News

After photographer Anjali Pinto lost her husband, Jacob Johnson (also a photographer) just 16 months after getting married, she turned to Instagram, posting images of him, and of them - each an insight into her daily grief. Her Instagram following grew to more than 51,000, many of whom were inspired to write their own stories of love and loss. Correspondent Michelle Miller talked with Pinto at an exhibition of photographs by her and Jacob, and talked about the power of images to bring strangers together.

“Operation Finale” is a travelling exhibition that tells the story of the pursuit of the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, who made his way to Argentina after World War II. At his trial, Eichmann insisted that he was “just following orders” when he arranged for millions of European Jews to be transported to death camps. Jim Axelrod examines the actual glass booth that Eichmann sat in during his trial in Israel, and spoke with former Mossad agent Avner Abraham, who curated the exhibit, now at the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg.

Partway through WWDC 2025, I started tracking every time I heard the word "delightful." I might have missed a few, but there were at least eight times when some exec was insisting to me that an element of the upcoming iOS 26, macOS Tahoe and Apple’s other platforms merited the adjective. And maybe some people truly do feel unfettered joy about UI design, but that's the sort of attitude in these events that makes me roll my eyes.

Apple always tries very hard to inject levity and personality into its keynotes. Most of the time, that winds up leaning on cringe from Craig Federighi, who seems quite affable about being the punchline. Sometimes I smirk a little, but again, more often than not, it's another eye-roll. That was the case this year, as Apple bludgeoned us with a tie-in for its upcoming F1 movie, which already leans pretty hard on product placement.

Then there's the developer devotion. Yes, Apple needs devs to use its tools and programs. Yes, the company can and should give them some kudos. But sometimes, the adulation that I've heard heaped on the WWDC audience in the past is so cheesy, so over-eager that it flies way past sincerity and into schlock.

Just as I was ready to turn off the stream, the curtain rose on a grand piano. And to my surprise, the final three minutes of a full band performing real reviews of apps became the actual highlight of WWDC for me.

This isn't an original idea. Reviews, good and bad, are well-mined fodder for comedians and social media content. Jimmy Fallon, James Corden and others have made musical gags a staple of recent late night talk shows. But the way Apple decided to do it this year was, in a word, delightful.

Each review was heartfelt or dopey or both; see "saved my marriage" for Citymapper and "If this doesn't win best app of the year, I'll eat my shoe" for Lost in Play. It took the essential internet wisdom of "don't read the comments" and turned it into gold. This silly little song managed to do everything Apple wants to do at WWDC in a really amusing package. It's the dev props, it's the splashy production, it's legit entertainment.

For anyone who, like me, was actually humming the tune even after the stream ended, the video is up as a standalone on YouTube and was performed by soul/R&B singer Allen Stone. And to whatever producer came up with this idea: you have my utmost appreciation. Six out of five stars indeed.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/every-wwdc-should-end-with-a-song-composed-of-app-reviews-202052217.html?src=rss