Apple’s Liquid Glass, Sabrina’s Class, and a World Off Its Axis
Vol. 2 Issue 24 – 14th June 2025
Top of the Pop
At the WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference), Apple announced iOS 26 and its new features. These include live translation on FaceTime, call screening, the karaoke and sound mixing features on Apple Music, a redesigned photo gallery, amongst other things, and the pièce de résistance, the liquid glass design.
The new design overhaul features a completely revamped layout and look for the iPhone operating system, now presented in a transparent and glass-like avatar. While the sleek and minimalist look appears clean, the actual use case seems questionable. People are pointing out how the varying opacities of the notifications, widgets and control centre clash with each other, basically making everything harder to read.
Sabrina Carpenter has announced her new album, Man’s Best Friend, which will release on 23rd August! However, everyone’s not talking about the new music but the album cover for the new record. Paired with the name of the album, the cover sees Sabrina on her knees as her hair is pulled by a man. At first glance, it does seem controversial and regressive, with many pointing out that it’s catered to the male gaze.
But if you look beyond what meets the eye, and approach the discourse with nuance, this is the album which has the lead single ‘Manchild’. If you are remotely familiar with Sabrina’s discography, she constantly calls the other sex dumb, slow, useless and other such synonyms. She kills all the male leads in her music videos. I’m afraid this is a classic case of Poe’s Law- “an adage of Internet culture which says that, without a clear indicator of the author's intent, any parodic or sarcastic expression of extreme views can be mistaken by some readers for a sincere expression of those views.”.
Israel attacked Iran, Iran retaliated. Sorry, this isn’t pop culture, but very much serious news. But what imbibed it in pop culture, was an account on X posing to be the Iranian military, tweeting about the retaliation attacks like it was a football match. Hundreds of thousands of people believed it to be true, until fact checkers called it out in the community notes.
Celeb circuit
Dua Lipa has officially revealed that her and Callum Turner are engaged, in her recent interview with British Vogue. The two were introduced by a mutual friend and connected again after bumping into each other, while reading the same book! (It was Hernan Diaz's novel, Trust)
Glen Powell’s ex, Gigi Paris, has spoken up about their break-up being a result of Powell leaning into the dating rumours with Sydney Sweeney while promoting Anyone But You.
DIY queen Nara Smith is pregnant with her 4th child.
Billie Eilish is dating Nat Wolff, as the two were seen kissing in pap photos on a balcony in Venice.
Tom Hiddleston and Zawe Ashton are pregnant with their 2nd child.
Dakota Johnson joined Amy Poehler’s podcast and recounted a nightmare she had about The 1975’s lead singer, Matty Healy murdering people but turning into asparagus whenever the police would catch him. Honestly, I would’ve loved to be a fly on the wall when she had her dinner with Taylor Swift, because WHAT did she tell her to induce this kind of a dream?!
Justin Baldoni’s $400 million defamation lawsuit against Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds has been dismissed by the court.
Sarah Snook won a Tony for her one-woman act as Dorian Gray on Broadway. This win now means that all the lead actors of Succession are each halfway through an EGOT!
Coming soonish
Apple’s F1 movie has released a haptic trailer for iPhone users, which can be viewed by going on the AppleTV app. First of its kind, the user is able to feel all the motions and movements of the F1 cars and engines in the trailer. In other news related to the film, Simone Ashley’s character has been significantly cut from the movie, making her appearance only a cameo now. This comes after Damson Idris’ character has also been sidelined to make Brad Pitt the focus. Previously, the producer and director of this film have also cut out Manny Jacinto’s part from their previous project, Top Gun: Maverick. Hmmm, smells awfully like racism.
Trailer for Lena Dunham’s new show for Netflix, Too Much, is here!
James Gunn confirms a new Wonder Woman movie is in the works at DC.
Materialists is in theatres for most of us (not for me sadly, for some reason it releases on the 15th of AUGUST in the UK???), here is Celine Song’s reference material while making the movie.
A new Disney Pixar movie, Gatto, comes out in 2027! It is about a music-loving black cat in Venice, that is shunned by the locals due to superstition.
Sporty spice
Carlos Alacaraz and Coco Gauff win the Roland Garros!
Formula 1’s 2026 race calendar has been unveiled.
The 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans takes place this weekend!
Sound check
Alex Warren and Blackpink’s Rose tease a new collab, On My Mind.
BTS members V, RM, Jungkook and Jimin are done with their mandatory military training and have been discharged.
Twenty One Pilots drop their first single, The Contract, off their new album, Breach.
The Grammys are adding a Best Album Cover and Traditional Country Album categories to the awards.
In other news
The cast of musical Hamilton got together for the 10th anniversary of the Broadway hit, for a medley performance at the 2025 Tony Awards.
Instagram will now allow you to rearrange your grid, regardless of when the photos were posted.
Porn star Bonnie Blue has been permanently banned from the platform OnlyFans.
Disney and Universal have sued the AI company Midjourney.
It was Friday the 13th, but like this tweet said, does it even matter anymore?
