It’s been two months since the last release of my ADHD-friendly productivity app, addTaskManager. In app development terms, that’s either abandonment or focus.
Well, it was focus.
I just released addTaskManager version 2.6.0 yesterday, and the reason for this delay is simple: you can now search your tasks.
Search Wasn’t There Before
I know. A task manager without search sounds like a car without wheels. But here’s how I got there.
When I built addTaskManager around the ADD framework (Assess, Decide, Do), the whole point was reducing cognitive load. You just reduce your workload to three realms, with clear separation of concerns: evaluate in Assess, plan in Decide and execute in Do. The structure and orientation were basically built in.
The theory was: if everything has its place, you don’t need search. You just go to the place.
But in practice you accumulate a lot of stuff. Sometimes I have more than 200-300 items in sight, spread over 3 realms. Scrolling through a realm looking for that one task you vaguely remember creating last Tuesday? That’s not reduced cognitive load. That’s frustration.
So I finally built search. And I took the time to build it properly.
Search From Anywhere, Travel to Anything
Here’s how it works now.
You can trigger search from anywhere in the app. Type what you’re looking for and the results appear across all your data types: tasks, projects, subtasks, ideas, everything, grouped by realm (with icons and color significance).
Tap a result, and the app navigates to it. Not just shows it overlaid in the current screen. It actually travels there.
You see the realm tab highlight and the top level realm screen opens. It then navigates to the second level, where the task / project is located. For example, in Decide it can go from top level realm screen, to Undecided project list, then to the project subtasks lists, then to the specific subtask you just selected. When the item appears, it’s selected and highlighted, with action buttons ready. I find this UX almost soothing, a smooth travel from “I want this” to “here it is”.
And I call it “traveling animation” because that’s what it feels like. You’re not just finding something. You’re following the app as it takes you from the top of the hierarchy to the exact item you wanted: realm → data type → item with action buttons visible.
The Free Tier Gets 10x More Room
While I was deep in search building, I also looked at the free tier limits.
And honestly, they were too tight. People were hitting the paywall before they even had a chance to really test whether the ADD framework works for them.
So I increased the limits by 10x.
That’s right: ten times more tasks, more ideas, more room to actually use this thing before deciding if it’s worth paying for.
The rationale behind this decision: if the app really helps you, you’ll want to support it. Not because you ran out of space, but because you found something that works for you.
And if it doesn’t help you, you shouldn’t be paying anyway.
Stability Stuff
A few fixes that you won’t notice because that’s the point:
There was a crash that could happen when searching and navigating quickly. Fixed.
The keyboard wasn’t lifting search results properly on some devices. Fixed.
Tab bar sizing was off on iPad and Mac. Fixed.
Badge indicators on realm tabs weren’t showing. Now they’re back.
All the search and sharing features are now fully localized in every supported language.
Why Two Months?
Building search properly takes time. There are many things to consider and overlapping this with the structure of the ADD framework was an extra challenge.
I think I could have shipped a basic search in two weeks. But then I chose to ship a good one in two months.
Whether that was the right call, I don’t know. Indie app economics say ship fast and iterate. My gut said get this right because people will use it constantly.
We’ll see.
addTaskManager 2.6.0 Is Live in AppStore
If you’re already using addTaskManager, update and try the search. Press the search icon, type something, tap a result. See if the traveling navigation makes sense to you or if it’s overkill.
If you’re new, the free tier now gives you real room to test the ADD framework. Capture ideas in Assess. Move the ones you commit to into Decide. Execute from Do.
And now, when you forget where you put something, just search.
Note: there are still a few glitches, but they are fixed in 2.6.1, which, at the time of writing, is in review, should be available in a matter of days.
That became impossible to ignore on Wednesday, when ICE agent Jonathon Ross killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in cold blood. By now, you don’t need me to recount her brutal last moments. But the footage (graphic and disturbing as it is) is out there, and we can see the Trump administration’s propaganda about the event for what it is.
What changed this week was, arguably, that the victim wasn’t a brown-skinned person. ICE claimed the life of a white American citizen, one who, according to her wife, was a kind, loving mom and a Christian. Unfortunately, the US has a dark history of shrugging off violence as long as it’s directed towards a marginalized group. That wasn’t possible for mainstream newsreaders here.
