Ben Lovejoy

Apple almost always gets the better part of any negotiation with its suppliers, but a sketchy report claims that this wasn’t the case when it came to buying RAM from Samsung.

The report says Samsung had asked for a 100% increase in price, expecting to negotiate down to 60%, but Apple’s desperation was such that it agreed to the first demand …

Apple Pay has reportedly grown to become the second largest payment processing service in the world after Visa, handling 9.5 trillion transactions for more than 800 million customers.

Those numbers now look set for a significant boost as Apple prepares for its biggest ever expansion of its mobile wallet service …

The latest beta of iOS 26.4 has an extra step for iPhone owners based in the UK. Once installed, the Settings app will prompt you to confirm that you are 18+.

If Apple isn’t sure how old you are, you may need to scan a credit card or photo ID to confirm that you’re an adult. In my case, it was completely automatic and took less than 30 seconds …

We know from Steve Jobs that Apple’s experiments with touchscreen Macs date back to at least 2008. At the time he said it was a “terrible” idea.

A lot has changed since then, and reports that we are finally going to see a touchscreen Mac have grown in credibility to the point where it now seems more likely than not. I’ve so far been a little concerned about the idea, but the latest report gives me confidence …

A password manager used to be one of the most important third-party apps anyone could have. It was the thing that made it practical to have strong, unique passwords for every app, website and online service we used.

Once Apple Passwords launched, however, the writing was on the wall for paid apps and subscriptions. The price hike just announced by 1Password looks set to persuade many more people to make the switch – and it’s very easy to do …

Jason Snell’s annual Apple report card is out, rating the company’s performance according to 56 influential commenters, including 9to5Mac’s editor-in-chief Chance Miller.

The results show a dramatic difference in perception of Apple’s hardware and software across the board, but most notably with regard to the Mac …

After mostly very muted iPhone Pro colors in the past, Apple struck out in a bold new direction with Cosmic Orange for the current model. That decision was credited with helping the company hit record iPhone sales last year.

We’re expecting to see the upcoming low-cost MacBook offered in several bright colors, and there’s also talk of a deep red option for the iPhone 18 Pro, so this seems a good time to talk about colors …

Both Reddit and Discord have got themselves into trouble over age verification – Reddit for failing to properly check ages, and Discord for using a controversial third-party service.

Reddit has been fined £14.5 ($19.5M) million for the unlawful use of children’s personal information, while Discord has experienced a user backlash …

Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly told officials that he slept “with one eye open” after he attended a classified CIA briefing on Taiwan, home to the company’s chipmaker TSMC.

US intelligence agencies have been worried for years that China may plan to invade the island, and the briefing warned that this could happen as early as next year …

Apple yesterday announced plans to start manufacturing the Mac mini in the US and has now shared more details of the initiative, alongside photos and video footage.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company is also accelerating production of AI servers made in the Houston plant where the Mac mini models will be assembled …

The iPhone 18 Pro has reached the test production stage ahead of its launch in September, according to a leaker with a decent track record.

The report is sufficiently vague that it’s not clear whether or not it clashes with an earlier one from Bloomberg …

Once the new low-cost MacBook launches this week, those wanting to buy a portable Mac will have a choice of three ranges: the MacBook, the MacBook Air, and the MacBook Pro.

For those with very undemanding or demanding needs, the choice may be very obvious – the low-cost MacBook on the one hand, or a MacBook Pro on the other. But what about those who sit somewhere in the middle … ?

The US Supreme Court has declared on Friday that most of the import tariffs imposed by the Trump administration last year were illegal. Trump’s response to this now leaves Apple in a worse position than it was in before.

While lobbying by Apple had resulted in almost all of its products being excluded from the previous tariffs, Trump has announced new ones which will include them again. Update: Apple responded – see end of piece.

Despite having a 2TB iCloud account, I also have an identically sized Dropbox one, and the latter is my primary cloud service for working files.

The reason for favoring Dropbox over iCloud is the speed of synchronization. Dropbox almost always syncs near instantaneously while iCloud is much less reliable …

A new report suggests that a Meta smartwatch will launch at some point this year, but it likely won’t compete with the Apple Watch.

Based on previous comments by the company, it may serve as more of an accessory to a future Meta smart glasses product …

When Amazon announced a wider rollout of a surveillance feature to help Ring smart doorbells locate lost dogs, it was immediately seen as a precursor to using the feature to identify people.

That the company did in fact plan to do this has now been confirmed by a leaked email which Ring has admitted is genuine …

Apple commenter John Gruber is spitballing again. After suggesting that the special event on March 4 may be preceded by a series of new product announcements through press releases, he now has another idea.

Based on a reader drawing his attention to the timing, he suggests that another announcement could be immersive F1 viewing on Vision Pro …

An unsecured database that likely contains tens of millions of unique Social Security numbers, alongside email addresses and passwords, has been discovered by security researchers.

While the database appears to have been collated from a number of separate data breaches over approximately a decade, the researchers explain why even very old personal data remains a live threat …

Badged versions of TP-Link routers are supplied to US customers by more than 300 ISPs, making them the most widely used Wi-Fi routers in the country, found in millions of US homes.

It therefore caused grave concern when security researchers at Microsoft found that a hacking group based in China was using vulnerabilities in the devices to carry out cyber attacks in the US. It had been widely expected that the routers would be banned from sale in the US, but politics seemingly intervened. However, the battle is not yet over …

Apple’s low-cost MacBook has been a long time coming, but it now seems clear that we can expect it to be launched in the first week of March.

Apple has a special event taking place on March 4, but a subsequent report says that this will not include a keynote presentation. Instead, it says we can expect a series of press releases along the lines of the ones we saw back in 2024 …