Favorite books and picks

It's time for the 12th Annual Upgradies! Myke and Jason discuss their favorites of 2025, take the input of many Upgradians, and hand out awards in numerous categories! Only the finest will walk away with the most coveted of titles: Upgradies Winner.

This episode of Upgrade is sponsored by:

• Sentry: Mobile crash reporting and app monitoring. New users get $100 in Sentry credits with code upgrade26.
• Ecamm: Powerful live streaming platform for Mac.
• Fitbod: Get stronger, faster with a fitness plan that fits you. Get 25% off your membership.

Links and Show Notes:

List of Nominees (Spoilers Below)

Best Overall iOS App

• Final Cut Camera
  
• Mango Baby
  
• Carrot Weather
  
• Ivory
  
• Callsheet
  

Best Newcomer iOS App

• Tapestry
  
• Focus Friend
  
• Athlytic
  
• Cassette
  

Best Overall Mac App

• Numbers
• Mimestream
  
• ChatGPT
  
• Claude
  
• Ice
  
• ChatGPT
  
• Mimestream
  
• Obsidian
  
• Things
  

Best Newcomer Mac App

• Longplay
• Superwhisper
  
• Claude
  
• Ice
  
• ChatGPT
  
• Festivitas
  
• Affinity
  
• Hyperspace
  
• ChatGPT
  
• Ghostty
  
• Tapestry
  

Best Feature: Best Implementation of a ’26 OS Feature**

• iPad Multitasking
  
• Clipboard History for Mac
  
• Private Cloud Compute in Shortcuts
• Athlytic
  
• Liquid Glass
  
• iPad Multitasking
  
• Call Screening
  

Game of the Year

• Herdling
  
• Donkey Kong Bananza
  
• Balatro
  
• Clair Obscure Expedition 33
  

Favourite Movie

• Thunderbolts*
  
• Superman
  
• Flow
  
• My Old Ass
  
• Sinners
  
• F1
  
• One Battle After Another
  

Favourite TV Show

• The Pitt
  
• Ludwig
  
• Murderbot
  
• Pluribus
  
• Severance
  
• The Studio
  

Favourite Book

• Moonbound by Robin Sloan
  
• Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
  
• Apple in China, by Patrick McGee
  
• Ensh*ttification, by Cory Doctorow
  
• Everything is Tuberculosis, by John Green
  

Favourite Podcast

• Connected
  
• Crash Course Pods: The Universe
  
• Wavefrm
  
• The Town
  
• Kinda Funny Gamescast
  
• The Rest is History
  
• Connected
  
• Upgrade
  

Favourite Apple Product

• iPhone 17 Pro
  
• AirPods Pro 3 
  
• iPhone Air
  
• iPad Pro M5
  
• MacBook Air M4
  

Favourite Non-Apple Product

• RoboRock vacuum
  
• Combustion thermal probe
  
• Traeger pellet grill
  
• Nintendo Switch 2
  
• Bambu Labs P2S 3D Printer
  
• Trmnl E-Ink Display
  

Worst Gadget / Most Disappointing Tech

• “Sky Blue” MacBook Air
  
• XTEINK X4
  
• Cord Cutting Drama
  
• AI
  
• Liquid Glass
  
• Apple Intelligence
  

Most Life-Changing Hardware

• RoboRock vacuum
  
• Combustion thermal probe
  
• M4 MacBook Pro and Second Desk
• Lutron Shades
• Vtech RM7767HD
  
• iPad mini in the Nursery
  
• AirPods Pro 3
  
• Apple Watch
  
• Nintendo Switch 2
  

Favourite Tech Story

• “Larry Ellison’s big dumb gift to his large adult son” - Elizabeth Lopatto/The Verge
• “Memo to Bari Weiss Re: CBS News: You’re doomed” Elizabeth Lopatto/The Verge
• Something is Rotten in the State of Cupertino
• Apple Succession
• Alan Dye Leaves Apple
  
• AI Arms Race
  
• Announcement of the Steam Machine
  

Favourite Tech Screw Up

• Apple gives up on personalized Siri until “the coming year”
  
• Jony Ive and Sam Altman share a coffee in SF
  
• Apple, Epic, Judge Gonzalez Rogers — Apple losing ability to charge 30%, being held in contempt, etc
  
• Apple Intelligence
  
• AWS / Cloudflare Outages
  
• Liquid Glass
  

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Record of Previous Winners – Upgradies.com