LOS ANGELES, CA – JANUARY 8, 2026 Dozens, holding photos of Renee Nicole Good, protest her death a day after an ICE agent killed Good in Minneapolis, in front of the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles on January 8, 2026. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images) (Genaro Molina via Getty Images)
On Thursday, Vice President JD Vance smeared Good baselessly, insisting the mother was part of a “left-wing network.” He also claimed ICE holds “absolute immunity” when it comes to doing things like killing Americans in broad daylight. Meanwhile, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt framed the deadly incident as the “result of a larger, sinister left-wing movement that has spread across our country.” And the FBI has blocked Minnesota’s criminal investigation bureau from accessing evidence to complete a thorough examination of the homicide.
In short: an agency with the full backing of the federal government killed an innocent citizen, and while there are tools to inform the public about the likely locations that agency may be acting in, Apple has chosen to keep them from us.
Apple has a history of presenting itself as a safer, socially progressive alternative within Big Tech. Its keynotes are replete with heartfelt testimony of iPhone and Apple Watch features saving lives. It releases Pride-themed accessories to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community and the company has (so far) resisted government pressure to eliminate its DEI programs. Hell, its modern era was kicked off by the “Here’s to the crazy ones” TV ad, which intercut images of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., John Lennon and Gandhi — explicitly cloaking its corporate image in civil disobedience and social justice.
A photo of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Apple’s homepage (2015) (Apple / The Internet Archive)
But the company also wields that progressive image for selfish reasons, wrapping business priorities in the guise of conscientiousness. For example, when government regulations push for openness or interoperability, Apple warns of the security and privacy risks for its users. When Apple tightly controls where you can buy apps, it’s about keeping porn away from the kids. And Apple has decided the theoretical safety of ICE officers is more valuable than the very real threat they pose to the communities they harass.
ICEBlock’s availability on the App Store may not have changed the outcome of Wednesday’s events. But it could resume its job as a community informer. It could make it easier to notify the public of where these masked thugs are congregating, perhaps even helping others avoid Good’s fate.
Engadget has reached out to Apple for comment on reinstating ICEBlock; we’ll update if we receive a response.
Apple isn’t ready to pay a several billion-dollar fine to UK App Store users and is filing an appeal over a major antitrust lawsuit. As first reported by The Guardian, Apple has requested to appeal to the UK’s Court of Appeal, which would escalate the case beyond the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT).
The latest appeal attempt follows an October decision from the CAT, where the court found that Apple engaged in anticompetitive practices by exploiting its dominant market position with the App Store to charge higher fees. The CAT’s ruling established a £1.5 billion, or roughly $2 billion, fine, but Apple said it planned to appeal and that the court “takes a flawed view of the thriving and competitive app economy.” The CAT didn’t grant Apple the appeal, leading the iPhone maker to seek a higher court to overturn the ruling.
Apple hasn’t made any official statements about its latest appeal application, but it’s likely that it will argue against the CAT’s proposed App Store developer fee rate of between 15 and 20 percent, which it reached through “informed guesswork,” instead of the existing 30 percent. If the fine does ultimately stick, the $2 billion fine would be split amongst any App Store user in the UK who made purchases between 2015 and 2024, according to The Guardian.
Apple on Wednesday released an updated developer license agreement that gives the company permission to recoup unpaid funds, such as commissions or any other fees, by deducting them from in-app purchases it processes on developers’ behalf, among other methods.
The change will impact developers in regions where local law allows them to link to external payment systems. In these cases, developers must report those payments back to Apple to pay the required commissions or fees.
The changed agreement seemingly gives Apple a way to collect what it believes is the correct fee if the company determines a developer has underreported their earnings.
Apple’s policies in this area are complex, but the change could impact developers in markets like the EU, U.S., and, now, Japan, where developers using external payment systems may be required to pay Apple varying fees or commissions depending on local law. (In the U.S., the legality of these commissions is still being disputed. A federal appeals court earlier this month ruled that a district court should consider allowing Apple to collect some commission, though not the full 27% fee it previously charged.)
