Software & AI

The AI Twitter bot was taught abuse by users and was shut down within 24 hours, scoring 3 out of 10.

Raised 1.7 billion dollars but misjudged young audiences and flopped within seven months.

Built on the foundations of Beats Music's recommendation engine and subscriber base.

Beats' own streaming service was good at helping people find new songs but was shut down after Apple copied its ideas.

A web-powered OS that suited developers but offered consumers little and lost momentum; 6/10 fail.

Born from Firefox OS remnants and successful in an uncontested niche on cheap feature phones.

Arun calls Huawei's move to Harmony OS a huge step but says he is not confident it will work.

Promising and fast, but it launched late with a woeful app selection and no subsidies, then dragged on for years.

Huawei's app store is missing some apps, but Huawei is working hard to attract developers and Arun finds the plan sensible.

Tracks finger gestures with the selfie camera, which he sees as a better take on the old laser keyboard idea.

One of his favourite AR apps, letting you see real sneaker designs on your feet.

The most fluid third-party gesture app he has used, though most features need the pro version.

A very cool 3D scanner for objects and rooms, though low resolution and mostly for fun.

One of Google's best experiments, freezing the background so clips look tripod-stable.

A quirky photo editor with wacky filters that give a sci-fi poster look.

A minimalist wallpaper generator that makes a new design with every tap, though some look empty.

One of his favourites of the year, with the most convincing lighting and sky effects of similar apps.

Not especially useful but insanely fun for distorting photos into tiny planets.

A stripped-back home screen limited to seven apps that works and reports your usage.

Batches notifications and releases them at set times to curb constant phone checking.

Extracts text from screenshots so you can search and copy from them.

Adds a bottom notification bar so you can reach settings without stretching your thumb.

His favourite weather app, with sophisticated features and a clean interface.

Lets you see phone notifications and send files from a computer's Chrome browser.