Australian government agencies access more metadata
In a year when Australian government agencies were fighting to force telecommunications companies to retain metadata records for up to two years, it has been revealed that those agencies gained access to that data on 319,874 occasions in the last financial year.
Access to the metadata — the time, date, location, and recipient information about telephone calls, emails, and other communications — by Australian government agencies has been controversial over the last year. The government is currently sitting on a report put together under the former parliament that argued that a decision on whether to force telecommunications companies to retain the data for up to two years should be made by the government.
The Greens party has pushed to require the agencies to obtain a warrant from a judge prior to accessing the data, but the Australian Federal Police and others have said that this would create a bottleneck that would hinder investigations.
A leak from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden also recently revealed that the Australian government was willing to share bulk uncensored metadata on Australian citizens with other members of the so-called Five Eyes, so long as specific individuals were not being targeted.
Late yesterday, the attorney-general tabled the annual report (PDF) of the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979, detailing how government agencies have intercepted telecommunications and accessed stored metadata records over the last financial year.
In the last financial year, law enforcement agencies, federal government departments, state governments, local councils, and other state authorities accessed telecommunications records for criminal investigations 319,874 times, up from 290,358 in last financial year.
The report revised down its original 2011-12 figure from 293,501 to 290,358 after receiving advice from the Australian Crime Commission that reduced the number of its authorisations by over 3,000.
Big increases mainly came from the law enforcement agencies with the AFP, up to 25,582 authorisations from 22,900 in 2012; the New South Wales Police, up to 119,705 from 103,824 in 2012; and the West Australian Police, up to 19,812 from 12,293.
It is not just law enforcement that gains access to the metadata, however. Local and state government agencies including RSPCA South Australia, Wyndham City Council, Racing NSW, and the Department of Fisheries accounted for 2,355 authorisations in the financial year for the protection of public revenue.
Including the authorisations granted for non-criminal investigations, the total number of authorisations sits at 330,640.
In response to the growing controversy surrounding the access to telecommunications records, this year's report also contains a number of case studies outlining why the agencies need access to the data. One such case study from Wyndham City Council explains that the council used a phone number that it had obtained from Ambulance Victoria to track down and prosecute a dog owner whose dog had attacked an elderly man, but left the scene after calling for an ambulance.
The Australian Crime Commission also highlighted that it uses telephone records to trace money laundering.
The law enforcement agencies have gone to lengths to point out that although metadata access does not require a warrant, access to the content of communications or interception of telephone calls still do need a warrant. However, the report also reveals that the Australian Federal Police in the last financial year put in place an interception in one instance where a person was likely to receive a call from a person threatening to kill or seriously injure someone else.
'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean?
ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing.
When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or service, we may earn affiliate commissions. This helps support our work, but does not affect what we cover or how, and it does not affect the price you pay. Neither ZDNET nor the author are compensated for these independent reviews. Indeed, we follow strict guidelines that ensure our editorial content is never influenced by advertisers.
ZDNET's editorial team writes on behalf of you, our reader. Our goal is to deliver the most accurate information and the most knowledgeable advice possible in order to help you make smarter buying decisions on tech gear and a wide array of products and services. Our editors thoroughly review and fact-check every article to ensure that our content meets the highest standards. If we have made an error or published misleading information, we will correct or clarify the article. If you see inaccuracies in our content, please report the mistake via this form.
I've reviewed every iPhone 17 model, and my advice is something different this year
This photo of the iPhone 17 Pro Max in Cosmic Orange was taken with the telephoto lens on an iPhone 17 Pro Max.
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The idea of "tyranny of choice" says that having a set of good choices is supposed to let everyone find exactly what makes them most happy, but the reality is that having so many good choices can often lead to anxiety, indecisiveness, and discontent. If we apply this concept to the iPhone 17 lineup, then Apple is quite the tyrant this year.
After all, the base model iPhone 17 is more pro than ever and offers the best value-for-money in 2025. The iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max have addressed the two biggest weak spots of last year's Pro models. And the iPhone Air gives you a chance to use tomorrow's technology today.
Also: Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max review: I've got one big reason to recommend a year-over-year upgrade
I've upgraded my iPhone every year since the first iPhone in 2007, and I've spent hands-on time with all four of this year's iPhone models. And yet, my buying advice this year is wildly different than any other year in the past. And there are several reasons why.
Let's unpack it by looking at each of the product lines, as well as who I'd recommend as the ideal upgrader for each one.
The $799 iPhone 17 suits more people than ever
Do not sleep on the base model iPhone 17 this year.
In recent years I mostly relegated my recommendations of the base model iPhone to kids, teenagers, first-time iPhone users, and people who just needed a phone that would work because their old phone had a cracked screen or a battery that wouldn't hold a charge -- and they wanted to limit how much they spent on a phone.
