Technologies

It’s Time to Stop Waiting for Apple’s Next iPhone Moment

Commentary: The iPhone took off because it came at the right time — a moment that may be impossible to re-create.

When the original iPhone arrived in 2007, few people knew it would lay the foundation for the devices we now carry in our pockets each day. As the June 5 date of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference approaches, all eyes will be focused on whether the tech giant can re-create that impact with its first entirely new product in almost a decade: a head-mounted computer.

The iPhone wasn’t the first smartphone, nor was it the first mobile device to achieve cultural relevance as a status symbol. But it came at just the right moment, and there arguably hasn’t been such a perfectly timed tech product launch since. Re-creating that moment will be challenging, even for Apple.

The tech industry has evolved a lot since 2007, and so has our relationship with technology. Devices like the iPhone and the BlackBerry revolutionized the way we access information and communicate, at a time when the idea of constant internet connectivity was relatively new.

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But the biggest new gadgets since then (think smartwatches, wireless earbuds) were initially useful because they untethered us from those phones, helping us better navigate the influx of alerts flowing from them. It took years for the Apple Watch to establish its direction as a health and wellness device, and I suspect it’ll similarly take time for the headset to find its niche.

The arrival of a completely new product — whether it be a smartwatch or a headset — doesn’t feel the same as it did 16 years ago. Nor should it.

For the iPhone, timing was everything

The iPhone debuted at a formative time for personal technology. As the internet became a more integral part of our lives, so did the need to take it with us.

The iPod, BlackBerry phones and other personal digital assistants (better known as PDAs) provided a way to keep us connected on the go as people recognized the need to listen to music, send emails, and manage calendars away from home. Shipments of handheld computers from brands like BlackBerry and Palm rose 18.4% in 2006, according to Gartner data reported by the Associated Press in early 2007, underscoring the demand for mobile access to email and other communications.

Research in Motion’s BlackBerry Curve 8350i, from 2008. The BlackBerry first appeared in 2002.

Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks

Then the iPhone came in 2007 and changed everything. Steve Jobs famously introduced the first iPhone as a phone, an iPod and an Internet communicator in one device. What made the iPhone so impactful was that those three things were already necessities in people’s lives, as the success of cell phones, the iPod and home computers showed.

In 2000, 51% of US households had one or more computers, and more than 40% of households were connected to the Internet, according to a 2001 New York Times report covering Census Bureau data. The US added a record-breaking 25.7 million new mobile phone users in 2005, reported InfoWorld in 2006, citing data from the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association. And sales of MP3 players were booming in the early 2000s, as market researcher IDC reported back in 2002.

Clearly the internet, MP3 players and cell phones were permeating everyday life long before the iPhone made its debut at the Macworld conference in 2007. The iPhone was the culmination of these trends, showing how hardware was catching up to the way people were already using tech products in their daily lives. Though PDAs and early «smart» phones like the IBM Simon were a promising start, they were largely designed to be handheld computers with cell phone functionality.

The iPhone and other modern smartphones took that idea a step further. When Apple’s App Store arrived later in 2008, apps turned the iPhone and other handheld devices into Swiss Army Knives, expanding their functionality beyond the business-focused PDAs of years past. Today, mobile devices can serve as phones, internet and email portals, music players, mini-TVs, flashlights, wallets, keys and so much more, largely thanks to the proliferation of apps.

apple-store-iphone11-app-9823 — The App Store turned the iPhone into much more than a phone, iPod and internet communicator.

Angela Lang/CNET

But it’s important to remember that even the iPhone wasn’t an overnight success. The original model’s price and initial exclusivity to AT&T, combined with the notion that Apple was a newcomer to the mobile phone business, certainly resulted in some skepticism about the iPhone’s future. Let’s not forget that the first model also had many shortcomings, as former CNET Senior Managing Editor Kent German pointed out in his review.

Still, the iPhone had a long-term impact because it filled a need at the right time — even if it wasn’t immediately accessible to everyone right away. Consider technologies that came before their time. Microsoft’s SPOT platform sought to turn everyday objects like watches and household appliances into smart gadgets — preceding today’s smartwatches and the so-called internet of things boom. The SPOT watches never caught on, thanks in part to their bulky design and the subscription fee required to access Microsoft’s MSN Direct service, as my colleague David Carnoy wrote in 2008, marking the end of Microsoft’s efforts in that area at the time.

An Apple headset has a lot more competition for our attention

Fast-forward to today, and the tech world is buzzing about what’s expected to be a similar moment in Apple’s history. The company will reportedly introduce its first mixed reality headset on June 5, which Bloomberg says will have apps and software features that span gaming, communication, fitness and more. Apple has a reputation for popularizing devices like the smartphone, tablet and smartwatch, so the expectation is that it will do so again for headsets.

