Ben Lovejoy

Electricity regulators are concerned that the huge growth in AI usage could lead to power blackouts in the US and Canada as early as next year. The prediction was published shortly after the public release of iOS 18.2 brought many more Apple Intelligence features online.

Artificial intelligence services like ChatGPT and Apple’s own Private Cloud Compute servers will see data center power usage double in the course of just four years, and power grids will likely struggle to keep up with this demand …

The most popular home internet router brand in the US may be banned from sale in the country over fears that it represents a threat to national security.

Three separate US agencies have opened investigations into TP-Link routers, which account for 65% of the US market, in part because badged versions are supplied to customers by more than 300 ISPs …

Two leakers, each with enough of a track record to give them some credibility, are clashing over the iPhone 17 camera layout.

The first says that the iPhone 17 Pro will adopt a horizontal layout in a module with a similar shape to the Dynamic Island, while the other says that the design of the camera module is indeed changing but the triangular arrangement remains …

Bloomberg this weekend reported that Apple has made prototypes of a foldable iPad, and plans to release it in 2028. The device is said to open out into a screen with a size approaching 20 inches.

The report is intriguing, because it describes a product that might seem almost as niche as Vision Pro, but it may be that Apple will launch it for similar reasons …

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has for the first time revealed the daily number of Threads users, stating that there are now more than 100 million daily active users. It’s also been suggested that the current trajectory means that the app could catch up with the social network formerly known as Twitter.

Zuckerberg is likely aiming to fight back against the growing popularity of Bluesky, also citing a new milestone in monthly active users …

The TikTok ban is once again in doubt, despite an appeals court rejecting the company’s argument that it was protected by the First Amendment.

Parent company ByteDance has applied to the US Supreme Court for an emergency injunction against the law requiring it to sell TikTok to a US company or be banned …

Amnesty International says a security vulnerability in HomeKit was used to target iPhones belonging to Serbian journalists and activists.

The civil rights organization conducted an investigation after Apple notified two of the victims that their devices had been compromised by Pegasus spyware …

A new survey suggests that Apple Intelligence matters to iPhone buyers, but the majority say that the initial features add little to no value. It remains to be seen whether Genmoji and ChatGPT integration will change that view.

Things are even worse for Samsung smartphones, with an even greater majority of owners saying they can’t see much point in the AI features offered …

Deep fakes are arguably the most dangerous aspect of AI. It’s now relatively trivial to create fake photos, audio, and even video. See below for deep fakes of Morgan Freeman and Tom Cruise, for example.

But while social media has so far been used as a mechanism for distributing deep fakes, Instagram head Adam Mosseri thinks it can actually play a key role in debunking them …

Apple Intelligence managed to create a piece of Luigi Mangione fake news last week, thanks to the notification summary feature. It somehow decided that the suspect in the killing of United Health CEO Brian Thompson had shot himself.

The mistake, in itself, is not surprising: AI systems make this kind of error all the time. What is rather more surprising is that Apple allowed it to happen when it could have been easily avoided …

Plenty of people have tried to replace Twitter/X, but only a few new social media apps have achieved any traction, notably Threads and Bluesky.

But a new app created by Twitter co-founder Ev Williams isn’t trying to replace those, but instead do one of the things I most value about social media, and absolutely nothing else …

Continuity is one of the biggest strengths of the Apple ecosystem, and iPhone Mirroring is a great addition to that – letting us not only mirror our iPhone to our Mac desktop, but also take full control of it.

I’m a huge fan of the feature, and use it every single day, but it does have a few weaknesses that I’d love to see Apple address …

The iPhone 17 Air has reportedly entered the new product introduction (NPI) phase – the first step toward manufacture of the ultra-thin model.

Apple is believed to have prioritized a sleek design above feature set for the upcoming model, which may well be the most expensive one in the iPhone 17 line-up …

If you’ve ever wondered whether security cameras and alarms are effective at deterring burglars, the answer is yes – and that comes from a very reliable source: burglars.

KGW-TV asked 86 inmates convicted of burglary what would make them more likely to rob a home, and which things would deter them …

Sentiment analysis on social media suggests that certain emoji and internet acronyms are now falling out of favor, either being used less frequently, or attracting negative comments.

Top of the list is the enraged pouting face, aka 😡, while RIP is the most disliked acronym …

Apple last month announced a new Share Item Location feature for helping to track AirTags and Apple devices, and said at the time that it would be partnering with more than 15 airlines. Those airlines would accept links from passengers tracking mislaid baggage.

United Airlines has now shown how it will integrate the feature into its mobile app, enabling customers to easily add the links …

Long before the iPhone 16 launch, there were suggestions that it would have a side-by-side camera layout to better support spatial video across all three lenses. That of course didn’t happen, but a leaker with a decent track record now suggests this layout will be introduced with the iPhone 17 Pro.

Google’s Pixel 9 Pro has already adopted this horizontal camera bar format, and the leaker suggests that “many” Android smartphones will follow suit …

There’s currently very little reason to buy a Mac Pro over a Mac Studio configured with the M2 Ultra chip. That’s because Apple reportedly canceled plans for an M2 Extreme chip for the top-of-the-line Mac.

A new report suggests that history may be about to repeat itself, and that a planned Extreme chip for a future Mac Pro model may also now be in doubt. In the worst case, that could be no true new Mac Pro for years to come …

Every now and then a developer creates an app that lets you turn your iPhone display into a classic iPod. They never last long before Apple pulls them from the App Store, but there’s a new one you can grab before Tim spoils the fun.

To skirt Apple’s rules, developers have to employ various tricks to disguise the functionality, and this latest example is no exception …