Not so this year.
The fact that Apple poured so many upgrades into the iPhone 17 was the surprise of the 2025 Apple Event for me. First of all, Apple finally did a major facelift to the iPhone 17's screen technology, kicking it up to 6.3-inches (from 6.1 last year) with thinner bezels, 120Hz ProMotion display, 3000 nits of peak brightness, an anti-reflective coating, and an always-on display.
Also: Apple's iPhone 17 will forever change how we take selfies - including on Android phones
Apple also upgraded the cameras on the iPhone 17, moving to a 48MP dual fusion camera with a 48MP main camera and 48MP ultrawide. Plus, the iPhone 17 gets the same upgraded selfie camera technology as the Pros and Air get this year. That's a 24MP square sensor that effectively shoots 18MP images in either portrait or landscape mode and can now automatically switch between the two without forcing you to flip your phone.
Even better, you can let the camera use machine learning to find all the faces in the shot and automatically use portrait or landscape mode to get the best photo. Kudos to Apple for not keeping this new camera tech in the Pro phones only this year.
The base model iPhone 17 compares very well to last year's iPhone 16 Pro.
Apple also kept the price of the iPhone 17 at $799 while raising the base storage from 128GB to 256GB. Last year, 256GB of storage on the iPhone 16 would have put the price of the phone at $899. From that perspective, Apple effectively gave the iPhone 17 a $100 price cut. Likewise, the iPhone 17's two biggest Android competitors, the Pixel 10 and the Samsung Galaxy S25 still start with 128GB of storage on their base models and both cost $799.
Also: Want Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses? You have to book a demo first - and they are going fast
From another perspective, this year's iPhone 17 is nearly identical to last year's iPhone 16 Pro, except that it doesn't have the telephoto zoom, but it adds the next-gen selfie camera and the dual-capture camera. And last year's iPhone 16 Pro started at $999 for 128GB of storage and $1,099 for 256GB.
As a result, there are people I would have previously recommended to opt for the iPhone Pro line who I'm very happy to recommend the iPhone 17 base model to instead this year, saving them a couple hundred dollars. If you're someone who doesn't use the telephoto zoom very much and you're coming from an iPhone 14 Pro or an iPhone 13 Pro (or earlier), then I'd recommend considering the iPhone 17 this year. It's a much more powerful and serious phone now.
The iPhone Air offers a taste of the future
The iPhone Air steps into a bit of a cursed place in the iPhone lineup between the base model and Pros -- a place where the iPhone 12-13 Mini and the iPhone 14-16 Plus models all struggled to generate much interest over the past half decade.
Like Samsung's Galaxy S25 Edge, the iPhone Air is considered a technology demonstration of just how thin its engineers can make a phone as a precursor to a leap forward in foldables -- the Fold 7 in Samsung's case.
Here's the iPhone Air in one of the new bumper cases that Apple is making.
So the iPhone Air isn't just haunted by the past, it's also standing in the shadow of the long-awaited foldable iPhone that's widely expected to launch in the fall of 2026.
Also: I replaced my iPhone 16 Pro Max with the iPhone Air - here's my buying advice now
Still, the iPhone Air is undoubtedly the one that generated the biggest wow factor when holding it in my hands. It's super impressive how thin, light, and futuristic it feels. I'd encourage you to go into an Apple Store or one of the wireless carrier stores starting on Sept. 19 to see if you get the same emotional reaction to holding a phone that is basically the width of a USB-C port.
There's no doubt that it's one of the most impressive technological achievements of 2025. But should you buy it?
Korean pop star Jeong Yunho and Tim Cook look at the iPhone Air at the September 2025 Apple Event.
For the vast majority of iPhone upgraders, I'm still going to say no -- not when the base model iPhone 17 has better cameras and costs less. And if you're a true power user, then you're not going to be satisfied with the battery life or the cameras on the iPhone Air.
But if you're someone who loves to live on the cutting edge of tech and run ahead of the pack, you're probably going to be pretty giddy when you put your hands on the iPhone Air. You're probably someone who would have loved to wear Google Glass or the Apple Vision Pro and you're one of the leading candidates to get the iPhone Fold in 2026. The iPhone Air will let you live in that future. Just make sure you order the if you regularly use your phone for more than about four hours a day.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max solves big problems
The iPhone 16 Pro Max and the iPhone 15 Pro Max are two phones that I've loved using during the past two years. I especially loved using the main camera on these phones to take more photos than any other smartphone camera or even my professional Sony mirrorless camera over the past two years.
But I also struggled with the same two problems on both of those phones.
