Ross Anderson
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Editor of The Morning Dispatch | @thedispatch
Technology columnist | @NewYorkSun
Reach me at ross@thedispatch.com
Articles by Ross Anderson
Can Ukraine Fight Without the U.S.?
Turn any article into a podcast. Upgrade now to start listening. Members can share articles with friends & family to bypass the paywall. You’re reading The Morning Dispatch, our flagship daily newsletter breaking down all the news you need to know today. Happy Monday! The Smithsonian’s National Zoo asked the public to name its new red panda cub but limited the options to Pyra, Dolpa, or Dolly, after the late Dolly Parton. Write-ins for “Panda McPandaface” have been ignored.
Sonos Gives Its Headphones Another Hearing
Arts+ The $449 headphones add direct Wi-Fi streaming, stronger noise cancellation, and up to 35 hours of battery life. Sonos is one of the most famous and loved consumer audio brands in the world, known for its sound quality, elegant design and easy-to-use software, and easy interconnectivity. This made it all the more surprising that, until 2024, it never sold a pair of headphones.
When it Comes to Headphones, Nothing Matters
Arts+ A British design company unveils its upgraded Headphone (1) Pro, but will the premium price limit its appeal? Nothing Headphones 1 Pro. Nothing In July 2025, British design-centric tech company Nothing released its first pair of over-ear headphones, the literally titled Headphone (1). Their noise canceling was only OK, their sound was fine if unremarkable — though dramatically improved with a custom EQ — and they looked a bit funky.
For the Best iPhone Photos, Upgrade the App, Not the Phone
Arts+ Apple’s new iPhone photo controls add flair, but they’re hardly a reason to upgrade and third-party camera app likely do more with your existing phone. Apple iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. Apple Apple didn’t have a lot of upgrades to give its new Pro iPhone range this year. The big hardware changes are reportedly coming next year, for the iPhone’s 20th anniversary, and if you wanted this year’s premium, exciting iPhone, you’re probably waiting to preorder the folding Duo.
Beats Changes Its Tune
Arts+ The Apple-owned company’s new $349.99 over-ear model offers up to 32 hours of battery life with noise cancellation on. Apple is rarely the first to an idea, but when it enters a space, it tends to do the best version of it. Apple hopes that’s true of its first foldable, the iPhone Duo, but it certainly seems to be true of the Beats 360, its new lifestyle- and fitness-focused over-ear model.
Meta’s AI Hardware Eyes a Social Awakening
Arts+ Muse is coming to AI glasses, and Meta has the hardware, software, and reach to make that matter. AI-centric devices are not a novel concept — Rabbit, Plaud, Humane, and Friend have all tried to make products in the space — but none has quite made the phone redundant. For these devices to work, they need to be capable and intuitive, and persuade you to use them instead of reaching for your phone.
Apple Bets on Health and AI With New Watches
Arts+ The $399 Series 12 and $799 Ultra 4 add better health sensing and, later this year, conversation recaps that will have to prove themselves. Apple Watch Ultra 4. Courtesy of Apple When Apple launched the first-generation Watch in 2015, Cupertino wasn’t quite sure how people would use it, but knew it was a fashion device. It even sold a version with an 18-karat gold case, starting at $10,000 — only to stop supporting it with major software updates three years later.
Meta Revolutionizes the VR Headset
Arts+ At about 100 grams, the new Meta product promises a cinema, workspace, and games in a pair of almost-glasses. Two kinds of device are racing toward each other: smart glasses and VR headsets. More from the New York Sun Two kinds of device are racing toward each other: smart glasses and VR headsets. Already have a subscription?
Apple’s Latest iPhone Is a Pro Forma Upgrade
Arts+ The iPhone 18 Pro’s fancy new camera feature, upgraded apps, and faster chip don’t add up to a noticeably different phone. Apple made a pretty big technical and design change with the iPhone 17 Pro last year, adding a thick camera bar, vapor-chamber cooling, and a bold orange color. Next year, for the iPhone’s 20th anniversary, Apple is reportedly planning its biggest redesign since the iPhone X, with a more glass-centric look.
Can the White House Ban Reporters?
Turn any article into a podcast. Upgrade now to start listening. Members can share articles with friends & family to bypass the paywall. You’re reading The Morning Dispatch, our flagship daily newsletter breaking down all the news you need to know today. Happy Tuesday! A man in northern India has filed a complaint against Indra, the Hindu god of rain, asking the district magistrate to order an end to the downpour.
