devices out of titanium again.

A Psychiatrist talks about meds he would never give his kids.

Enough about what I think, just listen to the expert. He holds very conservative values, and a lot of what he says falls in line with what Islam has to say.

One of the key points he mentions is the effect our diet has on our bodies. Eating and drinking well plays a huge part in how we feel, and we can all attest to that. We all like to eat junk every now and then, and that’s how it should be - every now and then, not the bulk of our diet which is true for many if not most Americans.

It makes you ponder the verse in the Qur’an that talks about food, and how it leads down a Satanic path:

يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ كُلُوا۟ مِمَّا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ حَلَـٰلًۭا طَيِّبًۭا وَلَا تَتَّبِعُوا۟ خُطُوَٰتِ ٱلشَّيْطَـٰنِ ۚ إِنَّهُۥ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّۭ مُّبِينٌ ١٦٨

O humanity! Eat from what is lawful and good on the earth and do not follow Satan’s footsteps. He is truly your sworn enemy.

The Cow (2:168)

Lawful and good, or lawful and pure.

How much of what we eat is actually pure? To think that there isn’t a connection between diet and mental health is ludicrous. Even just a few decades ago, the connection between your oral health and heart disease was popularized, and we don’t question that at all.

So now ponder over this verse - if we don’t eat pure food and nourish our bodies the right way, we could be following Satan’s footsteps. We indulge in what is bad with little to no self-restraint, which is exactly the Satanic path. Compound the bad food with bad health, leading to poor medical choices such as brain-altering antidepressants, and you wonder why children on psychiatric drugs start acting out of character, become dangerous, and even suicidal. Children’s brains are still underdeveloped, and now you’re altering them with drugs that consistently show bad outcomes.

Having a deeper connection with Allah, with your daily prayers, with the Qur’an, with the Sunnah, and eating right are all part of the process that will lead to 99% of people being free from psychiatric drugs, but it’s the answer that doesn’t generate record-breaking profits.

I would be embarrassed to put my kids in the backseat of the new Honda Prelude.

The new Honda Prelude is a luxury coupe, but with weird back seats that feel like an unfinished car. With high quality leather front seats and overly simple cloth backseats, the class differentiation is quite obvious. Let’s not forget about the barely safe, rear-seat headrests that probably won’t prevent whiplash. Granted, my 2000 Celica GTS also doesn’t have extended headrests, but that car is 26 years old and was 8 years before the “whiplash mandate.” The extended headrests are not a requirement for rear seats, but most automakers do it anyway to be consistent and increase safety.

Even worse - if you opt for the white leather seats, you really are placing solid boundaries between front and rear passengers, giving rear occupants an, “I am less than” vibe not just due to the different material, but because the rear seats are black cloth even if you pick the white leather seat option. This clip shows all.

Once again, the 26 year-old GTS has matching leather rear seats like the front and a cupholder for each rear passenger.

How many rear cupholders does the Prelude have? Zero.

iPhone 5s gets a software update 13 years after its debut.

Juli Clover from MacRumors:

iOS 12.5.8 is available for the iPhone 5s and the ‌iPhone‌ 6, meaning Apple is continuing to support these devices for 13 and 12 years after launch, respectively. The ‌iPhone‌ 5s came out in September 2013, while the ‌iPhone‌ 6 launched in September 2014.

According to Apple's release notes for the update, iOS 12.5.8 extends the certificate required for features like iMessage, FaceTime, and device activation, so they will continue to work after January 2027.

Originally, certificate-limited functions like device activation would have ceased when the certificate expired, but now key features on the two older iPhones will continue to work in the years to come.

Prior to now, the ‌iPhone‌ 5s and ‌iPhone‌ 6 last received software updates in January 2023, when Apple released important security fixes.

Quite unbelievable, honestly. How many of you were in diapers when this device was released? Even more unbelievable - people who are still using these devices today. I wish I could use a device in this smaller form factor, but it goes to show not everyone needs the latest and greatest.

Apple releases AirTag 2.

Day one of Apple announcements for the week starts off with its cheapest product.

Highlights of the new features:

Apple’s second-generation Ultra Wideband chip — the same chip found in the iPhone 17 lineup, iPhone Air, Apple Watch Ultra 3, and Apple Watch Series 11 — powers the new AirTag, making it easier to locate than ever before. Using haptic, visual, and audio feedback, Precision Finding guides users to their lost items from up to 50 percent farther away than the previous generation. And an upgraded Bluetooth chip expands the range at which items can be located. For the first time, users can use Precision Finding on Apple Watch Series 9 or later, or Apple Watch Ultra 2 or later, to find their AirTag, bringing a powerful experience to the wrist.

