SIM swaps are one of the biggest security threats we face, allowing criminals to access most services protected by two-factor authentication. The situation could be about to get even worse, as we learn of an apparent large-scale attempt to bribe T-Mobile and Verizon workers to facilitate the swaps.

While new rules and security features are supposed to make these attacks harder to pull off, now would be an excellent time to ensure your accounts are protected by authenticator apps rather than text messages …

Tim Cook made a diplomatic comment about the possibility of Apple manufacturing in Indonesia, after the country’s president pressed him on the issue. The country is an important market for Apple, as the world’s 4th most populous country after China, India, and the US.

Indonesia is one of a growing number of countries to use the threat of import tariffs as a way to encourage foreign companies to invest in the local economy, and Apple has so far used an indirect method to escape these …

WhatsApp chat filters are the latest feature to be added to the popular messaging app, a few weeks after allowing users to pin multiple chats. You can now separate out only chats with unread messages, as well as separate group chats from individual ones …

We’ve today received an update on Apple’s 2030 environmental goals, one of which is for the company’s entire supply-chain to be carbon neutral by that date.

The company says more than 320 suppliers – representing 95% of the company’s “direct” manufacturing spend – have made the transition to clean energy …

Phil Schiller has told a court in an antitrust case that he doesn’t know for sure whether the App Store is profitable, and never considered the return on investment when launching it.

He’s also explained the reason that there are very few written records of decisions made around the launch of the store is because Apple co-founder Steve Jobs felt that meeting notes were unnecessary – and the company still doesn’t record minutes for meetings between senior execs …

Canada is introducing a new digital services tax starting this year, which will see foreign tech giants like Apple and Google receive tax demands for income earned in Canada but not currently taxed there.

This follows the example of several European countries, including France, Italy, and the UK – and is designed to address tax avoidance …

Apple trade-ins aren’t known for their generosity, but they do make for a very painless experience when upgrading to new devices – and the company will accept any older electronic devices for recycling if they have too little value for trade-in.

The company is currently linking to its trade-in and recycling page from the Apple homepage, in the run-up to this year’s Earth Day on April 22 …

While shooting professional-standard video is possible with an iPhone, it generally requires the use of accessories like lighting and external microphones. The new Rode MagSafe mount is designed to let you do this at an affordable price.

If your video accessory needs are more demanding, there’s also a MagSafe Phone Cage with five cold shoe mounts, as well as plenty of 1/4-inch and 3/8-inch threads for use with tripods, handles and other accessories …

Apple’s ad transparency tools aren’t sufficient to investigate issues like paid influence, says a new report, which also scored the effectiveness of 11 other tech companies’ tools.

Five companies – including social network X and Microsoft’s Bing search engine – scored close to zero, while Apple got a yellow rating indicating “big gaps” in the information provided …

The rollout of the Apple Developer Academy continues, with the company announcing the latest one in Bali, Indonesia. However, you don’t have to be based in the country to participate – it welcomes applications from anyone in the world.

The academy program has now been operating for more than a decade, and Apple says that 90% of graduates go on to “find meaningful employment” …

Update: MacObserver has now issued a retraction.

Here we go again. LeaksApplePro is back, this time with a claim that iPhone 16 Pro storage tiers could start at 256GB, up from the 128GB starting point of last year’s model.

As we’ve noted before, the supposed source is an account with a history of just making stuff up, and we’re mentioning it at all simply because coverage elsewhere means readers might be misled into giving it credence …

Global iPhone market share dropped 9.6% year-on-year in the first quarter of the year, enabling Samsung to retake the smartphone lead despite failing to increase its own shipments.

Apple saw the biggest slump of any brand, at a time when the global smartphone market as a whole continues to grow …

Apple CEO Tim Cook is in Vietnam, and said today that the company is “committed to continuing to strengthen connections” in the country as it seeks to reduce dependence on China.

In addition to investing more in the Vietnamese supply chain, Apple is also supporting a scheme intended to bring clean water to more than 42,000 children by the end of this month …

BlackMagic has long offered powerful hardware add-ons for video editors, but the four-figure pricing has been a barrier to many, with even the Micro Panel coming in at $895.

The latest DaVinci Resolve Micro Color Panel comes close to halving the cost, but also adds an iPad Pro slot and internal battery for portable editing …

The iPhone 16 Pro camera could see a small-sounding improvement which could turn out to fix what I see as one of the biggest problems with current and recent models: internal reflections.

While iPhone cameras have gotten better with each generation, and are now good enough that many of us use them as our primary camera, there is one issue which can significantly degrade images when shooting into the light …

While the Supreme Court denied appeal requests from both Apple and Epic Games in the App Store case, that didn’t put an end to legal wrangling between the two companies.

