I know I’ve not done long form phone videos for a while… but one of my long form car tech videos is up to almost a third of a million views. Took me by surprise! youtu.be/zTR-LqgPC-k?... 🙂

Symbian what? I hear you say. It’s here. Smartphones years before the iPhone… 🙂 stevelitchfield.com/classic-symb...

2026 ‘Technospectives and imaging decisions’, by me, in order of shooting: Lumia 1020 Nokia 808 808 to 1020 😎 youtube.com/shorts/i7U9d... youtube.com/shorts/35t4P... youtube.com/shorts/KK0za...

youtube.com/watch?v=xyVj... - wow. In 2026. And I thought *I* was geeky for old Symbian 🙂 See my latest video for an 808 look, by the way!

Deluge of Three network phone spam… I get a call every other day from a random UK number claiming to be from Three and wanting to interest me in a ‘new contract’.

There’s a huge flaw in the Apple Watch ecosystem, in that they have all these wonderful sports represented, but not dog walking. When you’ve been dog walking for an hour pulling on the lead and being pulled by the lead in and out of muddy puddles in the rain…

Testing uploading my portrait videos to BlueSky...! Will the aspect ratio be preserved?

PSA for followers in the UK. GiffGaff are giving away £10 of credit for free SIMs activated by the 31st January from affiliate links like mine 😎 www.giffgaff.com/orders/affil... I.e. you get a SIM free in the post and £10 of credit gets added to your account when you activate it.

I've updated my index of all my YouTube Shorts from the last couple of years. If I do the sums then it's two videos a week every week. Takes some doing... (ahem!) 🙂 stevesrantsnraves.blogspot.com/2025/05/stev...

If they’d had AI video in my history classes at school 50 years ago then I’d have taken more interest!! This channel is amazing. youtu.be/6-xs_mXiANM?...

Jigsaw to infinity (iPhone 17 Pro Max, auto, with minor privacy cleanup)

Some new videos from me. Retro and super-retro!!! youtube.com/shorts/C9NM7... youtube.com/shorts/YcGHN... and, more currently, youtube.com/shorts/blbz_... 🙂

stevesrantsnraves.blogspot.com/2025/11/how-... - how did it take me this long to realise this about iOS? #duh

Heading into the white stuff Just over a mile straight up. 8x full auto on iPhone 17 Pro Max

I just invented chicken and marmalade on toast! 😀

Is this the real life or is this just fantasy? Night into day, people AI-cleaned away, Reading station at 10pm from the iPhone 17 Pro Max on full auto. Impressive.

An exercise in Clean-Up The hotel in Sonning, cross crossed in reality with phone wiring across the road, as you can see if you go there! But here shown after multiple strokes in Apple Photo’s Clean Up tool. Very impressed. Is it as good as Samsung’s or Google’s Magic Eraser tools? Debatable. Still…

With cutting edge (ahem) graphics, I present… (For phone imaging geeks!) youtube.com/shorts/DKMNX...

Well, it’s no Panasonic compact or Samsung Galaxy K Zoom, but hey… The moon this evening from my Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max. Not bad.

iPhone 17 Pro ‘Scratchgate’ - Steve Litchfield responds! youtube.com/shorts/qDAXn...

For iPhone Air there’s Apple’s £99 gadget. For everyone else there’s this! youtube.com/shorts/CKUC9...

Nokia Lumia 1020: a ‘technospective’ … Six years ahead of its time? youtube.com/shorts/35t4P...

Ha. Microsoft blinked. Bet they do again next year too… So the deadline for half a billion Windows 10 users was approaching. And Microsoft gave in. As they had to. Users just need to dive into Settings and ‘Enrol’ in Extended Security Updates etc. All free.

My iPhone 14 Pro Max 1TB has a new battery and is three years old. The time seems right to live more riskily and go case-less for the foreseeable future. Feels so much smaller and futuristic. But I’m not leaving it totally defenceless - loving my favourite @xtremeskins.bsky.social skin!

www.windowscentral.com/hardware/sur... - a good summary from Zac. I have both Duo and Duo 2 here and they both still seem futuristic.

iPhone 17 Pro Specs and Features… Tempted. Almost tempted this year after the zoom hardware change… 🙂

PSA: What’s happening with the PSC podcast? It’s changing, after 864 shows! youtube.com/shorts/AZMim...

