Ben Lovejoy

Tap to Pay on iPhone is the ultimate in convenience for small businesses looking to accept contactless payment from both mobile wallets and physical cards, and from today it’s available in nine more countries.

It allows retailers to accept contactless payment using only their iPhone, with no separate mobile terminal or card reader required …

Apple handles AI tasks on-device wherever possible, but where more power is needed it can call on Apple Intelligence servers, aka Private Cloud Compute (PCC).

If you want to see exactly what data has been sent to PCC, you can call up privacy reports on iPhone, iPad, and Mac – but so far everyone at 9to5Mac who’s checked has found theirs empty …

The Audi A6 Avant E-Tron is the first of the company’s cars to support Car Key – and a shared platform means we can also be confident it’s coming soon to some Porsche EVs.

Audi hasn’t yet formally announced Car Key support for its latest station wagon, but it was discovered in the Audi app during a review of the car …

The Siri crisis is showing no sign of ending, with a blistering attack by a high-profile commenter, and even senior Apple execs admitting that the delayed features are embarrassing.

At this point, there isn’t anything Apple can do to completely recover from the embarrassment, but a report on an internal Siri team meeting did seem to indicate a potential way to at least mitigate the damage …

A secret court hearing on iCloud encryption began on Friday, amid calls in both the UK and US to make the proceedings public.

The British government is demanding that Apple create backdoor access, not just for the personal data of British citizens, but for all iCloud users worldwide …

I thought I had this figured out. I was making a hard-headed decision to buy a refurbed M1 MacBook Air with 16GB RAM for half the price of a new M4 one, for reasons I’ll explain in a moment.

But, ironically, it’s because the M1 version is so good that I think I’m at risk of selling it again and buying the shiny new M4 model …

A new WhatsApp message threads feature appears to be on the way, after it was discovered in an app beta.

It follows a flurry of new features launched last month, comprising colorful chat themes, linked social media accounts, and ChatGPT support extending to images and voice messages …

The UK competition watchdog has effectively told Apple that it must allow free and open competition between iPhone web browsers, but at the same time Safari cannot be better than its competitors.

Update: The final report is now out, with no change to the CMA’s stance.

Apple has responded by stating that making new features available within WebKit “would lead to free-riding” by developers creating competing browsers …

John Gruber is one of the more high-profile Apple commenters, and generally takes a pretty upbeat view of the company, so it was a big surprise to see him launch a blistering attack on the iPhone maker.

Referring to Apple advertising Siri features which don’t yet exist, he argues that the company is “in disarray if not crisis,” is making “bullshit” claims, and has “squandered” its reputation with “a fiasco” …

The upcoming iPhone 17 Air is expected to be all about sleekness – getting the thinnest iPhone ever, though at the expense of specifications.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo surprised everyone earlier this year when he suggested that the device may be even thinner than expected, and his view has now been echoed by another leaker …

One of the most attention-grabbing aspects of the new M4 MacBook Air was the announcement of a new color: sky blue. While I’m of the view that gadgets should be silver or black, plenty of people clearly welcome the idea of more colorful MacBook Air models.

Only, reviewers all seem to agree that the new blue color isn’t very, well, either blue or colorful. So is it time for Apple to offer some truly colorful MacBook Air finishes … ?

There have been a couple of previous reports suggesting that at least one iPhone 17 model will run cooler, thanks to a hi-tech liquid cooling system known as a vapor chamber. This has today been backed by a third one – though it’s uncertain which models will get the new feature.

While Apple chips have grown progressively more powerful each year, they can run hot when performing demanding tasks like running graphic-intensive games, forcing the device to reduce power …

If you haven’t already ordered an M4 MacBook Air, you can still buy one today for immediate pickup, as orders go live for the new Macs and iPads.

The new sky blue base model seemed likely to be in high demand, but quick checks on countries in timezones where stores are open shows immediate availability …

The first M4 MacBook Air reviews are out, and the consensus view appears to be that while it may not be an exciting update, it’s a lot of tech for the money – and is the Mac most people should buy.

The other thing reviewers agree on is that the new blue color is a whole new level of subtle, so don’t expect too much of a change in look from the silver …

A Bloomberg report yesterday suggested that iOS 19 could be getting a completely new look, in the biggest change since iOS 7 back in 2013. A similarly dramatic change is expected for macOS 16.

While the report is light on detail, the few clues it provide does make it sound like the upcoming software updates could almost a complete reversal of the flat look we’ve had for more than a decade …

President Trump last month attacked the bipartisan CHIPS Act, seeking to dismantle it, and a new reports says that the White House now appears to have started work on doing so.

A chipmaker’s industry association – whose members include TSMC – held a call in which they expressed concerns about the impact on their plans for new US plants …

If there’s one piece of advice that bears repeating about AI chatbots it’s “Don’t use them to seek factual information – they absolutely cannot be trusted to be right.”

A new study demonstrated the extent of the problem – but did show that Apple made a good choice in partnering with OpenAI’s ChatGPT for queries Siri can’t answer …

By this point, we’re seeing a very consistent story emerging in terms of the iPhone 17 design for each of the four models – and a new video with 3D-printed mockups helps bring those designs to life.

The designs are based on CAD drawings first shared by Majin Bu and since endorsed by two other Apple leakers …

The long wait for a smarter Siri is to get even longer, with some indications that the new features we were originally expecting in iOS 18.4 may now be pushed back to iOS 19.

Apple hasn’t provided any real explanation, but two theories have so far been put forward, and now a developer and data analyst has suggested that security concerns may be a third reason – and by far the biggest problem …