In January, Epic Games headed back to court to accuse Apple of failing to comply with the original antitrust ruling, and now the Cupertino company has asked a judge to dismiss the complaint …

DownDetector shows Microsoft 365 down for some, with issues first showing up in the early hours eastern time, with reports running around ten times higher than normal …

People have been complaining about Siri for years now, arguing that it’s fallen behind the likes of Alexa and Google Assistant. With clear evidence that 2024 is going to see dramatic improvements in Apple’s AI features, will iOS 18 Siri finally turn things around?

I’m very much hoping the answer is yes, and think there are three clues which provide some reason for optimism …

A UK court has ruled that a near billion dollar developer lawsuit against Apple will be allowed to proceed, after the iPhone maker attempted to get it dismissed.

The £785M ($979M) antitrust lawsuit was filed on behalf of more than 1,500 British developers, and alleges that Apple’s monopolistic control of the market for iPhone apps allowed the company to charge ‘abusive’ levels of commission on app sales …

Taylor Swift songs have returned to TikTok, after a ten-week gap resulting from a dispute between the short video app and Universal Music. That dispute hasn’t ended, but it appears that Swift has reached an individual agreement with TikTok.

Separately, TikTok has announced plans to use AI to create virtual influencers who will compete with real ones for brand deals …

It’s not uncommon for younger music fans to create their own song mixes for social media posts, especially on TikTok. The problem is that artists don’t get paid for these unofficial mixes, and that’s something an upcoming Spotify song remixing feature aims to (kinda) change …

DuckDuckGo started life as a privacy-first search engine before adding a web browser, email protection and more, and the company has now announced its first ever paid subscription: DuckDuckGo PrivacyPro.

This bundles an open-source VPN service with personal information removal and identify theft restoration for $9.99 per month …

Instagram is rolling out a new safety feature, designed to protect teens from being exposed to unwanted nude photos in Instagram direct messages. The system will blur nude photos in Instagram DMs when the recipient is believed to be a teenager.

The safety measure is designed to protect against three problems, including the growing problem of ‘sextortion’ on the platform …

The judge due to hear the Apple antitrust case brought by the US Department of Justice has recused himself, meaning that he will no longer preside over the case.

Judge Michael E. Farbiarz yesterday filed paperwork stating that his recusal is “necessary” under Code of Conduct rules …

One of Vision Pro’s most exciting capabilities, to me personally, is the ability to display multiple Mac monitors in virtual form. Viture One XR glasses have now gained that same capability.

When I first tested the glasses, I noted that while they could act as a Mac monitor, they were limited to a single monitor – this this has now changed …

Dramatically rising streaming prices have lead to an increase in video piracy, and major Hollywood studios are now asking Congress to pass a new law to address it.

The exact same law, in fact, that it tried and failed to get passed in 2012, after major websites went dark in protest …

Apple chipmaker TSMC appears to be on track with its work on a 2nm chip destined for the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max in 2025 – as well as for the 1.4nm chips beyond that.

A new supply-chain report said TSMC has faced two challenges, but indications are that neither of them will significantly impact on its production schedule …

One of the changes Apple had to make to comply with the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) was to present customers with a list of iPhone web browsers during setup, and to choose the one they want. Browsers must be listed in random order, so that Safari isn’t highlighted.

We’d previously seen some indication that the new antitrust law was proving effective, and a new report today says this is true for six leading browser companies …

Internet service providers (ISPs) now have to display broadband ‘nutrition’ labels, being upfront about the true costs, speeds, and data allowances offered,

The rule was introduced in response to growing consumer complaints about hidden fees, data caps, and other misleading marketing of broadband packages – and takes effect today. You can see below full details of the information which must be provided …

A new report says that one in seven iPhones are now made in India – pointing to a significant acceleration in Apple’s work to reduce its dependence on China.

Apple’s reliance on China as its key manufacturing hub has been placing the company in an increasingly vulnerable position …

An Apple research paper describes how the company has been developing Ferret-UI, a generative AI system specifically designed to be able to make sense of app screens.

The paper is somewhat vague about the potential applications of this – likely deliberately so – but the most exciting possibility would be to power a much more advanced Siri …

Subscription creep – the term given to increases in subscription fees after someone has signed up – hit a full two-thirds of US consumers in the past year.

Some of the increases were steep ones, and others imposed with little notice …

We first heard last year that former Apple design chief Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman were working on some kind of AI hardware project. It was later reported that Tang Tan, Apple’s chief iPhone and Apple Watch designer, was also joining the project.