Israel’s Tight Race, One Month Out
Turn any article into a podcast. Upgrade now to start listening. Members can share articles with friends & family to bypass the paywall. You’re reading The Morning Dispatch, our flagship daily newsletter breaking down all the news you need to know today. Happy Monday! Good news for anyone struggling with the cost of living: Natural diamonds have lost more than half their value since 2021, thanks partly to a boom in cheaper lab-grown stones. Click sign up to start receiving your newsletters.
Against Great Books Fetishism
Turn any article into a podcast. Upgrade now to start listening. Members can share articles with friends & family to bypass the paywall. You’re reading Dispatch Culture, our weekend newsletter featuring essays about American culture, staff recommendations, book reviews, and more. Happy Saturday! If you’ve interacted with The Dispatch for any length of time, it’s highly likely that you’ve heard the name Leo Strauss mentioned. Click sign up to start receiving your newsletters.
Russia’s Rigged, Under-Fire Elections
Turn any article into a podcast. Upgrade now to start listening. Members can share articles with friends & family to bypass the paywall. You’re reading The Morning Dispatch, our flagship daily newsletter breaking down all the news you need to know today. While visiting London’s Highgate Cemetery on Saturday, TMD’s editor came across an unusual tribute at the grave of Karl Marx: a Labubu doll holding a Coca-Cola bottle.
Is FEMA Ready for a Big Disaster?
Turn any article into a podcast. Upgrade now to start listening. Members can share articles with friends & family to bypass the paywall. You’re reading The Morning Dispatch, our flagship daily newsletter breaking down all the news you need to know today. Happy Wednesday! The Minneapolis City Council is considering an ordinance that would allow driverless cars like Waymos in the city, so long as a licensed human sits in the driver’s seat with the steering wheel, brakes, and accelerator within reach.
Will the Houthis Choke Saudi Oil?
Turn any article into a podcast. Upgrade now to start listening. Members can share articles with friends & family to bypass the paywall. You’re reading The Morning Dispatch, our flagship daily newsletter breaking down all the news you need to know today. Happy Tuesday! Stanford University researchers have found that chihuahuas carry coyote DNA, likely from before Columbus reached the Americas.
Will AI Kill Us All?
Turn any article into a podcast. Upgrade now to start listening. Members can share articles with friends & family to bypass the paywall. You’re reading The Morning Dispatch, our flagship daily newsletter breaking down all the news you need to know today. Happy Monday! A new study on impulse control found that Asian elephants can resist the urge to try to grab fruit they can see and smell through a clear box and instead reach around to an opening on the other side of the box.
The Case for Cheap Gym Straps
Arts+ Cheap classic loops suit most lifters, while figure-eight straps solve narrower problems at higher stakes. Bear Straps. Courtesy of Bear Unless you are an arm wrestler, a serial forearm flexer, or have a medical condition affecting your back, your grip will tire before your back muscles do. This is not usually a problem, but during a pulling exercise, the only thing keeping you attached to the bar is your grip — and that is going to give out far, far earlier than your back does.
Simplehuman Finds Beauty in the Everyday Household Item
Arts+ Their kitchen bin — with its liner pocket, soft-close lid, sturdy construction, and ten-year warranty — is the peak example of a great household item. SimpleHuman. Courtesy of SimpleHuman Products are not made as well as they used to be — or so a common perception goes.
Apple’s Camera AirPods Could Make Siri Truly Hands-Free
Arts+ A demo accidentally bundled with macOS 26.7 shows Visual Intelligence earbuds in action. AirPods 4. Courtesy of Apple In June, Meta introduced its own Meta-branded smartglasses, starting at $299, and promoted them with a Kylie Jenner collaboration. They join the Meta RayBans in their line-up — which Meta sold more than seven million of last year — and are a truly fantastic consumer tech product.
Sony’s WH-1000XM6 Wireless Headphones Are Deeply Overrated
Arts+ While Sony wins the spec sheet and the silence test, Bose’s lighter fit, stronger bass, and better software make its QuietComfort Ultra 2 the pair to buy. Sony WH-100XM6. Courtesy of Sony Sony’s WH-1000XM6 are among the best-regarded wireless headphones on the market, and understandably so. Released in May 2025, they refined the formula established by Sony’s legendary, nearly ten-year-old 1000X series: excellent noise canceling, strong sound, and a confusing names.