Also: I tried Apple's 2 big AI features announced at the iPhone 17 event - and both are game changers
First, the zoom camera was simply not up to the same standard of quality as the main camera -- as much I wanted it to be because I love zoom photography. Shots taken on the 5x telephoto (first introduced on the iPhone 15 Pro models) were okay for social media, but the quality would typically fall apart when I started editing them. So I regularly had to reach for my Sony mirrorless whenever I wanted high-quality zoom shots. Meanwhile, I've been printing high-quality photos from the iPhone's main camera for over a decade.
The iPhone 17 Pro in Deep Blue.
The other big problem I had with the two titanium iPhone 15 and 16 Pro Max phones over the past two years was regular overheating. Whenever I was doing a lot of photo or video shooting, when I was in crowded urban areas with weak wireless signals, or when I had the phone out in the sun for extended periods, these two Pro Max phones would get incredibly hot. And when they overheated, the battery would start to drain very quickly.
That's definitely not the dynamic you want to see from an expensive, high-end phone.
I was thrilled that Apple has addressed both problems in the iPhone 17 Pro Max -- as well as the iPhone 17 Pro, which is the same exact phone except that it has a 6.3-inch screen instead of a 6.9-inch screen and a smaller battery.
Also: Should you upgrade to an iPhone 17 Pro from last year's model? I am - here's why
Let's talk about the thermals first. Apple has replaced titanium and gone back to aluminum for the casing of the iPhone 17 Pro Max. Aluminum can be up to 5-10 times more effective at conducting and dispersing heat than titanium. But Apple also added a vapor chamber cooling system that uses deionized water to cool the phone's A19 Pro chip and allow it to run at maximum strength while not overheating.
I need to do a lot of testing over weeks and months, but I'm very encouraged that the iPhone 17 Pro Max addresses the overheating issue head-on in its design.
When it comes to the telephoto zoom camera, I'm also encouraged by the way Apple has addressed this in the iPhone 17 Pro Max. First, Apple upgraded its tetraprism zoom from a 12MP sensor to a 48MP sensor, matching the 48MP sensor on the main camera. Then, Apple made this a 4x sensor (rather than 5x), which appeared to be a curious downgrade at first.
However, having more pixels enabled an 8x zoom cropped to 12MP, which Apple boldly called an optical quality 8x. Fortunately, I got to try it out, and I'm impressed by what I've seen so far. Below is an example of what the 8x zoom lens is capable of, and it's higher quality than any zoom shot I've taken with an iPhone before.
Example of a photo taken with the 8x zoom of the iPhone 17 Pro Max.
Of course, I'll need to do a lot more testing with the zoom camera before I can say whether it's ready to take on more of my everyday zoom photography. I'm also going to compare it with the Pixel 10 Pro XL zoom, which I'm also testing. Like last year, I plan to do a dedicated review of the new iPhone 17 Pro camera system. So keep an eye out for that in early October.
Also: iPhone Air vs. Samsung S25 Edge: I compared both ultra-thin phones to decide a winner
Nevertheless, I'm now going to make a recommendation that I've never made before -- with an asterisk. If you were like me and ran into lots of overheating and zoom problems with the iPhone 15 Pro Max or even the iPhone 16 Pro Max, I think you may want to consider the possibility of a more-rapid-than-usual upgrade to the iPhone 17 Pro Max this year.
Again, I'm going to do more testing before I definitively make that recommendation, but I want to put it on your radar. I'll be doing more rigorous testing over the coming weeks and I'll report back. I'll also keep an eye out for some good trade-in deals that might ease the blow of a rapid upgrade.
Apple
'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean?
ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing.
When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or service, we may earn affiliate commissions. This helps support our work, but does not affect what we cover or how, and it does not affect the price you pay. Neither ZDNET nor the author are compensated for these independent reviews. Indeed, we follow strict guidelines that ensure our editorial content is never influenced by advertisers.
ZDNET's editorial team writes on behalf of you, our reader. Our goal is to deliver the most accurate information and the most knowledgeable advice possible in order to help you make smarter buying decisions on tech gear and a wide array of products and services. Our editors thoroughly review and fact-check every article to ensure that our content meets the highest standards. If we have made an error or published misleading information, we will correct or clarify the article. If you see inaccuracies in our content, please report the mistake via this form.
These XR glasses with a 200-inch screen effectively replaced my triple monitor setup
ZDNET's key takeaways
- The Xreal One Pro is available for $649, and the Xreal Eye accessory is priced at $99.
- Thanks to the X1 chip, no special software is required for advanced functionality, the FOV is the best available, the glasses are comfortable, and the display is bright and clear.
- The glasses are rather expensive, and two sizes for your eye width make them fit best for individuals.
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For the past several months, I have been wearing the Xreal One Pro on the airplane, in an automobile, on the couch, and in my home office for media, gaming, and work. Powered by Xreal's X1 spatial computing chip for augmented reality applications, it's safe to say that the Xreal glasses have spoiled me.