In its new developer agreement, Apple states it will “offset or recoup” what it believes it is owed, including “any amounts collected by Apple on your behalf from end-users.” This means Apple could recoup funds from developers’ in-app purchases — like those for digital goods, services, and subscriptions — or from one-time fees for paid applications.
Additionally, Apple notes that it has the right to collect this money “at any time” and “from time to time,” meaning developers could face surprise deductions if Apple believes they’ve miscalculated what they owe.
The agreement doesn’t specify how Apple will determine whether it’s owed money.
The types of developer payments that vary over time are limited and include commissions, fees, and taxes. Among these is the Core Technology Fee (CTF) in the EU, which currently costs €0.50 for each first annual install exceeding one million in the past 12 months. In January 2026, Apple will transition from the CTF to a new fee, called the Core Technology Commission (CTC), a more complicated percentage-based fee. Apple will collect the CTC from apps that use external payment methods or are distributed under its alternative business terms for the EU.
The updated developer agreement also gives Apple the right to collect unpaid amounts from any “affiliates, parents, or subsidiaries” related to the account that owes money. In practical terms, that means Apple could collect the money from developers’ other apps, or from apps published by a parent company.
These changes are detailed in Schedules 2 and 3, section 3.4, which focuses on the delivery of applications to end users.
These are not the only modifications to the agreement. Apple is also introducing sections devoted to its age assurance technology, new terms for iOS apps in Japan, and other requirements.
Of interest, Apple is defining requirements for voice-based assistants (like AI chatbots) that are activated via the side button on the iPhone and is banning recordings made without user awareness. This includes audio and video recordings, as well as screen recordings, which are often used by developers to identity issues users face when navigating apps or to locate bugs.
To be clear, Apple isn’t banning these recordings outright. The company is simply adding language that says: “Your Application may not be designed to facilitate Recordings of others without their awareness.” How Apple will interpret that rule remains to be seen.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment ahead of publication.
Cybersecurity experts are warning about scammers using QR codes to take advantage of unsuspecting victims.What is a QR code?Short for “quick response” code, the small barcodes are ubiquitous, getting scanned using a phone’s camera to link to restaurant menus, online payment systems or any other digital task.”We’re all familiar with these things,” said Jean-Paul Bergeaux, the federal chief technology officer for GuidePoint Security. “The concept is, ‘How do we give people a way to get to a link, where they don’t have to enter it, to simplify our life,’ which it does very well.”How does ‘Quishing’ work?Unfortunately, like most things, scammers are finding ways to use QR codes as part of a scam that’s known as “Quishing.””You’re just scanning it and hitting it and saying go, and so you can go anywhere, and the bad guys can send you anywhere,” Bergeaux said. “That’s the hook for them, right? It’s not only just ubiquitous and everywhere, but there’s a bit of (anonymity) to it.” Bergeaux said scammers most commonly use QR codes to send you to a dummy website to get your information — and money.”They’re going to steal things from your phone. They’re going to steal your information. They’re going to steal your accounts just by scanning it,” Bergeaux said.It happened in BaltimoreSo, say you’re trying to park your car. A fake QR code posted on a parking meter could take you to a website that looks like you’re paying for parking, when in reality, a scammer just stole your credit card information.It’s a problem that was reported in Baltimore earlier this year, when the Parking Authority of Baltimore City warned drivers not to scan QR codes on its meters.How do I avoid QR code scams?There are ways to protect yourself. For one, check whether the QR code has been tampered with, or whether it’s just covered up by a sticker or piece of paper. You could also avoid using them altogether.”You can simply just go to the app store, download the ParkMobile app — or whatever the app is —yourself, and don’t take the risk of being sent somewhere you potentially don’t want to go,” Bergeaux said.It’s also good practice to not reuse passwords and to turn on multi-factor authentication to keep information safe in your most important accounts.What do I do if I fell victim to a QR code scam?If hackers do access your phone, don’t wait to act.”The first thing is, what did they get? If they got an account, reset the account, retake control over that account, whatever that account is,” Bergeaux said.Bergeaux warned that even if a QR code is made with good intentions, the websites used to create the QR codes can sometimes do so maliciously. So, if something seems off or doesn’t seem right, check with the company or organization before scanning a QR code or clicking any links.
