Ben Lovejoy

Apple’s long-running antitrust battle with the European Union over the sale of iPhone apps appears to finally be over.

The EU has said that it welcomes the new app commission rates the company is offering within the bloc. The revised terms will see developers pay a commission or fee ranging from 5% to 26%, depending on their turnover and chosen sale channels …

ClarityCheck, a facial-identification tool for which it’s hard to think of many legitimate uses, reportedly left millions of face photos publicly exposed on the internet in a major privacy breach.

It’s likely that the vast majority of victims had no idea their photos had been uploaded to the site, and had never granted consent …

Suspicious bulk orders of used books have led many booksellers to believe they are being purchased on behalf of AI companies so that they can be scanned and used as training material without author consent or payment.

An AirTag hidden inside a rare book sold as part of a bulk order appears to confirm the theory after it ended up at an Amazon AI training facility …

The latest macOS 26.7 beta appears to have revealed quite a lot about a number of upcoming Apple home products. It includes references to a new HomePod mini, a security camera, a next-generation Siri remote for a new Apple TV 4K – and the long-anticipated HomePad product.

A deeper dive into the code also appears to provide significant clues about what we can expect from the HomePad …

One of the hidden expenses in upgrading to a new iPhone can often be the need to replace your case when the dimensions differ.

That so far seemed a likely bet for anyone upgrading from one of last year’s Pro models to the iPhone 18 Pro, but two accessory makers think not – with one of them going all-in on the bet …

It was reported yesterday that Apple has agreed to comply with “fairer” App Tracking Transparency rules in the EU, following an investigation by the German antitrust regulator.

Apple said it was complying voluntarily, and we understand it will be making a total of eight changes in order to do so …

Collectors have proven avid fans of Steve Jobs memorabilia over the years, and a new piece seems likely to attract significant interest. It’s an 8th-grade science fair project with two demonstration circuits – and a warning note from Steve to his teachers.

It’s remained at the Jobs family property in Los Altos ever since, but is now one of more than 200 items in an Apple 50th anniversary auction …

Apple has been fighting hard to ensure that it is still able to take a commission from app sales made through third-party stores. Its aggression in doing this landed it in hot water with the judge in the long-running Epic Games case.

The company has since submitted a proposal for a more toned down version with lower commissions, but it has admitted in new regulatory filings that it may not make any commission at all from these sales …

Whether or not you need to buy Apple’s largest iPhone Pro in order to get the best camera features has varied by generation. So far, reporting has mostly suggested that there will be no camera differentiation between the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, but a leaker today casts some doubt on this.

Specifically, they say that two new features expect to come to both Pro models “may” now be exclusive to the Pro Max …

App Tracking Transparency (ATT) is an Apple privacy initiative intended to allow iPhone owners greater control over how developers collect and use their data. However, the company was accused of treating its own apps more favourably than third-party ones.

The company has now agreed to apply new rules to how ATT works throughout the EU, following an investigation by the German antitrust regulator. Update: Apple statement added at the end of the piece …

As someone who writes for a living, you would correctly guess that I’m wholeheartedly in favour of allowing AI-generated text to be detectable and marked as such. There’s just a ridiculous amount of AI slop out there, and an “AI content” label means I don’t need to waste my time reading any of it.

However, Anthropic has just announced that it’s complying with an EU initiative to have Claude watermark AI-generated text, but doing so in a particularly perverse manner …

Apple recently released updates to three versions of macOS, stating that they fixed a serious screen sharing vulnerability in macOS Tahoe, Sequoia, and Sonoma.

At the time, there was no indication that the security flaw was being exploited in the wild, but now there is, so if you haven’t yet updated your Mac, you’ll want to do so asap …

An Apple job listing appears to be suggesting that the company might be planning some live Apple Fitness+ sessions. However, my strong suspicion is that all is not quite as it seems.

The job opening is for a studio producer, and Apple is specifically seeking someone with a strong background in live production and “a genuine curiosity about where live content is headed next” …

I fully acknowledge that my DIY iPhone camera mod looks exceedingly silly – but it’s actually made my iPhone photography more practical and more enjoyable.

It was initially something I came up with to solve a problem for one particular video shoot, but I’ve actually found myself using it a surprising number of times …

The very first Samsung Galaxy Fold launched back in 2019 proved so vulnerable to screen damage by dust and dirt ingress that the company cancelled all pre-orders for the device. Eight generations later, we’re today learning that the issue still hasn’t been fixed.

Ensuring that the iPhone Ultra did not share this vulnerability has reportedly been one of the reasons Apple waited so long before launching its own folding phone. We should know how well Apple has succeeded within minutes of next month’s launch …

Jeff Johnson, developer of the popular StopTheMadness Safari extension, has said that “obvious” App Store ratings fraud is going undetected by Apple despite the company’s claims to review listings.

He said that although he doesn’t go proactively looking for App Store fraud, he does encounter it rather frequently, citing the latest example …

The Apple store in the Oracle Shopping Centre in Reading, UK, is being moved to a new location with a completely new design in December.

Ahead of this, Apple Festival Place store in Basingstoke will be closing in November, leaving the company with 38 retail stores in the UK …

As Apple’s lead iPhone assembler, contract manufacturing company Foxconn long made more than half of its revenue from the Cupertino company.

As of the last quarter, however, that proportion fell to below 29%, and the company says the shift is going to be permanent – leaving investors concerned …

This week has seen conflicting reports on whether or not Apple has given up on its plan to launch a radical new iPhone design next year, which I’ll refer to as the iPhone 20 Pro for now.

An Apple analyst claimed that the company had found the task too challenging, while Bloomberg quickly said this isn’t true and that the design is on track to launch in 2027. Today sees new support for the latter view …

iOS 27 Beta 5 includes references to an upcoming new feature to allow Apple to authenticate iPhone photos.

Not many iPhone users will need to use this for reasons we’ll get to in a moment, but the move is just the start …