With its updated internal design, the new AirTag is 50 percent louder than the previous generation, enabling users to hear their AirTag from up to 2x farther than before. Paired with its enhanced Precision Finding capabilities and distinctive new chime, AirTag now makes it easier for users to find their important items, such as keys hidden deep in between couch cushions or a wallet as they head out the door.

The product page is more digestible. Looks like the best tracker just got better, and that’s not my bias either.

iPhone Air gets a SIM tray?

Saw this on Twitter the other day and the post has been picked up by 9to5Mac with the embedded video:

A viral post is making the rounds today, showcasing what appears to be an iPhone Air modified to include a SIM card slot.

Based on multiple reports on Chinese tech websites and social media, the mod was made by a creator credited simply as Huaqiangbei, which is also the name of a subdistrict of Shenzhen famous for selling cheap electronics. […]

According to multiple reports and posts about the viral video, the mod was achieved by replacing Apple’s haptic feedback component with a smaller, less potent motor, making space for the SIM tray.

As it usually happens with viral posts of modified iPhones, there is no shortage of comments claiming that, rather than being an original iPhone Air that was modified, the device is simply a clone meant to look exactly like Apple’s device.

Whatever the case may be, I’m still sticking to my original theory.

Nvidia CEO says it’s a good time to be a plumber.

Business Insider:

Speaking at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said it was a great time to be a tradesperson because the AI boom is creating demand for manual labor to build data centers.

"It's wonderful that the jobs are related to tradecraft and we're going to have plumbers and electricians and construction and steelworkers," he said in a conversation with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink in Davos, Switzerland.

It’s the profession chosen by many AI “Godfathers” as their occupation of choice for future job market prospects. I would also suggest studying Nuclear Physics since nuclear power plants to power the future of AI is a real thing.

Dry January? More like high January.

The Atlantic (News+ link):

Many Americans enthusiastically partake in Dry January, but it is rarely pitched as fun. After the holiday stretch of office parties and family gatherings, Americans have come to use the start of every year to abstain from alcohol in the name of health and auspicious beginnings. It’s a time of discipline, of cleansing, of embodying your mood board, even if it makes you a drag at parties. And it is also, as weed companies have learned, a marketing opportunity.

In recent years, weed companies have started to lean into the argument that taking the edge off sobriety with a low-dose gummy or THC drink still counts as dry. My social-media feeds are flooded with posts from cannabis companies pitching their products as fun and approachable tools to get through an alcohol-free month. Mary and Jane, an edibles company, makes a tantalizing proposition: “Dry January made easy.” Artet, which specializes in beverages, sells a “High & Dry January” bundle that includes a bottle of its THC-laced aperitif. Some products are conspicuously health-coded: North Canna describes its cannabis drinks as “functional,” and Feals highlights its edibles’ low calorie count. Above all, the ads emphasize how little booze you drink when you get high instead.

This push for a weed-filled January is, of course, a blatant (and somewhat silly) attempt by cannabis companies to get more customers. But as restrictions on marijuana loosen, and more Americans find themselves able and willing to fit the drug into their lives, Dry January does appear to be offering an opportunity for experimentation. In fact, cannabis sales surged in January 2024, and 21 percent of Dry January participants who responded to a 2023 survey swapped booze for weed that month.

This type of liberalistic, “have what you want as long as it doesn’t affect anyone else,” mindset is what will eventually destroy civilizations, including ours. You can’t walk out of anywhere these days except you smell weed. Even right outside the hospital for God’s sake.

So much for starting the new year with optimism and healthier choices:

The shaky logic of replacing one drug with another during a month dedicated to sobriety is hard to ignore. If the point of Dry January is to improve health, replacing alcohol with cannabis—which is not a benign substance—seems counterproductive. Far less is known about the long-term use of cannabis compared with alcohol, but both can be abused, cause dependence, and interfere with daily function and productivity, Ryan Vandrey, who helps run Johns Hopkins’s Cannabis Science Laboratory, told me. Some people are predisposed to react negatively to cannabis, experiencing anxiety, paranoia, or even cyclical vomiting. Over time, long-term heavy cannabis use can exacerbate mental-health conditions such as schizophrenia and depression.

