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Making sense of the conflicting 20th anniversary iPhone reports

11 August 2026 at 14:18

Yesterday saw two conflicting reports about next year’s 20th anniversary iPhone, said to embody Apple’s long-term vision of β€œa single slab of glass.”

There have already been contradictory reports about exactly what we should expect, but yesterday’s disagreement was the biggest yet …

Apple faces class action lawsuit for β€˜fraud’ over iCloud Private Relay flaw

11 August 2026 at 12:46

Security researchers last week revealed a flaw in Apple’s iCloud Private Relay feature. While this is supposed to protect your IP address from the websites you visit, a vulnerability means that it often fails to do so.

Any time there’s a problem with an Apple product or service, a class action lawsuit is sure to follow, and this is no exception …

China now even less likely to solve Apple’s memory crunch

11 August 2026 at 12:01

One of Apple’s proposed solutions – or at least mitigations – for the memory shortage was to buy RAM from two Chinese companies, CXMT and YMTC.

While it was not technically banned from doing so, this would have put it into conflict with the US government, and the idea is now looking even less likely thanks to two developments …

Apple reveals how Siri AI features work in China – raising privacy questions

10 August 2026 at 14:38

Apple has revealed how the new Siri AI features will work for users in China. The new AI features will be powered by Alibaba’s Qwen models.

While the iPhone maker is partnering with Google for access to its Gemini models in most countries, the Chinese government requires Apple to instead partner with a local AI company …

Feature Request: Do this to end the guessing game with iPhone app settings

10 August 2026 at 14:01

One of the most annoying elements of the iPhone user interface is the guessing game we have to play when changing settings for an app.

Some of the time we open the app itself and go to its built-in settings menu. Other times we have to exit the app and open the completely separate Apple Settings app, which is a clunky experience to say the least (though a free shortcut helps) …

The iPhone 18 Pro will cost Apple 38% more in parts – but there’s some good news

10 August 2026 at 12:16

A new TrendForce analysis estimates that Apple will pay 38% more for iPhone 18 Pro components than it did for its predecessor. Unsurprisingly, the biggest hike is in the cost of memory, with Apple said to be paying around three times more this year.

However, the firm’s analysis supports my own view that this year’s increase in price will not be as high as some have suggested …

Apple seems to have abandoned Cinematic mode, and that’s a mistake

7 August 2026 at 17:00

When Apple unveiled the iPhone 13 back in 2021, it made a huge deal over a headline new feature, Cinematic mode. This is the video equivalent of Portrait mode, allowing you to select a focus point and blur the background.

Portrait mode has improved dramatically in successive generations, but the same cannot be said of Cinematic mode. The company appears to have completely lost interest in the feature, and although that’s understandable in one way, I would argue it’s a big mistake …

Old Reddit a threat to AI data scraping, says platform, with changes coming

6 August 2026 at 12:58

When Reddit significantly changed its user interface way back in 2018, there were widespread protests from those who preferred the original. The company has retained access to this at old.reddit.com, and last year promised this version would continue to exist for as long as people kept using it.

That promise may now be under some degree of threat as Reddit says that it β€œplans to make changes” to Old Reddit in order to protect against AI data scraping …

Vision Pro is a niche product, but an incredibly valuable one in the right hands

6 August 2026 at 12:21

Even Apple CEO Tim Cook has acknowledged that Vision Pro is a niche product. I’ve argued in the past that it’s an essential step along the way to a more affordable and consumer-friendly Apple Glasses product.

But it’s also worth noting that sometimes niche products can make a huge difference within specialist fields, and a new surgical study provides a very clear example of why it matters to patients and surgeons alike …

A live iPhone launch seems unlikely, but the event could be live-lier this year

5 August 2026 at 15:01

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman stirred things up a little with what was likely a deliberately teasingly-phrased tweet. Some took this to be a reference to a live iPhone keynote presentation instead of a pre-recorded one.

That seems unlikely, but there are a couple of reasons for suspecting that the live elements may be livelier this year …

As iPhones get more expensive, T-Mobile launches new 3-year plan

5 August 2026 at 12:47

While claims of a $1,399 starting price for the iPhone 18 Pro may be exaggerated, there’s no doubt at all that we are going to see steep price increases for this year’s lineup.

Apple has already prepared the ground for the resulting sticker shock with the new Apple Upgrade program, and now T-Mobile is responding with the launch of a new 3-year payment plan …

Apple lawsuit against OpenAI says iCloud mess didn’t play a role

5 August 2026 at 12:14

One of the theories voiced about how a former Apple employee may have accessed confidential documents after leaving the company to join OpenAI has been dispelled by a court filing.

It has been suggested that access to the documents may have been inadvertent due to a seemingly messy iCloud arrangement for Apple employees – but the company says this is not the case …

First impressions of smart glasses with a display: the Even Realities G2

31 July 2026 at 12:18

Apple’s cautious entrance into the smart glasses field means that we have a reasonably good idea what to expect, and have been able to preview some of the capabilities through existing devices.

Ray-Ban Meta glasses have given me two years’ experience of the kind of capabilities we’re expecting from the first Apple Glasses model, and the Even Realities G2 are currently giving me a preview of what we can expect from a later model: smart glasses with a display …

No surprises expected from today’s AAPL earnings report, but one huge question

30 July 2026 at 14:19

Apple will today announce its earnings for its fiscal Q3 ending in June, with the usual Q&A with analysts following immediately afterwards. It follows the company briefly hitting a $5 trillion market cap before slipping back slightly.

Today will be the final earnings call with Tim Cook as CEO, and analysts aren’t expecting any surprises – but there will be one very big question …

Jony Ive’s first OpenAI hardware device sounds rather like … a HomePad

30 July 2026 at 12:13

Jony Ive and Sam Altman have been teasing an AI hardware device for a long time now, and it’s increasingly looking like that tease was premature. We’re still not expecting to see a launch until some point next year.

OpenAI continues to be exceedingly vague about what form its first hardware device might take, but an interview yesterday seems to point to something rather like a HomePad …

iPhone driver’s license looks set to roll out to a 15th US state

29 July 2026 at 14:52

The ability to add a digital version of your driver’s license to your iPhone looks like it will be rolling out to a 15th US state before too long.

Apple currently lists 14 states where the capability is supported, alongside the territory of Puerto Rico, and backend assets now indicate another one will soon be added …

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