A report now suggests that the pair are now seeking a billion dollars in funding, and are in talks with Steve Jobs’ widow, founder and president of the Emerson Collective, Laurene Powell Jobs …

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has suggested that Apple is considering launch an Apple TV with a built-in FaceTime camera.

But does that idea actually make sense, compared to plugging in a separate camera, or using your iPhone as a camera … ?

The need for a federal privacy law has long been clear to most, but making it actually happen has been another matter. However, a compromise could potentially see it introduced by the end of the year.

Apple has been calling for Congress to pass a GDPR-style privacy law since at least 2018, but little progress has been made since then. All that may be about to change, however …

Spotify’s AI DJ feature launched more than a year ago now, but users had little control over it. A new AI Playlist feature changes that for beta uses, as you can now create playlists from ChatGPT-style text prompts.

Spotify recommends specifying a combination of genres, moods, artists, and decades – but you can also try off-the-wall things like “beats to battle a zombie apocalypse” …

Apple chipmaker TSMC has announced plans to open a third Arizona chip plant, in addition to the two already under construction. This will be the most advanced of the three plants, making 2nm chips.

The expansion plan appears to have been part of a deal for the company to receive a total of $11.6B in US grants and loans …

The European Union is investigating Apple’s response to a Spotify complaint, to determine whether the anti-steering changes made by the Cupertino company are sufficient to comply.

Update: GamesFray had suggested that this amounted to a fourth DMA non-compliance investigation into Apple, but it’s now my understanding that they have misinterpreted remarks made by a regulatory risk company …

A classified TikTok national security briefing given to senators may have been in part based on claims made by a fired member of staff who is now making further … interesting claims.

The former staffer says that his firing was instigated by the US attorney general, and that the FBI and CIA shared his personal information with foreign governments …

Apple has recently started in-store testing of a Presto system, which can provide software updates to iPhone stock in Apple Stores without even opening the boxes.

We now have more details about how Presto works, and it’s even more sophisticated than it first appeared …

Apple chip production is largely back on track following the major earthquake in Taiwan, thanks in part due to “world-class seismic mitigation measures” in TSMC’s plants.

Some plants were temporarily evacuated to ensure the safety of employees, and there was some damage – the worst of which appears to have been to the company’s most advanced plant, using the 2nm process expected to be used for the iPhone 17 Pro chips …

With Apple now having dragged its decade-long car project to the trash can, the company is reportedly now working on another skunk-works project: an Apple Robot.

Both self-driving cars and home robots have a lot in common. They have long been a science-fiction dream, and nobody has come anywhere close to realizing that dream. But a truly useful and capable domestic robot is an even bigger challenge than an autonomous car …

Ah, the saga of X’s blue checkmarks! Originally a sign that someone was who they claimed to be, and later sold so that cryptocurrency scammers could see their posts boosted, the company is now coming full circle with some journalists.

Update: After a number of journalist accounts got unwanted blue checkmarks, Twitter has now made it impossible to hide it – see update at end …

A Right to Disconnect law introduced by a Californian lawmaker aims to end the tyranny of employers who expect their staff to respond 24/7 to emails, Slack alerts, text messages, and other out-of-hours notifications.

It mirrors similar laws already passed in several European countries …

The biggest earthquake to hit Taiwan in 25 years has killed at least four people, with TSMC plants evacuated as a safety precaution.

Apple’s chipmaker is still assessing the impact on production; even the slightest vibration can result in entire batches of chips being destroyed …

We’ve already seen at least two examples of a Vision Pro headset assisting with surgery, and another first has now been notched up in Florida.

Vision Pro was used to provide “touch-free access to the surgical setup, inventory, and procedural guides from within the sterile field of the operating room” during a shoulder replacement – specifically, a reverse one …

Installing a third-party app store is now possible for iPhone owners in the EU – but it’s not exactly a quick-and-easy process.

It seems a safe bet that this is a deliberate move on Apple’s part to deter people from doing it – something which is likely to land the company in court on antitrust charges …

A remark by EU competition head Margrethe Vestager has suggested that Apple may be required to let iPhone owners delete the Photos app.

While this possibility hasn’t previously been raised, Vestager mentioned in a brief speech that this was one of the things Apple had failed to do in its DMA response – and it would obviously involve a massive change to the way iOS works …

A potential new Apple Watch emergency SOS feature described in a new patent application could help save some swimmers from drowning.

The patent describes how the Watch could detect “irregular behaviour” and automatically transmit a call for help …

Jon Stewart interviewed Federal Trade Commission (FTC) head Lina Khan yesterday, saying that he’d wanted to do it while his show was hosted on Apple TV+, but the company wouldn’t allow it.

The revelation comes after one of the (many and varied!) complaints in the DOJ’s antitrust lawsuit was that Apple was controlling content and impacting on free speech …