Category Archives: Apple

Fortnite unavailable on iPhones globally after Apple rejects App Store release

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Latest twist in a contest between iPhone maker and Epic Games over payments for hit game on Apple devices

Epic Games says Fortnite is now unavailable on iPhones and iPads globally because Apple blocked a bid to release the popular video game in the App Store in the US and Europe.

“Apple has blocked our Fortnite submission so we cannot release to the US App Store or to the Epic Games Store for iOS in the European Union,” the X account for Fortnite posted early Friday – claiming that Apple’s move would now prevent the game’s iOS availability around the world.

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‘Silicon Six’ accused of avoiding almost $278bn in US corporation taxes over 10 years

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Analysis finds Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, Netflix, Apple and Microsoft averaged 18.8%, compared with 29.7% US average

The big American tech firms known as the “Silicon Six” have been accused of paying almost $278bn (£211bn) less corporate income tax in the past decade compared with the statutory rate for US companies making the same profits.

Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, Netflix, Apple and Microsoft generated $11tn of revenue and $2.5tn of profits over the past 10 years.

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US stock markets expected to recover after Trump drops tariffs on mobiles

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Exemption, seen as a climbdown, includes laptops and chips, and is likely to help firms such as Apple and Nvidia

US stock markets were expected to stage a recovery on Monday after Donald Trump excluded imports of smartphones and laptops from his tariff regime late on Friday night.

Shares in Apple and chip maker Nvidia were on course to soar after tariffs on their products imported into the US were lifted for 90 days.

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Trump administration to exempt smartphones and computers from tariffs

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Announcement says tariffs – including those imposed on China – will also not apply to other electronic devices

Donald Trump’s presidential administration has exempted smartphones and computers from the 125% levies imposed on imports from China as well as other “reciprocal” tariffs, which experts had cautioned might cause electronic consumer prices to spike dramatically in the US.

The announcement was made late on Friday in a US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) notice that said the devices would be excluded from the 10% global tariff that Trump recently imposed on most countries, along with the much heftier import tax on China.

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Apple said to be flying iPhones from India to US to avoid Trump tariffs

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Tech firm has reportedly flown 600 tonnes of handsets from Indian factories as Chinese goods face huge tariffs

Apple is reportedly chartering cargo flights to ferry iPhones from its Indian manufacturing plants to the US in an attempt to beat Donald Trump’s tariffs.

The tech company has flown 600 tonnes of iPhones, or as many as 1.5m handsets, to the US from India since March after ramping up production at its plants in the country, according to Reuters.

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Australians can now use Apple AirPods Pro as hearing aids – but experts warn they’re not for everyone

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Experts hope the use of the headphones for mild to moderate hearing loss will reduce stigma and persuade people to test their hearing

Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 can for the first time be used as hearing aids for moderate hearing loss in Australia – but despite benefits, such as reducing social stigma and lowering costs, experts warn they are not suitable for everyone.

After approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) in December, Apple on Wednesday pushed out an update to AirPods Pro 2 devices in Australia allowing users to test their hearing and use the Bluetooth headphones as hearing aids for mild to moderate hearing loss. It is only TGA approved for people aged 18 and older.

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EU accuses Google and Apple of breaking its rules, risking Trump clash

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Tech companies could be fined billions if EU finds they have breached the Digital Markets Act

The European Commission has accused the US tech companies Google and Apple of breaking its digital rules, in a landmark action that could escalate transatlantic tension with Donald Trump.

The US president has sought to exert pressure on the EU to back away from tougher regulation of American technology groups, warning that he could retaliate by imposing tariffs on foreign companies.

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Apple’s UK encryption legal challenge heard behind closed doors

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Media organisations including the Guardian and the BBC fail to gain entry to proceedings

A hearing in Apple’s legal battle with the UK government over access to customer data was held behind closed doors on Friday after the press failed to gain entry to proceedings.

The US tech firm has launched an appeal with the investigatory powers tribunal after the Home Office demanded access to encrypted data stored remotely in Apple’s cloud servers.

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Apple to fix iPhone dictation bug that replaces word ‘racist’ with ‘Trump’

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Tech company blames ‘phonetic overlap’ for problem where US president’s name appears

Apple has promised to fix a bug in its iPhone automatic dictation tool after some users reported it had suggested to them “Trump” when they said the word “racist”.

The glitch was first highlighted in a viral post on TikTok, when the speech-to-text tool sometimes briefly flashed up the word “Trump” when they said “racist”, and was later repeated by others on social media.

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Steve Bannon says inauguration marks ‘official surrender’ of tech titans to Trump

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Former Trump White House adviser says supplication akin to Japanese surrender to allied forces in September 1945

Steve Bannon, the former Trump White House chief strategist, has described the tech titans gathering at Monday’s inauguration as “supplicants” to Donald Trump making “an official surrender”, akin to the Japanese surrender to allied forces on the deck of the USS Missouri in September 1945.

Bannon, who served as architect of Trump’s 2016 presidential win but later fell out with the president-elect after he criticized his intellect and members of his family, told ABC News in an interview airing Sunday that Trump “broke the oligarchs” who had previously been aligned against him.