That may very well be true. But making head-mounted computers as ubiquitous as the iPhone is a tough task, even for Apple. Once again, it will all come down to timing. From smartwatches to earbuds, tablets to smart speakers, there are plenty of gadgets in our lives designed to fulfill different needs — many more than when the first iPhone launched.

Apple Watch Ultra vs Series 8 — Devices like the Apple Watch can help us manage the influx of notifications coming from our phones.

Lexy Savvides/CNET

American households owned an average of 16 connected devices as of 2022, according to research firm Parks Associates. A Pew Research survey from 2021 found that 31% of US adults said they’re constantly online. A Reviews.org survey, the results of which were published this month, found that 56.9% of Americans said they’re addicted to their smartphone.

A gadget like Apple’s virtual reality headset, which will cost around $3,000 according to Bloomberg, will have to be very compelling to demand attention in a world already oversaturated with screens and sensors.

The iPhone may have revolutionized the way we communicate and use the internet. But we’re now in an era in which people are looking to disconnect from their phones more easily, and that shows in the new tech products from the last decade.

What do smartwatches, wireless earbuds and smart speakers have in common? They all allow us to access the internet without reaching for our phones, whether it’s skipping to the next track on your Spotify playlist, asking a virtual assistant for today’s weather forecast or getting a text message on your wrist. A mixed reality headset would seemingly do the opposite by further plunging you into whatever content you’re experiencing at the moment.

Even the developments in generative artificial intelligence, or AI, that can create content based on prompts, are designed to help us spend less time buried in screens. Google, for example, recently showed off a new Gmail feature called Help Me Write that can draft messages for you based on a quick prompt. Tools like these could shorten the amount of time we spend replying to emails and other communications, and could arguably be more impactful than new hardware. (In fact, if you’ve been following tech headlines in 2023, AI is apparently in the midst of its own «iPhone moment.»)

The slow-burn effect

In recent years, it’s taken longer for new Apple gadgets to establish a role in our lives, and the Apple Watch is the strongest example of this. When introducing it back in 2014, Apple initially positioned it as a personal timepiece by highlighting its stylish design and time-telling accuracy, before mentioning health and fitness.

But as the gadget matured and became more popular, Apple leaned more fully into health. It added ECG functionality in 2018 with the Series 4 model, enabling the watch to provide more data about cardiac health and signaling a turning point for the device. In 2019, Apple CEO Tim Cook told CNBC that Apple’s «greatest contribution to mankind» will be about health. Roughly three years after the first Apple Watch arrived, it became clear that health, fitness and wellness tracking would be the its most important purpose. The iPhone may not have been in everyone’s pockets right away, but its role as a handheld computer, MP3 player and phone was apparent from the start.

A wrist wearing the Apple Watch Series 4 44mm smartwatch against a yellow background. — The Apple Watch Series 4 was the first with ECG support.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Is it the right time for Apple’s rumored headset? I don’t have the answer, and I’m not sure if Apple does either. But one thing is for certain: If the headset is a hit, its success will look a lot different than that of the first iPhone. We might not understand the headset’s role in our lives until years after its release, if the Apple Watch’s trajectory is any indication. That wouldn’t deem it a failure, it’s just a sign of the times.

The so-called «iPhone moment» may be behind us for good. Or maybe it’s just changed.

Technologies

Social Media and AI Want Your Attention at All Times. This New Documentary Says That’s Bad

Your Attention Please, a documentary premiering this week at SXSW in Austin, Texas, explores how we live in the attention economy.

«Do you remember the world before cellphones?»

The question comes early in Your Attention Please, a documentary premiering this week at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. And it hit me harder than I expected. As a 27-year-old tech reporter, I realized I don’t have too many clear memories of life before smartphones. My adolescence unfolded alongside the rise of smartphones, social media, push notifications and the routine of endless scrolling. Like many people my age, I’ve spent most of my life inside the attention economy — without ever really stepping outside it.

That’s the uneasy territory the documentary explores.

CNET was given exclusive early access to the film’s trailer, embedded below.

Exploring how tech shapes our behavior

Director Sara Robin said she originally set out to make something smaller: a documentary about people trying to reclaim their attention by breaking unhealthy phone habits. In an interview with CNET, Robin described the idea as a personal story about focus and self-control in an age of constant distraction.

As Robin interviewed researchers, technologists and families affected by social media and cyberbullying, the film’s scope widened. What started as a question about individual habits quickly became a larger investigation into how modern technology systems are designed to shape human behavior. The story stretches from the rise of social media to the emerging influence of AI.