Also: I tried the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, and they got me excited for the post-smartphone era
While XR glasses are fantastic for watching movies on the airplane and playing Nintendo Switch games on a virtual big screen, I cannot begin to express the utility I have experienced using the Xreal One Pro for getting work done on my Surface Pro and MacBook Pro computers in ultra-wide mode.
Using these glasses is better than using the three monitors I connect to in my office, and I can get that multitasking experience through a simple USB-C cable and the glasses.
The Xreal One Pro delivers an impressive visual experience, thanks to its new flat prism optics. While the design adds some bulk and weight, it enables a 57-degree field of view -- currently the widest available in any consumer AR device. For frequent flyers or daily commuters like myself, XR glasses like these offer one of the most immersive ways to watch content or play mobile games on the go.
The audio through the glasses was developed in partnership with Bose, which I can attest provides an enjoyable audio experience even though the speakers aren't directly in your ears like traditional earbuds and headphones.
Also: I tried smart glasses with a built-in display, and they beat my Meta Ray-Bans in key ways
I prefer this setup for commuting by train -- nearby passengers aren't disturbed by the audio. On a plane, though, noise-canceling headphones are essential to block out ambient noise.
I've praised the SpaceWalker app for enhancing productivity when using Viture XR glasses with a Windows or macOS computer. In contrast, Xreal's X1 chip eliminates the need for additional software, offering full functionality out of the box. The result is a more seamless, accessible XR experience that raises the bar for everyday usability.
The Xreal One Pro offers built-in ultra-wide screen functionality, and when paired with the Xreal Eye accessory, it adds 6DoF support -- letting you anchor your virtual workspace much like you can with the Apple Vision Pro or Meta Quest 3. When ultra-wide mode is enabled, all previously arranged apps, tabs, and windows reappear exactly where you left them, making for a remarkably fluid multitasking experience.
Also: I biked with the Meta Oakley Vanguard, and they're easily the best smart glasses for athletes
For frequent travelers who rely on a single laptop screen, XR glasses like these offer a compelling productivity boost -- at a fraction of the cost of multiple physical monitors. From what I've seen, with the X1 chip and these new features, Xreal sets a new benchmark for portable extended reality.
Controlling XR glasses can often feel unintuitive, with some models requiring adjustments on the connected device. The Xreal One Pro simplifies this: a press of the front right button toggles between anchor and follow modes -- useful for stabilizing the display and reducing motion blur as you move your head.
Double-pressing the same button brings up on-screen menus, which you can navigate using the volume buttons. From there, adjusting screen size and distance is quick and straightforward, offering a highly customizable and immersive visual experience.
Also: Should you buy the new Meta Ray-Bans? I tested every model, and here's how to decide
The top button on the right side lets you cycle through lens transparency modes -- clear, shaded, and theater -- so you can seamlessly interact with your surroundings or switch to a 222-inch virtual display. When paired with the $99 Xreal Eye accessory, pressing and holding this button also allows you to capture photos and videos hands-free.
One reason I like the Viture Pro XR glasses is the diopter adjustment dials, but after reading more about the comparison between diopter adjustment and lens inserts, it is time for me to pick up lens inserts for those limited times I take out my contacts. The one limitation with lens inserts is that they are specific to each person, so sharing the glasses with others isn't as easy. Then again, once you have lens inserts, you no longer need to spin the dial to try to find an acceptable level.
The optional Xreal Eye accessory provides the 6DoF functionality with the camera module easily fitting above the nose pads. The Eye can be used to capture photos and videos, but I haven't yet figured out a practical use case for this capability.
The Eye can also be used to capture AR photos and videos when you connect the Xreal One Pro to an Xreal Beam Pro device. Xreal also stated that it will continue to work on functions for the Eye, to include gesture support.
ZDNET's buying advice
The Xreal One Pro has three sizes of nose pads, and I wore them for eight hours one day with zero discomfort. The 87-gram weight and three-point adjustable temple angles also help ensure a perfect fit for all users.
If you are looking for the best XR glasses available and want to enjoy an extreme level of productivity and media enjoyment on the go, then you can't beat the Xreal One Pro.
How it compares
Xreal One Pro | Xreal One | |
Display | Sony 0.55" Micro-OLED | Sony 0.68" Micro-OLED |
FOV | 57 degrees | 50 degrees |
Chipset | Xreal X1 Chip | Xreal X1 Chip |
6DOF | 6 DoF support with eye tracker | n/a |
Optical design | Optic Engine 4.0 | Optic Engine 3.0 |
Brightness | 700 nits | 600 nits |
Price | $649 | $499 |
Update log:
- September 25, 2025: After several months of testing, this review was updated and thoroughly fact-checked to reflect its market positioning. The Xreal glasses have also received a notable discount at various retailers.