The cycle will continue, as increased schizophrenia and depression means prescribing more antidepressants and antipsychotics that people once again shouldn’t need, but it fuels the money circle fresh with even more cash. One of the reasons why I left traditional pharmacy is because you become a bonafide, legal drug dealer, depending on what city you work in.

That was over a decade ago, so I can’t even imagine how insane it must be today.

Just think - almost every area of healthcare that has increased treatment leads to better outcomes, except mental health.

One of the reasons why it’s true is because people aren’t living with purpose anymore. Many people don’t even think about the question:

“Why am I here?”

They’re always connected to a device, listening to something 24/7, are on some sort of drug cocktail, binge watching a new series, and so on.

They’ve never unplugged and detoxed their mind to really think about, “Why am I here?”

Is Apple making an AI pin similar to Humane?

Juli Clover from MacRumors (non-paywalled report from The Information):

Apple is working on a small, wearable AI pin equipped with multiple cameras, a speaker, and microphones, reports The Information. If it actually launches, the AI pin will likely run the new Siri chatbot that Apple plans to unveil in iOS 27.

The pin is said to be similar in size to an AirTag, with a thin, flat, circular disc shape. It has an aluminum and glass shell, and two cameras at the front. There is a standard lens and a wide-angle lens that are meant to capture photos and videos, while three microphones are designed to pick up sound around the wearer. An included speaker allows the pin to play audio, and there is a physical control button along one edge. The device is able to wirelessly charge like an Apple Watch.

Apple wants the final version of the pin to be about the same size as an ‌AirTag‌, but it will be slightly thicker. Currently, there is no built-in attachment method, but that could change later in development.

The Information says it is not clear if Apple plans to sell the pin on its own or bundle it with future smart glasses or other devices, but the physical button and built-in cameras, speakers, and microphones suggest that it can operate independently.

I can’t think of anyone who would want to wear a pin, not to mention how small it is and how easy it will get lost. On the other hand, if you can get a Vision Pro-like experience with this pin and a pair of regular sized glasses, that sounds appealing.

It sure beats Vision Pro abuse.

The title of this video doesn’t do it justice.

Another Steven Bartlett video that goes way beyond just the title. An eye opener for those trying to get a better understanding of how different government agencies work around the world.

Dear Apple: It’s turmeric, not tumeric

I will not acquiesce to such deviance. Turmeric is a miracle spice that deserves respect and has a right to be spelled with dignity. I typed “tumeric”in Docs, Pages, and even on Squarespace, and sure enough, it was flagged as a misspelled word.

The Islamic concept of Barakah present in Apple Product Design.

In a YouTube video with Muslim Founder, Peter Gould discusses how he talked to Apple Product Designers about Barakah (transcription below):

Yeah great question Well um I was once teaching teaching some Apple product designers in Cupertino in um in San Francisco head office and uh I remember kind of speaking to the audience like okay you’re familiar with things like Feng shui or Zen design or Wabi-sabi like Japanese like non-western design philosophy and they're like yeah like we're all cool designers - then I said, "Well how about Barakah?" And they're like "What?" It's like "Isn't that like a movie or something?"

And you know I'm just kind of paraphrasing but you know Barakah is such an essential part to you know maybe a quarter of the world's population in terms of how we think how we live our life how we aspire for this intangible divine goodness in a thing, Barakah, and uh you know as my my friend Muhammed Faris he wrote a book called The Barakah Effect And he once he kind of said "Peter we should think about ROI as return on intention rather than return on investment."

And so in these places and some of the places I've taught I intentionally use the language of the heart I don't call it Islamic design or like Muslim, you know in every human there is a heart. Every heart has a spiritual state, and someone designing an iPhone or designing you know really popular software, they can appreciate that, on the spiritual path like Alhamdulillah as as Muslims we are given a much richer understanding of what is the heart what is the ruh, what is the how, and then your amanah, your kind of responsibility, if you're designing for that, becomes much more serious, like you've got to be careful like, “am I just pulling people to distract them and addict them and whatever or am I trying to find ways to be uh very aware of my responsibility in design?”

A little deeper dive into Barakah can be found with an interview between Peter Gould and Muhammed Faris himself:

“Most definitions come down to things like ‘abundant, flowing, positive, divine energy that enters a thing’ — a tangible intangible that works in mysterious ways beyond logic to create an effect.

“Some scholars describe it as a hidden soldier of the soul. Meaning Allah sends Barakah into something like one of his soldiers. So it might enter your time, or your family, or your laptop, or your sleep, or your food. And it does some kind of spiritual chemical reaction there that leads to a benefit of abundance or goodness that’s hard to describe.  