Along the way, Robin and her collaborators kept hearing the same observation from different corners of the digital world: Social media didn’t just change how people communicate; it quietly rewired what we value. Experiences that were once private or emotional — friendship, affection, belonging — began to acquire numerical equivalents. Followers, likes, comments, views and shares began to be how we saw our own self-worth. In the architecture of social platforms, those numbers function as a kind of social currency.

Trisha Prabhu, a digital-safety advocate and inventor of the anti-cyberbullying technology ReThink, argues that social platforms did more than create new online spaces. She says they fundamentally reshaped how social validation works. The metrics that define popularity often reward attention-seeking behavior and amplify conflict, while genuine connection is now harder to quantify and, therefore, easier to overlook.

Prabhu warns that the same dynamics already driving problems like cyberbullying could accelerate as automated systems become more capable. AI tools can generate abusive messages at scale, produce convincing impersonations or create deepfakes that spread rapidly online. In some cases, the technology may even blur the line between human interaction and machine-generated communication, which could deepen loneliness or encourage harmful behavior.

«There’s AI exacerbating existing harms [like automating cyberbullying], but then I also think that there’s AI creating completely new harms,» Prabhu told CNET. «There are reports of AI tools encouraging users, including minor users, to commit self-harm… Even for the everyday user who’s not experiencing the extreme outcome, I think we have to ask ourselves how much of our time and connection we want spent with an AI tool as opposed to a fellow human being.»

Bringing attention to attention

What struck Robin during filming the documentary was how universal these anxieties felt. Across conversations with families, educators and advocates around the world, the themes were remarkably consistent: overstimulated attention, declining focus in classrooms, rising anxiety among young people and a persistent sense of dread that comes from always being plugged in.

Those shared concerns have helped spark a coordinated moment around the film’s release.

On March 11, more than 25 organizations focused on digital well-being will simultaneously release the trailer for Your Attention Please as part of an initiative called Stand for Their Attention. What began as a small collaboration among five groups quickly grew as word spread through advocacy networks. The coalition now includes organizations such as Common Sense Media, Protect Young Eyes, Mothers Against Media Addiction, the Center for Humane Technology, Smartphone Free Childhood and Scrolling to Death.

The idea behind the synchronized launch is simple: Use the attention surrounding the documentary to highlight the growing movement that’s already working to reshape digital culture.

Many people feel overwhelmed by the scale of the problem, Robin says, but behind the scenes, a widening ecosystem of advocates is experimenting with ways to build healthier digital environments, from redesigning products to changing norms around screen use.

The campaign also arrives at a moment of growing scrutiny around the attention economy. Lawmakers in the US and abroad are increasingly debating how social platforms affect youth mental health and childhood development. Boycotts around AI use are taking off. Researchers are studying how these algorithms and chatbots influence behavior. Individuals are trying to figure out how much technology belongs in everyday life.

What can we do about it?

Despite the weight of those conversations, Robin says the goal of the film isn’t to leave audiences feeling powerless. In fact, the rapid rise of public awareness around AI has made her more optimistic than she was during the early days of social media. The systems shaping digital life, she argues, are built by people, which means they can also be rebuilt.

«We have more power than we think,» Robin said. «And there are a lot of different ways to get involved in this, from changing individual habits to changing the culture in your own family and in your community, designing technology differently, getting engaged in these conversations, all the way to pushing for legislative change.»

The film intentionally avoids presenting a single solution.

Instead, Your Attention Please asks a broader question: What happens when attention, one of the most human parts of our lives, becomes one of the most valuable commodities in the global economy? And perhaps more importantly, what kind of digital world do we want to build next?

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for March 12, #535

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for March 12, No. 535.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a tough one, with some very unusual categories. The blue one is pretty fun, actually. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: City of Brotherly Love.

Green group hint: NBA star.

Blue group hint: Grr! Meow! Roar!

Purple group hint: Think alphabet.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Philadelphia teams.

Green group: Associated with Larry Bird.

Blue group: Sports figures with animal names.

Purple group: Sports figures whose first names sound like two letters.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is Philadelphia teams. The four answers are 76ers, Flyers, Penn and Temple.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is associated with Larry Bird. The four answers are Celtics, French Lick, Pacers and Sycamores.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is sports figures with animal names. The four answers are Bear Bryant, Cat Osterman, Catfish Hunter and Tiger Woods.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is sports figures whose first names sound like two letters. The four answers are Casey Stengel (KC), CeeDee Lamb (CD), Katie Ledecky (KT) and Vijay Singh (VJ).

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Thursday, March 12

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 12.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? I found 7-Across tricky. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.