Just a PSA. After I retired from the Phones Show Chat podcast in show 865, my co-host Ted Salmon has taken it on further. The reborn PSC is at phonesshowchat.uk and in most podcatchers now. It will start from show 866 and has subtly new artwork, with Ted and Joe Hickey. 🙂

A reminder that the Phones Show Chat podcast continues, now in its 17th year! stevelitchfield.com/sshow/chat.h... Guest on show 864 is foldables guru Shane Craig! Plus Ted Salmon, as usual. 🙂 Discussing Samsung, OnePlus, and iOS 26. No sponsor slots, no ads, just geek chat!

OK, decision made. I can't live with non-Pro iPhones. And it's got nothing to do with zoom lenses or screen refresh rates... youtube.com/shorts/kJLaf... I don't want my world sharpened and 'enhanced'! So maybe the 17 Pro Max will be on my radar in two months time...

Bug attraction …to damp laundry, apparently! (iPhone 14 Pro Max, slight crop)

Cinematic Lock (iPhone 14 Pro Max, 12MP PureView ProRAW, slight crop)

It's not often that I sit down to write an article these days. Kind of fun! My iPhone story. Enticed into iOS for the 2020s... stevesrantsnraves.blogspot.com/2025/07/my-i... 🙂

Golden hour fallen log (iPhone 14 Pro Max, 12MP ‘PureView’ ProRAW mode)

It’s battery replacement day! Off to the local Apple Store for open heart surgery to get my nearly 3 year old 1TB iPhone 14 Pro Max from 80% battery capacity back up to 100% and a useful life until 2028 or 2029, roughly when OS updates will finish.

An exercise in PureView framing… (In Cookham, 10MP ProRAW shot on the iPhone 14 Pro Max…)

Framed by the tree Super detailed (though social media compression will ruin it) shot of the green wonders of a 100 year old tree. (Shot in 12MP ‘PureView’ mode in ProRAW on the iPhone 14 Pro Max)

🙂

Buttercup Meadow Near Reading, UK, iPhone 14 Pro Max (in 12MP PureView ProRAW mode)

Ah yes, how we did free satnav on our phones in 2007! 18 years ago and a decade before CarPlay and Android Auto! This is the mighty Nokia E90 in action, of course, with the built-in Nokia Maps. 😀

This is, I think, roughly how Microsoft originally envisaged Project Andromeda to turn out. Running Windows 10 Mobile. And then, famously, they flip flopped into it running Android with a custom dual screen launcher. Here I’m cheating with Launcher10 on Android, of course, but it gives an idea…. 🙂

Older form factors are more fun… Playing here with the Gemini PDA phone, bringing back all the 1990s Psion vibes, yet with almost modern tech. Ok, so it’s stuck on Android 8, but Play Services are bang up to date and all my apps still work!

[FX: sorting photos...] Ah yes, when life was simpler. When Lumias and Windows Phone 8 were still a thing, when the 361 Degrees podcast was a thing... Sigh. 😀

A watched pizza never cooks, it seems!! (Shot on iPhone 14 Pro Max)

Still loving DJI’s ultra cheap AI Neo. Best drone/toy they ever made? See my review coverage in ‘longs’ format on my YouTube channel: youtube.com/stevelitchfi... 🙂

Trying out a new casing idea. This is the Arc Pulse case (also available for Android flagships), along with an XtremeSkins skin. Looks smart, I think. But I’m still getting used to the concept!! 🙂

Getting much happier with my darts now. I know, I know, no pressure at home, but I hit a 174 the other day and a 101 checkout today. Amazing what practice can do. Luke Littler, look out!! 🙂

Had to chuckle at the What3Words address in this car park. And there is indeed no EV charging 🙂

My excuse for not working this afternoon. Got a dog on me!! 🙂 (iPhone 14 Pro Max main camera, unedited)

Phones and Drones: 3-part series Just to note that I've now published all three videos in this latest mini-series of 'longs' on my channel. The latest is highlighted here, the others are linked below: youtu.be/Ku-iLBpUd0w youtu.be/7HLCtMNUgS4 youtu.be/MLIprhVUi7Y