“One example that many of us have experienced is when you invite friends over for dinner and you’ve prepared food for 10 people. But then one of your friends brings his whole family, and you look at the food and think it’s not going to be enough. But the Barakah is that it’s always enough. Sometimes there’s even leftovers as well. That’s a manifestation of Barakah as a result of your good intention to bring people over and feed them. […]

It’s not unusual, for example, for good things to happen with our work and for us to consider it as either luck, coincidence, or the results of our own hard work. But as Mohammed says, if we were to really take the time to look at how events have led to that ‘good thing’ happening, we would surely see something bigger at play.

“This is Barakah,” he says. “It’s Allah aligning things so perfectly that you look back and think ‘I could not have planned this’. Things had to align so perfectly to get to this exact point — you can’t just see it as cause and effect any more; it’s beyond that. 

“And the danger — especially for entrepreneurs and start-ups — is that we tend to say it’s from our hard work. Because we do experience all of the hard work. We show up early every day, go into the office, do all this stuff, and we want to attribute that success to ourselves. You almost don’t want to recognise that there’s a spiritual invisible hand at work. But it’s the Barakah effect that moves things and arranges things for you.”

We need the concept of Barakah to also hit the field of AI and other technologies in order to help build humanity instead of trying to destroying it.

Every girl’s dilemma.

Huffington Post describes one young girls dilemma with AI generated nude content:

One 15-year-old girl revealed a stranger had made fake nude images of her and she was worried about them being sent to her parents.

“It looks so real, it’s my face and my room in the background. They must have taken the pictures from my Instagram and edited them,” she told the charity.

“I’m so scared they will send them to my parents, the pictures are really convincing, and I don’t think they’d believe me that they’re fake.”

Just one of many thousands of horror stories.

Five “Fahadx” observations I made when at the hospital.

Baby girl got sick again this past week, making a total of 8 days at the hospital over a one month period. A few observations I noticed:

1. Almost every healthcare worker wears an Apple Watch.

2. This particular Modular Compact configuration with no bottom widget is more common than I would like.

3. The chapel is occupied by Muslims 99% of the time.

4. Sushi is great, and cheap. You can literally park at the hospital and get cheaper sushi at the cafeteria than the grocery store.

5. Masimo blood oxygen sensors are a real thing. A wrap-around for the foot, using the big toe as the sensing point. Thank you Masimo - now please (Apple and Masimo), make a deal and give us proper Apple Watch blood oxygen capability.

I “accidentally” bought an iPhone Pocket.

Disclaimer: Inspired by true events..near the end of November 2025.

My wife wanted to go visit her brother who just had a baby, and it’s quite a hike from Charlottesville, Virginia all the way to Paterson, New Jersey. I had to come back two days later for work, but we still managed to make a quick trip to New York City, four years after our last one. A great way to spend time with the wife and kids.

The trip was a selfless trip, all about them…

We’ve gone to the city many times, so it was my idea to try something different, a place more cultured, more “boutique,” with a different but still authentically New York City experience.

“Let’s go to SoHo.” I said. Plenty of things to see on the way there, and plenty of spots to get quick bites to eat. A little bit of Belgian fries with powdered parmesan, some Yemeni coffee, great architecture, and cobblestone streets that would bring tears of agony to any Ferrari owner. A world of cultures densely packed in one place.

A new experience for the kids with more cultural exposure. I’m serious…

A lot of the fun is just driving around in NYC, seeing how people interact, and how traffic rules gradually mean nothing the deeper you get inside. The craziest thing we saw before we even parked the car? A well-dressed man in hot pink wearing what looked like a beachcomber straw hat, wrestling with his dog who was upside-down, full monty view of its junk, all to try and tighten his dog vest so he doesn’t get cold.

Aaah, New York City.

For our family of six, the real challenge was walking, since the sidewalks are crowded, barely wide enough for a stroller, and one wrong step on an uneven sidewalk (a hallmark feature of NYC) could smash your head down a set of stairs right into an Italian bakery, no mob activity required.

Challenge #2 - finding a bathroom. It’s already impossible to find a bathroom in the city, but I heard you can go to an Apple Store and use the bathroom without being harassed to buy something. Perfect for the little ones. There happens to be an Apple Store in SoHo not too far from us, so we headed there to freshen up.

