In this week's "Sunday Reboot," Apple's gift bags and artifacts get a close look, China briefly gets Apple Intelligence ahead of schedule, and iPhones go to the Moon.
Sunday Reboot is a weekly column covering some of the lighter stories within the Apple reality distortion field from the past seven days. All to get the next week underway with a good first step.
This week, Apple Ireland was fined by UK regulators for seemingly breaking sanctions on Russia, an AI porn startup sued Apple over its App Store rules, and the Apple Fitness+ chief prepares to retire amid claims he introduced a toxic mental health work environment.
All during a massively celebratory week for the company.
Apple's 50th: Gift bags and old stuff
Apple's 50th anniversary celebration was inescapable this week. After weeks of events, Apple brought it all in-house for the day itself.
There was a lot of coverage, including a letter from CEO Tim Cook to staff, Cook's ringing of the Nasdaq opening bell, and the obligatory reporting on the history of the company and its massive growth.
Tim Cook at Apple Park's Rainbow Arch, where Paul McCartney played.
There was also a small concert in the middle of Apple Park. Paul McCartney, who was in The Beatles and is still in the business, took to the stage to play for the employees, complete with a firework display.
However, there are two interesting points from the week of back-slapping. All to do with swag and ancient things (Not McCartney).
As usual for an Apple event involving employees, they had gift bags available. For a major milestone like 50 years, you'd expect something impressive from such a massive company, but that's not the case.
If you worked for Apple, you could get a gift bag containing a specially printed t-shirt, a "50" pin, a poster with a new scribble version of the Apple logo, and that's it.
Of course, if you're working in Apple's hallowed halls, you're going to be paid a decent amount of money, so expensive items wouldn't really matter. Even so, it seems a little bit cheap.
When it comes to the old stuff (Again, not McCartney), Apple has decided to remind its employees of its past. Throughout Apple Park, it's set up exhibits of its artifacts, including early models, prototypes, and advertising that it used throughout its history.
This is somewhat of an apt thing for Apple to do, considering an interview Tim Cook did previously. Released on April 1, Cook is shown looking at items from the company vault, including things he claims he had not seen previously.
During that interview, he admitted that Apple didn't have a place to display all of the items. Evidently, he decided to do something about that.
It's probable that the exhibits will only be around for a short while, until they get locked away again. But it would be nice if Apple did open up a more permanent museum that was also available to the public.
Could be a good reason for Apple to extend the visitor's center.
Apple Intelligence's screw-up in China
Everyone is very much aware of the delays of Siri, but the West hasn't really heard much about what's happening in China. Or more accurately, what hasn't happened in China.
While most countries have access to Apple Intelligence and the various features it provides, Chinese iPhone users have not. Apple Intelligence isn't available in China, because Apple has to appease the very strict regulators.
In the year and a half since the U.S. introduction, Apple has been working to find a partner in China who already has models that the Chinese government has approved. There were murmurs of Apple working with Baidu and Alibaba, massive tech giants in their own right, to implement a regional and regulator-approved version of Apple Intelligence.
It's been so long since those talks that your humble writer almost forgot about the work over there.
On Monday, there was a faint glimmer of hope that China would finally get Apple Intelligence. Developer beta users of iOS 26.5 saw mentions of it in the Settings app, which some may have viewed as a sign that it was facing a public release soon.
Apple Intelligence still isn't out in China. But it got really close.
Within hours of its introduction, the hopes had been dashed. It turned out the feature went live accidentally. It wasn't approved by the regulators, so shouldn't have been in the beta.
This clawback certainly will dampen the spirits of anyone keen to use Apple Intelligence in one of the last major markets not to have it. There is still a bright side: It exists.
It may not come out anytime soon. It may not even come out when iOS 26.5 actually does. But at least it's not a year away from becoming publicly available.
Not in this state.
iPhones in Space and the best Shot on iPhone campaign ever
The world was energized by the Artemis II space mission launch, which involves a group of four astronauts flying around the dark side of the moon. In the tech sphere, the coverage has almost been swamped by the fact that NASA allowed iPhones on board.
Granted, these are four NASA-tested iPhone 17 Pro Max units that were provided to the astronauts, and therefore they are limited in capability. There's no connecting them up to Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, no sneakily playing Candy Crush, and no checking out TikTok while using the Space Toilet.
With so much performance and processing power, you'd expect NASA to strongly consider using the iPhones for actual scientific tasks. But no, they're not deemed useful enough for that.
Instead, they're being used for public relations, or as NASA frames it, for the astronauts to capture and share the experience with others. So basically cameras for photos and videos.
They happen to be the newest cameras inside the craft, though, as one astronaut was able to get NASA to approve a 2016 Nikon DSLR.
An Artemis II crew member's shot of Earth through a window - Image Credit: NASA
On the PR front, the iPhones are certainly doing the business. NASA has released lots of cool-looking shots taken by the crew, including the classic ones of Earth from varying angles, and some candid shots of the crew at work.
No interstellar duck faces yet.
Apple employees working to promote the iPhone and other products are probably having a field day with the coverage this mission has produced. While Apple certainly wouldn't have ponied up for the high cost of flying the iPhones up there, it will certainly be glad of the coverage it's produced anyway.
It's always valued the Shot on iPhone campaign, and it's now managed to get what is probably the ultimate form handed to them on a floating platter.
Maybe when there's a new moon landing, Apple could persuade someone to bring their iPhone onto the surface. It's the only way Apple could go one better.
Last week's Sunday Reboot covered Nvidia CloudXR on Apple Vision Pro, the iPhone Air not being a complete failure, and the problem of social liability.
