Ben Lovejoy

Apple’s Tap to Pay service is rolling out to Australia, following last month’s expansion into Taiwan. The service allows small business to accept contactless payments without the need for a payment terminal.

Westpac and Tyro Payments are supporting Tap to Pay from today, while four more payment platforms will offer the facility “in the coming months” …

We’ve been waiting for 1Password passkey support since last November, when the company first announced plans to include it. We learned a little more in an exclusive interview with the company’s CEO earlier this month, and we now know exactly when it will launch.

The company has revealed that passkeys will go live within 1Password on June 6. Unlocking 1Password itself with a Passkey will possible the following month. Video demos (below) show how the security feature will work …

As part of a flurry of new accessibility improvements announced by Apple today, the company says that Made for iPhone hearing aids can pair directly with Macs for the first time. Previously, pairing was only available with an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.

Compatible products already support pairing with more than one Apple device, so this move should make it much easier for people who use both Macs and iOS devices …

Warren Buffett’s conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway has now sold all its TSMC shares in what has been described as an “abrupt” move.

Buffett said that while he remained a great admirer of the company, tensions between China and Taiwan were too great to make it a safe investment – highlighting concerns about Apple’s total dependence on the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company for all of its processors …

We learned last week that Apple continued to build market share in a declining smartphone market in the US, and a new market intelligence report suggests the iPhone maker has repeated this trick in Southeast Asia.

Apple was the only major brand to grow shipments during the first quarter of the year, across five countries …

A report on Friday suggested that initial Apple Reality Pro availability is likely to be very limited, as the Cupertino company is “anticipating some production issues” with its upcoming AR/VR headset.

A new Ming-Chi Kuo report provides a likely partial explanation for this: Apple is reportedly dependent on just one supplier for most of the key components …

The Indian government has today announced that Foxconn has broken ground on $500M worth of new iPhone plants in Telangana, in the south of the country, as Apple continues its efforts to move more production out of China.

At least one of the plants is also expected to manufacture AirPods, after Apple offered Foxconn a new contract for these back in March …

A patent application for Apple wearable tags has been revealed, after the company originally took steps to disguise its identity.

Apple describes how tags could be worn on the body, or attached to clothing, to perform a wide range of health and sports functions …

The number of Apple service outages lately seems to have risen to the point where they’ve become almost routine.

This isn’t great for any tech giant, but when the ecosystem is such a huge part of the appeal of Apple products, it becomes a far bigger deal …

Back in 2019, Apple introduced a new feature to iPhones, as part of iOS 13: Optimized Battery Charging. This is intended to protect iPhone batteries from unnecessary charge levels, in order to prolong their life.

The same feature subsequently came to AirPods, Apple Watch, and the Mac. But one Apple product doesn’t yet have it, and that’s the Apple Pencil …

The Apple Gangnam store in Samsung’s home city opened just over a month ago, and a new report says that the Korean company has ambitious plans to fight back.

It is said to be planning to open Samsung Gangnam, a store spanning six floors, as part of an effort “to counter Apple’s expansion strategy in the country” …

Yesterday saw @analyst941 delete his Twitter account, claiming that he had been forced to do so after Apple carried out a “multi-step sting” operation. Whether this is true, or just a face-saving story for getting things wrong, it is broadly consistent with what we know about how Apple catches leakers.

Apple has so many methods of identifying leakers – some of them incredibly subtle – that we and others have to be extremely careful in order to protect our sources …

Another day, another Apple antitrust probe. Just yesterday we learned that the European Union was ramping up its investigation into Apple Pay, and today Italy’s competition watchdog has announced an investigation into the company’s App Store privacy policies.

This latest investigation may be new, but its topic is not: Italy is the third country to question the legality of Apple setting tougher privacy requirements for third-party apps than it does for its own apps …

Twitter encrypted DMs have officially launched – but only between paid users, and the security feature doesn’t yet live up to Musk’s promise to use end-to-end (E2E) encryption for full privacy.

The company acknowledges this in a support document, and even Musk himself says you shouldn’t trust it …

Update: After being out of stock for seven months due to the company being unable to keep up with demand, Nomad says the bands are now available once more.

The Nomad Titanium Band got a refresh, with a much neater magnet-assisted snap closure mechanism, a more streamlined design, and a coating designed to improve durability …

Children’s use of social media may have both positive and negative impacts, but parents and other caregivers should ensure they remain watchful, says a new health advisory.

The American Psychological Association (APA) has made 10 recommendations to reduce the risks of harm, several of them being to better educate children about the issues they may encounter …