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Apple suspends AI-generated news alert service after BBC complaint

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Inaccurate notices branded with broadcaster’s logo sent to iPhone users but tech firm works on improvements

Apple is suspending an artificial intelligence feature that made inaccurate summaries of news headlines.

The tech company received a complaint from the BBC after the AI-generated service issued a news alert branded with the corporation’s logo falsely telling some iPhone users that Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing the UnitedHealthcare chief executive, Brian Thompson, had shot himself.

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Halt illegal imports of conflict minerals from DRC, campaigners urge EU

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Law to stop armed groups profiting from trade in gold, tin, tungsten and tantalum is being breached, rights groups say

The European Union has been urged to clamp down on illegal imports of conflict minerals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) after evidence was found that current regulations had been breached.

The advocacy group Global Witness (GW) said there remained a “high risk” of the EU’s mineral imports being used to fund militias and state repression in several countries.

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Apple asks investors to block proposal to scrap diversity programmes

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Conservative thinktank wants firm to end its DEI efforts because they create ‘litigation, reputational and financial risks’

Apple has asked shareholders to vote against a proposal to scrap its diversity, equity and inclusion programmes, as tech rivals scale back similar schemes before Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

The National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative thinktank, wants the iPhone maker to end its DEI efforts because they expose companies to “litigation, reputational and financial risks”. The proposal will be voted on at Apple’s annual general meeting on 25 February.

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Business leaders keep quiet on Trump – what are they saying in private?

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Experts say top chief executives are treading a fine line to avoid any backlash in the event of a Trump victory

After the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, America’s business leaders came out strongly in their criticism of Donald Trump. Now – as the Harris campaign brands Trump a “fascist” and Trump threatens retribution against “the enemy within” – there appears to be a conspiracy of silence.

In fact, as the nation heads to the polls in an election that is too close to call, some of America’s most powerful chief executive appear to be cozying up to Trump again.

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EU events on curbing big tech ‘distorted’ by attenders with industry links

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Campaigners say 21% of people at workshops did not disclose on their applications relationships with firms being discussed

More than one in five attenders at EU events on regulating big tech companies did not disclose links to the industry when applying to take part, according to transparency campaigners who say hidden networks are distorting public debate.

Researchers at three NGOs analysed nearly 4,000 registrations at European Commission workshops organised earlier this year to test companies’ compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a law to curb anti-competitive behaviour.

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Indonesia blocks Apple iPhone 16 sales over lack of investment

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Marketing and sale of model prohibited after tech giant fails to meet rule 40% of phones be made from local parts

Indonesia has prohibited the marketing and sale of the iPhone 16 model over Apple’s failure to meet local investment regulations, according to its industry ministry.

South-east Asia’s biggest economy has a young, tech-savvy population with more than 100 million people under the age of 30, but Apple still does not have an official store in the country, forcing those who want its products to buy from resale platforms.

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Irish finance minister calls €14bn tax windfall from Apple ‘transformational’

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Jack Chambers says money will be used on infrastructure, not giveaways, as he reveals government budget

The Irish finance minister has hailed the €14bn tax windfall from Apple as “transformational” just weeks after the government lost a case in the European court of justice arguing the tech company should keep its money.

Unveiling the country’s budget on Tuesday, Jack Chambers said the money would be used on infrastructure and not splurged on giveaways before the general election, which is expected in November.

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Top EU court to rule in €13bn Apple case that could hit ‘sweetheart’ tax deals

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Long-running legal battle began in 2016 after bloc’s competition chief said iPhone maker had benefited from unfair tax breaks in Ireland

The EU’s top court will rule whether the European Commission was right to demand that €13bn (£11bn) in “illegal” tax breaks for Apple should be repaid, in a judgment likely to have far-reaching effects on “sweetheart” deals for large multinationals.

A ruling due on Tuesday from the European court of justice (ECJ) may bring an end to a bitter legal saga that began in 2016 when the EU competition chief, Margrethe Vestager, concluded the iPhone maker had benefited from billions worth of unfair tax breaks from the Irish government.

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Apple changes EU App Store rules after commission charges

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Change in policy means developers will be able to communicate with customers outside App Store

Apple on Thursday changed its policy in the European Union to allow developers to communicate with their customers outside its App Store after the commission charged the iPhone maker in June for breaching the bloc’s tech rules.

The commission had said that under most of the business terms, Apple allows steering only through “link-outs”, meaning that app developers can include a link in their app that redirects the customer to a web page where the customer can conclude a contract.

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Apple found in breach of EU competition rules

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European Commission finds iPhone maker broke new laws designed to protect smaller competitors against big tech platforms

Apple has been found to be in breach of sweeping new EU laws designed to allow smaller companies to compete and allow consumers to find cheaper and alternative apps in the tech business’s app store.

The European Commission, which also acts as the EU antitrust and technology regulator, said it had sent its preliminary findings to Apple after an investigation launched in March.

“For too long Apple has been squeezing out innovative companies — denying consumers new opportunities and choices,” said Thierry Breton, the European commissioner responsible for digital markets, on X.

In preliminary findings, against which Apple can appeal, the European Commission said it believed its rules of engagement did not comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) “as they prevent app developers from freely steering consumers to alternatives channels for offers and content”.

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