A ‘Super’ El Niño Approaches
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Saudi Arabia Ends Its LIV Golf Bet
Members can share articles with friends & family to bypass the paywall. You’re reading The Morning Dispatch, our flagship daily newsletter breaking down all the news you need to know today. Happy Monday! New York’s Department of Environmental Protection asked people to please stop touring the city’s sewers after a fourth group since May was filmed climbing out of a manhole in chest waders. Click sign up to start receiving your newsletters. Gift this article to a friend Checking gift availability...
Bessent’s Big Bond Buyback Bet
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Are Poland and Ukraine Growing Apart?
Turn any article into a podcast. Upgrade now to start listening. Members can share articles with friends & family to bypass the paywall. You’re reading The Morning Dispatch, our flagship daily newsletter breaking down all the news you need to know today. Happy Tuesday! Exciting news for James Austin Johnson fans: the Saturday Night Live star is releasing his debut stand-up special at the end of this month, exclusively on Gorilla Comedy+, the new streamer from 800 Pound Gorilla.
The DOJ Case Against the Southern Poverty Law Center
Turn any article into a podcast. Upgrade now to start listening. Members can share articles with friends & family to bypass the paywall. You’re reading The Morning Dispatch, our flagship daily newsletter breaking down all the news you need to know today. Happy Monday! Egyptian authorities have shut down an unlicensed factory that was producing knockoff Oreos using charcoal instead of chocolate. Then again, “Charcoal Oreos” wouldn’t even be the worst novelty Oreo flavor.
The Best New Cheap Android Phones
Arts+ Samsung’s Galaxy A27 and Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 14 Pro show how little buyers now sacrifice below the flagship tier. Samsung A27 5G. Courtesy of Samsung For the longest time, high consumer-price inflation was one of those things consigned to the 1980s. But the 2020s have been a nostalgic period, and along with “Stranger Things” and the rebirth for Oasis, came a return to steady, aggressive price rises.
Is Flock Worth the Privacy Trade-Off?
Turn any article into a podcast. Upgrade now to start listening. Members can share articles with friends & family to bypass the paywall. You’re reading The Morning Dispatch, our flagship daily newsletter breaking down all the news you need to know today. Happy Thursday! Voters in the English seaside town of Clacton choose today among a record 34 candidates for a single seat in Parliament, printed on a ballot 3 feet long.
Lamborghini Built the Wrong Urus
Arts+ Although the Urus has been a great sales success — offering Lamborghini flair for the affluent SUV shopper — itshigher-profit variants have been disappointing and misguided. Lamborghini Urus Performante SE. Courtesy of Lamborghini Contrary to its public image, Porsche is not actually a sports car company. Its most famous product remains the 911, and it also sells the 911’s junior siblings, the Cayman and Boxster.
Bessent Bets Big on the Japanese Yen
Turn any article into a podcast. Upgrade now to start listening. Members can share articles with friends & family to bypass the paywall. You’re reading The Morning Dispatch, our flagship daily newsletter breaking down all the news you need to know today. Happy Tuesday! Notice for our readers from Manitoba, Canada: If you reel in a pinless hand grenade from the Red River, as one fisherman did last week, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police asks that you not touch it.
Sigma’s BF Camera Reminds You Why You Started Taking Pictures
By THE NEW YORK SUN
Hacks on U.S. Water Systems Spread
Turn any article into a podcast. Upgrade now to start listening. Members can share articles with friends & family to bypass the paywall. You’re reading The Morning Dispatch, our flagship daily newsletter breaking down all the news you need to know today. Happy Monday! Oreo and KFC have launched a fried chicken-flavored cookie in China whose cream has been engineered to evoke the Original Recipe’s 11 herbs and spices. Strategists can debate whether America would win a war with China.
A Classic Flip Phone at a Smartphone Price
Arts+ Brooklyn’s minimalist phone maker finally builds the flip phone its users wanted — then asks smartphone money for it. The Light Flip. Courtesy of Light Smartphones — or, more precisely, the apps on them — can be rather distracting. Every ambient moment can be filled with a scroll, refresh, or notification, and so many live with their eyes glued to that small glowing rectangle. Many are happy doing so, while others feel guilty about their screen time and want to reduce it.
