Two more banks in the U.K. have hopped on the Apple Pay bandwagon, just in time for the holiday shopping season — with both TSB and Tesco Bank confirming that they now offer Apple Pay support for their payment cards.
Two more major U.K. banks have hopped on the Apple Pay bandwagon. Lloyds and Halifax are now supported by the service, bringing the total number of Apple Pay banking partners in the U.K. to an impressive 11.
In support of the Apple Watch’s increased availability in the U.K., Apple has taken over all 24 windows at the iconic Selfridges’ shopping center in London to promote the new timepiece.
Apple opened a store within a store concept a Selfridges’ earlier this year. The gigantic new displays mimics the Apple Watch’s floral clock faces, with some flowers reaching up to 1.8 meters in height.
Here’s another look:
The UK’s High Court has turned all of its computer users into outlaws overnight, in a new ruling that makes it unlawful to create a copy of copyrighted content, without the direct permission of the copyright holder.
The new law means UK citizens can no longer create backups of their computer (because pretty much every PC has copyrighted content). You’re also not allowed to rip your CDs into iTunes or convert media files into another format, which means Apple’s software services like Time Machine and iTunes are now considered illegal.
Apple Pay rolled out in the U.K. this month, and today the service got a bit better, as Apple now supports HSBC and First Direct credit and debit cards in the country.
That brings the total supported U.K. banks and card providers to nine — including Natwest, Santander, Nationwide, RBS, Ulster Bank, HSBC, First Direct, MBNA, and American Express.
Apple Music’s launch is just days away, and Spotify is already running to catch up to the free trial Apple thinks will convince you to become a paying customer.
In an attempt to match Apple’s controversial three-month free trial period, Spotify announced that it will extend its Premium free trials from 30 days to 60 its days, but only if you’re outside the U.S.
One of the great things about iMessage and FaceTime is that it encrypts your messages automatically, making it very, very difficult for hackers to spy on the messages you send.
But guess what? If U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron gets his way, iMessage and FaceTime encryption might soon be a thing of the past.
Sometimes all a penguin needs is love, says the new Christmas ad from British department store John Lewis.
There’s a young boy with a real penguin. The penguin, named Monty, loves playing with the boy: swimming, sledding, building with Legos. but there’s one thing the boy cannot provide for poor Monty, and that’s a life mate.
Watch the full ad below and be sure to stick around for a delightful Calvin & Hobbesian moment at the end.
iPhones represented 48.9 percent of the UK’s smartphone-based web traffic in Q2, according to a new study by Chitika.
While Samsung came in at the expected second place, its percentage (22.8 percent) was much closer to BlackBerry’s (16.8 percent) than it was to Apple’s. The rest of the numbers were made up of HTC, Nokia, Sony, Google and Motorola handsets.
This is likely to be disappointing for the South Korea-based Samsung, which has recently been investing heavily in marketing its smartphones in the UK — including a “rebranding” of London’s Heathrow airport’s Terminal 5 in order to promote its latest Galaxy S model.
Yesterday Cult of Mac revealed that Samsung’s new Galaxy S5 smartphone was outsold by both the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c during the month of May: the first month Galaxy S5 was on sale in the country.
Apple is on a price-slashing spree this morning after taking down its online store for a few hours last night. Not only did Cupertino just release a cheaper low-end iMac, but it’s also dropping prices on the Apple TV and Mac mini across the UK and Europe.
The Google-owned Nest thermostat arrives in the U.K. today.
Created by “Podfather” Tony Fadell and former Apple colleague Matt Rogers, the Nest thermostat is an iOS-connected device which allows users to control and automate their indoor heating.
It can be purchased from Nest’s online store, alongside Amazon, Apple, and B&Q — priced at £179, or £249 with the recommended professional installation included.
While all attention is currently being placed on the new fourth iOS 7.1 beta, a feature that seems to have skipped most people’s attention is that beta version 3 includes a female counterpart to the British male variant of Siri, which users can choose between.
