iPhone designer Sir Jony Ive joins OpenAI in $6.5bn deal, Fortnite back on iPhone in US

Sir Jony Ive, the hugely influential British designer responsible for the look of Apple’s most iconic and successful products, is joining OpenAI. Boss Sam Altman said he was “thrilled” to be partnering with the man he called the “greatest designer in the world”. OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, is buying Sir Jony’s startup, io, in a $6.5bn (£4.7bn) deal. Mr Altman said he was excited to “try to create a new generation of AI-powered computers” together. Sir Jony – who designed the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad – will “assume deep design and creative responsibilities” across the company, the two firms said in an announcement. BBC

Ofcom has today published their 2025 study of UK broadband, phone and mobile service quality, call waiting times, complaint levels, fault repairs, compensation and install times for the largest providers. For example, TalkTalk attracted the lowest satisfaction for broadband (77%) and Plusnet (BT) secured the highest (91%). The regulator’s report – published once every two years – is based on data gathered via a combination of consumer research, submitted complaints and other statistics obtained directly from providers. ISPreview

The popular video game Fortnite has returned to the iPhone app store in the US, ending a prolonged exile that was triggered by a legal showdown over the fees that Apple had been collecting for years through a payment system that the tech giant has been forced to change. Fortnite, one of the world’s most popular games, hailed its app’s long-awaited restoration to the iPhone and iPad in a Tuesday post, marking the first time it will be available on those devices since it was ousted in 2020. The Guardian 

Fujifilm has a new pint-size addition to its X-series cameras coming in late June: the X Half. It’s an 18-megapixel “half-frame” camera with a portrait-oriented sensor and viewfinder and a fixed 32mm-equivalent f/2.8 lens. Despite being digital, the X Half is all about the vintage film aesthetic. The $849.99 camera is so dedicated to an analog-like lifestyle that it’s got an entire secondary screen just for picking one of its 13 film simulations, and it doesn’t shoot RAW photos at all — just JPGs, for a more what-you-see-is-what-you-get experience.

British chemicals manufacturer Johnson Matthey (JM) has agreed to sell its net-zero aviation fuel business for £1.8bn amid weak global demand and pressure from activist shareholders. On Thursday, the FTSE 250 company said it would sell its catalyst technologies division to American rival Honeywell, the sprawling industrial conglomerate. The offloaded division includes the company’s interests in biofuels such as sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and bioethanol, as well as “blue” hydrogen which is produced using natural gas. Telegraph 

The M&S website was down in the early hours of this morning – hours after the retailer revealed it’s facing a £300m hit to profits following last month’s ransomware attack. A holding page told customers that they were unable to browse the site. By around 7am, the website was back online, with M&S telling Sky News: “Our website is open for browsing. “As we work to get things back to normal for our customers, we are doing some overnight updates.” Sky News 

Computex 2025 is here, and it was only a matter of time until one of the huge tech companies during the expo revealed a new device that takes laptop design to the next level – and this one may be worth keeping tabs on. On its website (translated from Chinese), Huawei announced the new MateBook Fold Ultimate Design laptop, featuring an 18-inch (when expanded) 3K OLED display running on Harmony OS 5. Notably, unlike other foldable laptops like the Asus Zenbook Duo, the MateBook Fold Ultimate Design unfolds into an entire single screen. Tech Radar