The Dusty Dinosaurs off Route 12
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Barebells Makes The First Great Protein Candy Bar
Arts+ The Swedish protein bar company is growing exponentially, both in sales and quality. Barebells Protein Bars. Courtesy of Barebells Published: Aug 7, 2026, 08:18 PM ET Updated:Aug 7, 2026, 08:35 PM ET Protein bars are almost universally bad. They are snacks pretending to be health food — but shove protein powder into a chocolate bar, and you wind up with a not particularly healthy snack that tastes worse than an actual chocolate bar.
The New, Secret White House AI Rulebook
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Will Cuba Break?
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Trump’s Posts, Now for Sale
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Schiaparelli’s Art Triumphs Over Corporate Luster at London’s V&A
Arts+ The first British retrospective devoted to Elsa Schiaparelli traces the house from her couture to Daniel Roseberry’s red-carpet reinvention. Schiaparelli Exhibition. Courtesy of Ross Anderson Parisian fashion of the 1920s had many notable designers, tailors, and houses, but no two figures captured the moment better than Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli. Yet the women themselves could hardly have been more different.
Will Blanche Be Confirmed?
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McLaren’s New Supercar Suffers From ‘Deja Vroom’
Arts+ The 788HS is the most extreme version yet of a mid-engine V8 format that dates to the MP4-12C, but this has long since become boring. McLaren 788HS. Courtesy of McLaren In 2012, HP released the LaserJet Pro 400 M401, a monochrome office printer available as the M401a, the M401d, the M401dn, or the M401dw, depending on whether you wanted automatic duplex, networking, or wireless.
The Cost of America’s AIDS Funding Cuts
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Warsh’s Inflation Problem
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Keigo Higashino, the Novelist Who Defined Japan’s Sense of Mystery, Dies at 68
Arts+ The engineer-turned-bestselling novelist inverted the whodunit, found readers around the world, and sold 100 million copies at home. Keigo Higashino. Wikimedia Commons Keigo Higashino’s bestselling 2005 mystery “The Devotion of Suspect X,” like so many thrillers, opens with a murder.
Moza Drives Virtual Racing Into the Fast Lane
Arts+ If you love driving games but want to upgrade your experience, there is no better option for the money than Moza’s new R5 Pro. Moza R5 Pro. Courtesy of Moza Forza Horizon 6 is the best racing game of the year and the best one released in many years. It doesn’t deserve the perfect scores that too many critics gave it — as you can read here — but few arcade racers offer a better way to cruise around a beautiful, large open world in an enormous range of cars. Already have a subscription?
Europe’s Record Wildfires
Turn any article into a podcast. Upgrade now to start listening. Members can share articles with friends & family to bypass the paywall. You’re reading The Morning Dispatch, our flagship daily newsletter explaining all the news you need to know today in fewer than 15 minutes. To unlock the full version, become a Dispatch member today. Happy Tuesday! In shocking news, New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority has finished a major project early and under budget.
Apple’s Feud With OpenAI Is Far More Than an Intellectual Property Dispute
On July 10 Apple filed a case at the federal District Court for the Northern District of California, making some serious allegations against OpenAI, its onetime AI partner for Siri and the biggest name in artificial intelligence. In the suit, Apple claimed the company, from engineers to senior leaders, had worked to steal corporate secrets from Apple, as OpenAI, under the leadership of CEO Sam Altman, builds its own hardware division. Already have a subscription?
Kennedy’s Peptide Push
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BMW Keeps the V8 but Loses Alpina’s Soul
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A Record Cyclospora Outbreak
Turn any article into a podcast. Upgrade now to start listening. Members can share articles with friends & family to bypass the paywall. You’re reading The Morning Dispatch, our flagship daily newsletter explaining all the news you need to know today in fewer than 15 minutes. To unlock the full version, become a Dispatch member today. Happy Monday! Exciting news for anyone with a black leather jacket in the closet: One just sold at Sotheby’s for $960,000.
Robotaxis Are Here. But Are They Safe?
Ross Anderson is the Editor of The Morning Dispatch, based in London. Prior to joining the company in 2025, he was an editor at The Spectator, columnist at The New York Sun, and a Tablet fellow. When Ross isn’t working on TMD, he’s probably trying out new tech, lifting weights, or hanging out with his cat, Teddy.
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