Apple TV owners across the pond have received an early Christmas gift, a dedicated channel for Sky Sports through Now TV. Live sports can be viewed without an existing cable subscription, and Sky Sports is offering day passes that offer unlimited access to six sports channels. Pocket-lint explains:
O2 has today confirmed the price of its 4G price plans ahead of their rollout next Thursday, August 29. The carrier’s SIM-only plans will start from £26 ($40) per month, while those that are tied to a 4G handset start from £32 ($49) per month. All of O2’s 4G plans will also come bundled with free music, sport, and game content.
The UK power plug (and its matching socket) is incredibly safe, just as you’d expect from a country that only allows half-voltage sockets in bathrooms (bathrooms also get string-activated light switches lest your wet hands come near dangerous electricity). The problem is that it’s also big and bulky thanks to the mandatory inclusion of a fuse and an earth (ground) prong in every plug, even those meant for low-power use.
The Thin Plug aims to fix that.
Apple has been under heavy scrutiny the past few months for its tax practices and off-shore cash pile, but the criticism that Apple isn’t paying enough taxes isn’t likely to stop thanks to a new report that claims Apple paid zero corporate tax in the United Kingdom last year.
According to a report from the Financial Times, Apple was able to avoid paying corporate taxes in the UK last year by using tax deductions from share awards to employees that basically offset the amount of taxes Apple owed through September 2012, all of which is completely legal.
EE has expanded its rapidly-growing 4G LTE network yet again to cover an additional 12 markets across the United Kingdom. This expansion brings the total number of markets up to 74, and EE claims its 4G services now covers more than 50% of the U.K. population.
EE is currently the United Kingdom’s only 4G LTE network – it launched back in July 1 2010, under the name Everything Everywhere, which the management team decided to shorten to EE in September 2012. EE thrives on providing super fast 4G LTE internet to customers based in the UK, and starting today it launched its first 30-day SIM-only plans for smartphones.
This Day in the Rolling Stones is the latest app for music lovers of a certain age who want to find out exactly what Mick and the guys were up to every day of their careers. It wants to be all Hot Stuff) but ends up more like a Biggest Mistake.
High-end hifi people Naim announced a stylish new audio playback gadget designed to make listening to computer-based music as good as possible. Needless to say, you have to shell out serious money for this kind of serious sound.
This is the C.VOX, a coat with a built-in sound system so you can listen to stuff anywhere you go, while you’re going there. It’s kind of cool and kind of weird. I’ve been wearing it for the last wintry week or so here in the UK, and here’s what it’s like to own one.
This is Curiosity, a free iOS game from British gaming icon Peter Molyneux. The idea is that all of us – everyone playing the game – work together to peel off layers of cubelets that make up the larger revolving cube. At the center, a surprise (and a prize) awaits the person lucky enough, and determined enough, to tap on it at the end.
Only two people in the whole world know what’s at the center. Do you care what it is? Do you care enough to spend hours tapping on your iDevice to find out? No, really: hours.
This is Carmageddon: the driving game that got banned in several countries. The driving game that’s less about driving, and more about killing. Hit the gas and aim for the gizzards.
Newly released for iOS, this is a 12+ rated no-holds-barred killing fest. It’s non-stop gory driving violence with plenty of offensive language thrown in for good measure. In some working environments, both the game and some of the screenshots that follow may be considered NSFW.
Drive is a tool for drivers who want to get basic tasks done on their phones with just a tap or a swipe, controlling your phone just as you’d control the other dashboard gadgets in your car.
Researchers in the UK have put together a prototype wrist-worn sensor that turns your own hand into a 3D movement controller for almost any device you can think of.
Experts from Newcastle University and the Cambridge-based Microsoft Research used off-the-shelf parts to assemble a sensor that straps to your wrist and detects movement of your arm, hand and fingers. There’s no need for any external sensor, nor for line-of-sight to the device you’re controlling. Everything’s done using the technology you wear.
Here’s a video that explains more.
