Apple is today celebrating the winners of Your Tree on Battersea, its festive UK competition that invited people to design digital Christmas trees on iPad. The 24 winning submissions are set to be projected onto Battersea Power Station beginning today, from 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. every day until 24 December. The winning submissions will be featured on the building's chimneys alongside trees drawn by established artists and notable figures such as Kylie Minogue, Sir Stephen Fry, Maro Itoje, Oliver Jeffers, David Shrigley OBE, and Chawawa. Apple says the competition carries on the company's tradition of celebrating festive creativity, and it's the first time it has opened the opportunity to the public. In 2023, artist David Hockney created Bigger Christmas Trees on iPad Pro, and last year, Aardman – creator of Wallace & Gromit – used iPhone 16 Pro Max to create a short animation. Both installations transformed the iconic 101-metre-high chimneys and wash towers that soar above the River Thames.Tag: United Kingdom This article, "Apple Lights Up Battersea Power Station With iPad-Designed Christmas Trees" first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums

The British government has agreed to withdraw its controversial demand to access Apple users' encrypted iCloud data, according to the U.S. director of intelligence. Tulsi Gabbard said in a post on X (Twitter) the UK had dropped its plans to force Apple to provide a back door that would have "enabled access to the protected encrypted data of American citizens and encroached on our civil liberties." According to sources who spoke to the Financial Times, the UK has agreed to rescind the order, but it has yet to be formally withdrawn. The BBC reports that Apple has yet to received any formal communication from either government. The development follows reports earlier this year that the UK used its Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) to demand secret access to encrypted user data uploaded to iCloud worldwide. Apple responded by removing its Advanced Data Protection feature from the UK rather than compromising its security standards. The British government had sought to keep details of the case private, but Apple filed a legal appeal against a UK that meant the Home Office couldn't keep all the details of its demand out of the public domain. Over the past few months, I’ve been working closely with our partners in the UK, alongside @POTUS and @VP, to ensure Americans' private data remains private and our Constitutional rights and civil liberties are protected. As a result, the UK has agreed to drop its mandate for…— DNI Tulsi Gabbard (@DNIGabbard) August 19, 2025 Apple made it clear that it would pull ‌iCloud‌ features from the UK rather than compromise its user security, and while that initially only extended to Advanced Data Protection, it could have led to key features like FaceTime and iMessage being removed in the country. The UK wanted backdoor access to ‌iCloud‌ data to fight terrorism and investigate child sex abuse. The UK's order was particularly controversial as it would have required Apple to provide access to data from users outside the UK without their governments' knowledge – which was what led the U.S. to pressure the UK government to back down. The IPA also makes it illegal for companies to disclose the existence of such government demands.Tags: Apple Privacy, Apple Security, Encryption, iCloud, United KingdomRelated Forum: Apple Music, Apple Pay/Card, iCloud, Fitness+ This article, "UK Reportedly Withdraws Demand to Access Encrypted iCloud User Data" first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums

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Apple this week introduced a new feature designed to allow prospective Apple Music users to import their saved music and playlists from third-party music services to ‌Apple Music‌. The feature is either in an expanded testing phase or it has started rolling out, and it is available in Australia and New Zealand according to an Apple Support document. Signs of the transfer option first surfaced back in February 2024, when an Android user saw a reference to the option in the ‌Apple Music‌ beta for Android. There is no word on when library and playlist transfer options might expand to other countries, but it is likely Apple is planning to expand the rollout in the near future. Apple is partnering with SongShift for the new ‌Apple Music‌ feature. SongShift is an app that transfers music playlists across streaming platforms, but by working with Apple, the functionality has been integrated directly in the ‌Apple Music‌ app. Adding a simple option for transferring content from another service to ‌Apple Music‌ could spur people with large, curated libraries and playlists to make the jump to Apple's music service. ‌Apple Music‌ subscribers in Australia and New Zealand can initiate song transfers on the web or using the ‌Apple Music‌ app for iPhone, iPad, or Android. Songs, albums, and playlists from music services like Spotify can be transferred to ‌Apple Music‌, though what can be transferred does depend on the service. On an ‌iPhone‌ or an ‌iPad‌, transfers can be initiated by opening up the Settings app, navigating to Apps, and selecting ‌Apple Music‌. In the ‌Apple Music‌ settings, there is a "Transfer Music from Other Music Services" option that lists supported music services. Users can select what they want to transfer, and then ‌Apple Music‌ will locate matches for songs in the ‌Apple Music‌ catalog, adding them to the ‌Apple Music‌ library. In instances where an exact match for a song isn't able to be located, Apple will flag the music as Needs Review, displaying alternate versions that can be selected. Apple warns that some content might not be available or have an exact match in ‌Apple Music‌, and the company also notes that only user created playlists are able to be transferred, not playlists created by another music service. Source playlists and libraries in the other music service will not be impacted and will still be available.Tag: Apple Music This article, "Apple Music Gets New Transfer Tool to Make Switching From Spotify Easier" first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums

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