Wow what are the odds that there happens to be an Apple Store nearby? Crazy…

I was getting a sip of ice water from my Journey water bottle while standing near the iPhone booth, when my daughter bumped into me as she was making a beeline towards an iPad Pro. She jostled me enough to make me spill ice water all over my shirt and shoe. It’s one of those sneakers with perforated holes, so my sock was soaked.

It was a shock to my system as the iced part of my shirt velcroed itself to my chest, throwing off my reflexes. A cold shiver down my spine and drenched sock sent my brain into a frenzy and made me scream in horror.

It was like a scene from a Michael Jackson music video. I’m screaming, twitching from all the cold and shaking my leg, screaming:

“Oh my God it’s icey!”

“My yucky sock!”

Several of the Apple employees heard me, and well, they quickly rushed away which made me feel uncomfortable and self-conscious all of a sudden. Nobody else really batted an eye, because after all, it’s New York City.

I’m thinking those employees went to get a mop to clean up the mess, but they ended up coming back with an iPhone Pocket. I asked them, why did you bring me this?

“Well we thought you were so excited for the ISSEY MIYAKE sock* so we got you the last one in stock,” said the Specialist.

They mistook my expressions the wrong way.

“Umm, no” I said. “I was just expressing my feelings about how icey I felt, and how yucky my sock feels.”

Apparently the, “OMG it’s icey! My yucky sock!” sounds a lot like, “OMG it’s ISSEY MIYAKE sock!”

Still shivering from the wetness all over my torso, I grabbed my phone to call my wife so she can supervise the kids while I go clean myself up in the bathroom. My hand was shivering, and my quivering thumb accidentally tapped the Power Button twice instead of once activating Apple Pay. The employee with the iPhone Pocket noticed my Apple Pay screen, and tapped her little iPhone kiosk gizmo to my iPhone Air, completing the transaction.

Everything happened so fast…I don’t know if I got high off some weed fumes as we made our way to the Apple Store, but I was now the owner of an iPhone Pocket. Before I “accidentally” spend more money, I decided it was best to leave now that we have 5 empty bladders and a clean diaper.

In retrospect, it’s kind of crazy how I happened to end up in the only store in the USA that was selling the ISSEY MIYAKE iPhone Pocket, and they had it in stock.

TOTALLY didn’t expect that to happen.

---

*Actually how the events played out - I made a reservation that morning while in New Jersey and they had a few colors in stock at SoHo. Went there like a normal person (with family) and I said, “I’m here to pick up my iPhone Pocket.”

“Oh, we call it the sock,” said the employee.

No drama, no flair, but the Belgian fries and Yemeni coffee were real.

So was the man in hot pink.

It was a symbiotic affair where everyone in the family got something out of the trip.

Honda’s futuristic new logo will be for all future vehicles and not just EVs and hybrids.

Car and Driver:

While this isn't our first time seeing Honda's new emblem, it's the first time we're hearing that it will appear on all future models, not just the electric ones. Today, the automaker's European media team announced that the new "H mark" will gradually expand across its automobile lineup, starting in 2027 with its EVs and major hybrid models. Honda also said that the new logo will appear in other parts of its vast business, from dealerships to motorsports and more.

Looks like a futuristic logo since it was originally for EV and hybrid vehicles, but it really is a throwback to their original logo (via creative bloq).

It was an obvious move to make their logo uniform everywhere, especially now that most automakers are backpedaling on EV adoption.

These type of people are incompetent.

Hot take:

If you’re the type of person whose phone is always about to die, you’re incompetent for two reasons:

1. You use your phone too much and probably are wasting a lot of time.

2. You’re too lazy and are not forward thinking enough to make sure your phone is available to accomplish real goals.

Google Gemini will power Apple’s next gen version of Siri.

Joe Rossignol via MacRumors:

In a statement shared with CNBC today, Apple confirmed that Google Gemini will power the next-generation version of Siri that is slated to launch later this year.

"After careful evaluation, we determined that Google's technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models and we're excited about the innovative new experiences it will unlock for our users," the statement said.

The report explicitly mentioned that Google Gemini will power Siri, as was expected. Apple's decision to lean on Google's artificial intelligence technology should result in the revamped Siri being more capable and advanced than it otherwise would have been, as Gemini's large language model is significantly larger than Apple's own model.

I’m glad I went with Google Gemini over ChatGPT. It just makes more sense since Google has much more data points to learn from and make their AI platform more robust than the competition. Apple doesn’t have to be the best at everything - they just need to have the best implementation, even if that means using other companies’ products and services.