Apple appears to be positioning Siri as the hub for a new era of “conversational search” after reports revealed that the company is building a standalone speaker device powered by the speech interpretation and recognition interface.

The moves by the UK Government to introduce a draft law to force telecoms companies to hand over encryption keys has been criticised by tech giant Apple.

Although tablet computing has made significant inroads into the consumer market, business users have so far mostly shunned the form factor. Now Apple has unveiled the iPad Pro, which is specifically designed to appeal to those wishing to use a tablet for work tasks.

Apple used its WWDC event to announce a series of changes to Siri and search. Apple’s objective with these “proactive” capabilities is to improve the user experience on the iPhone. An underlying objective is to hopefully catch up with Google (Now) and Microsoft. Both of their “assistants” have become more sophisticated than Siri and have also expanded their uses.

The Apple Watch is now in our midst. What’s it like?

Question: which corporation has just announced a cash tally to rival the entire foreign exchange reserve of Germany? Answer (if you haven’t already guessed): Apple.

When is a click not really a click? When it’s performed on the brand new Force Touch trackpad from Apple, that’s when. Seriously, this new feature, which was originally designed for the upcoming MacBook that ships in April, really is something to write home about - using the trackpad, of course. It is now available for everyone to play with on the excellent new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display (if you’ve got between £999 and £1,999 to pay for it, that is – prices vary according to the amount of flash storage you want).

In the context of another tech boom, Apple has decided to bring the majority of its contract security staff in-house as permanent, full-time employees, according to a recent media report in The San Jose Mercury News (Apple is based in the Cupertino area just west of San Jose).

Following reports from Apple news specialist 9to5Mac that iOS 9 will prioritise stability after a turbulent patch of bugginess, the same source reveals that iOS 8.3 and 9 will be offered on a public beta programme.

It’s no secret that Apple’s reputation for manufacturing top-drawer hardware and software that “just works” has taken a bit of a battering over the years, thanks largely to its penchant for rapid iOS releases (is it really possible to create glitch-free iOS updates at such a frenetic pace?). But a recent post on industry pillar 9to5Mac strongly suggests that its reputation could be about to be redeemed when iOS 9 debuts.