United Kingdom

In iOS 17.1 and later, iPhone users in the UK can now view banking information like account balance when using Apple Pay and viewing bank cards and credit cards in the Wallet app. Keep reading to learn how it works. Apple's Wallet app on iPhone has been able to display Apple Pay transactions made using your bank and credit cards for a while now, but if you are a Wallet app user in the United ...

If you live in the United Kingdom, there's a good chance you enjoyed yesterday's first official bank holiday of the year with your feet up. But if all you'd done was rely on the Calendar app on your iPhone, you may never have even known you were due a day off. That's because a persistent bug that has plagued the app for months still prevents Apple's UK bank holidays subscription option from...

EE TV, a new broadband TV platform from EE, today launched as a BT TV replacement service in the UK, offering subscribers the option of an Apple TV 4K with customized remote control. EE TV offers access to more than 70 Freeview channels, a Netflix subscription, as well as premium channels from Sky, Discovery, Eurosport, TNT Sports, and more. To access the platform, subscribers can opt to...

Apple faces a renewed comprehensive investigation into its dominance in mobile browsers and cloud gaming following a ruling by London's Court of Appeal (via Bloomberg). The court's decision effectively reverses a previous verdict that had halted the probe, reinforcing the authority of the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). In November 2022, the CMA launched an investigation into...

Apple today highlighted the ability in iOS 17.1 for UK users to connect their credit and debit cards in Apple Wallet and easily access information like account balance, spending history, and more. Users can view their up-to-date bank card balance, payments, deposits, and withdrawals in Wallet and when they're checking out with Apple Pay online or in-apps. Apple says the new feature...

Apple in iOS 17.1 began allowing ‌iPhone‌ users in the UK to view the account balances of select bank cards and credit cards in the Wallet app, and now several more banks have added support for the feature. Apple added the transaction and card balance functionality to the Wallet app in October as part of its Connected Cards feature, but initially only a handful of bank cards were compatible. ...

Microsoft's revised offer to buy Activision Blizzard has been approved by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) after its initial acquisition attempt was blocked by the UK antitrust regulator. Under the revised deal, French video game publisher Ubisoft will be given the rights to distribute Activision's games on consoles and PCs over the cloud. The CMA said the reworked deal...

Apple wants to hire more staff to work on artificial intelligence in the United Kingdom, CEO Tim Cook today said (via BBC News). Cook reaffirmed that Apple is actively researching generative AI technology, and said that he expects Apple's investment in the UK and AI to increase. He also highlighted how AI is already behind several features on Apple devices, such as Fall Detection, Crash...

An Apple-acquired company now renamed "Apple Payments Services" is likely behind the new UK-exclusive Apple Wallet features in iOS 17.1, potentially hinting that Apple has plans to launch additional financial services in the country. Last year, Apple acquired Credit Kudos, a UK open banking startup that sought to help lenders make better decisions. MacRumors has now learned that Apple filed ...

Alongside iPhone 15 price drops in the United Kingdom compared to last year's iPhone 14 models, Apple has also reduced the cost of its iPhone Battery Servicing program for several earlier models. The biggest savings can be found for ‌iPhone 14‌ models. Prior to Tuesday's iPhone 15 announcement, Apple charged £105 for ‌iPhone 14‌ battery replacements, whereas now it lists £95, or a £10...

In the United Kingdom, Apple has made the price of the newly announced iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max models £100+ cheaper across all configuration options than the equivalent iPhone 14 Pro models when they were launched last year. Last year's iPhone 14 Pro started at £1,099, but the newly announced iPhone 15 Pro starts at £999. Moving up the storage options for both Pro and Pro Max...

The UK government has denied that it has dropped a controversial plan to scan encrypted messaging services for harmful content as part of its Online Safety Bill, which is due to become law later this year. A provision in the bill allows regulator Ofcom to order messaging services to use "accredited technology" to look for and take down child sexual abuse material. However, according to a ...

Apple has become the target of a £785 million ($1 billion) class action lawsuit on behalf of over 1,500 developers in the UK over its App Store fees, reports TechCrunch. The suit accuses Apple of abusing a dominant position by charging a 15% to 30% fee on in-app sales in the ‌App Store‌, a policy that has been criticized by antitrust regulators in other countries. It also argues UK...

Apple says it will pull services including FaceTime and iMessage in the UK if plans to amend surveillance legislation that would require tech companies to make major security and privacy changes go ahead (via BBC News). The UK government is planning to update the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA), which came into effect in 2016. The Act of Parliament allows the British Home Office to force...

Apple has announced the launch of Tap to Pay on iPhone in the United Kingdom, allowing independent sellers, small merchants, and large retailers in the country to use ‌iPhones‌ as a payment terminal. Introduced in February 2022, the feature allows compatible iPhones to accept payments via Apple Pay, contactless credit and debit cards, and other digital wallets, using only an ‌‌‌‌iPhone‌‌‌...

Apple has increased the price of iCloud storage in several regions around the world, including the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and South America. Every Apple ID receives 5GB of free cloud storage, but users can upgrade to a paid ‌iCloud‌+ storage subscription plan to get 50GB, 200GB, or 2TB of storage. The price hike, first spotted by 9to5Mac, represents an...

Apple today opened its new store in Battersea, South West London – the second to feature the company's overhauled retail store design after the Tysons Corner revamp last month. Apple Battersea is the 40th Apple Store in the UK and it is located inside the redeveloped Battersea Power Station on the Ground Floor in Turbine Hall A. The building is a decommissioned coal-fired power station,...

British mobile phone operators Vodafone and Three UK have agreed a deal to merge their UK-based operations, which if approved by regulators will make it the biggest mobile network in the country. Currently the biggest players in the UK mobile market are Virgin Media O2, with around 24 million customers, and EE, which has 20 million users. Vodafone and Three UK are the third and fourth...

Netflix is officially cracking down on password sharing in the United States and the United Kingdom, more than a year after it first announced the move. Netflix explained on its U.S. and U.K. websites how viewers who shared their account password to people outside their household would be affected, and what the additional costs would be if they still wanted to let out-of-household users...

The U.K.'s antitrust regulator has announced it will block Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard over concerns the deal would be anticompetitive in the cloud gaming market. In a press release announcing the block, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it had prevented Microsoft's proposed purchase of Activision over concerns the deal would lead to "reduced innovation and...

The U.K. government has introduced a new bill that would allow the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to impose multibillion-pound fines on major tech companies like Apple for breaching its rules. The multifaceted bill is designed to promote competition and protect consumers by giving the CMA the authority to tackle the "excessive dominance" of tech firms, according to a government...

WhatsApp, Signal, and other messaging services have penned an open letter to the British government appealing for it to urgently rethink the Online Safety Bill (OSB), a piece of legislation that would allow regulators to ask the platforms to monitor users in order to identify child abuse images. Under the bill, the government could force chat services to apply content moderation policies...