Cybersecurity experts are warning about scammers using QR codes to take advantage of unsuspecting victims.
What is a QR code?
Short for “quick response” code, the small barcodes are ubiquitous, getting scanned using a phone’s camera to link to restaurant menus, online payment systems or any other digital task.
“We’re all familiar with these things,” said Jean-Paul Bergeaux, the federal chief technology officer for GuidePoint Security. “The concept is, ‘How do we give people a way to get to a link, where they don’t have to enter it, to simplify our life,’ which it does very well.”
How does ‘Quishing’ work?
Unfortunately, like most things, scammers are finding ways to use QR codes as part of a scam that’s known as “Quishing.”
“You’re just scanning it and hitting it and saying go, and so you can go anywhere, and the bad guys can send you anywhere,” Bergeaux said. “That’s the hook for them, right? It’s not only just ubiquitous and everywhere, but there’s a bit of (anonymity) to it.”
Bergeaux said scammers most commonly use QR codes to send you to a dummy website to get your information — and money.
“They’re going to steal things from your phone. They’re going to steal your information. They’re going to steal your accounts just by scanning it,” Bergeaux said.
It happened in Baltimore
So, say you’re trying to park your car. A fake QR code posted on a parking meter could take you to a website that looks like you’re paying for parking, when in reality, a scammer just stole your credit card information.
There are ways to protect yourself. For one, check whether the QR code has been tampered with, or whether it’s just covered up by a sticker or piece of paper. You could also avoid using them altogether.
“You can simply just go to the app store, download the ParkMobile app — or whatever the app is —yourself, and don’t take the risk of being sent somewhere you potentially don’t want to go,” Bergeaux said.
It’s also good practice to not reuse passwords and to turn on multi-factor authentication to keep information safe in your most important accounts.
What do I do if I fell victim to a QR code scam?
If hackers do access your phone, don’t wait to act.
“The first thing is, what did they get? If they got an account, reset the account, retake control over that account, whatever that account is,” Bergeaux said.
Bergeaux warned that even if a QR code is made with good intentions, the websites used to create the QR codes can sometimes do so maliciously. So, if something seems off or doesn’t seem right, check with the company or organization before scanning a QR code or clicking any links.
A few weeks ago, Flighty quietly pulled off something remarkable. In the middle of a nationwide travel meltdown, it rocketed to number one in the App Store’s Travel category, and number 17 most popular overall. During what was one of the most chaotic weeks of travel in recent memory, it seemed as though everyone was suddenly depending on the same app.
If you only looked at the charts, you might think Flighty came out of nowhere. The thing is, there’s a lot more to the story. First of all, Flighty has long been a favorite among frequent travelers, pilots, and anyone else who cares about knowing everything you could know about their next flight. I recommend Flighty to anyone I know whose plans include getting on a plane.
The real story, however, is that Flighty is the product of a 12-year journey that started on an oil rig, wound its way through a brief stint at Apple, and eventually arrived at the exact moment when millions of travelers needed it most. It is, you could say, an “overnight success” that just happened to have taken more than a decade. Which, by the way, is how these things almost always work.
A data-obsessed weather app
Long before Flighty, its founder, Ryan Jones, was a mechanical engineer working in the oil industry in East Texas. And then the iPhone happened. Somewhere between long shifts and long drives, Jones found himself following a handful of indie developers on Twitter and realized that most apps are just made by normal people, not giant software companies.
An Inc.com Featured Presentation
So he gave himself six months to make one. Not only that, Jones wanted to prove he could make an app that made it into the top 100 apps on the App Store. That’s a big bet for someone who didn’t even know how to code. But he had an idea: take weather data—something inherently nerdy and hard to parse—and make it visual.
That idea became Weather Line, a beautifully simple weather app that turned forecasts into a clean line graph that looked like it was designed for the iPhone on purpose. The app launched in 2013, and proved something important. Jones told me that the experience “gave me the confidence that there wasn’t this secret group of people in California who only knew how to build software and make great products, and like no one else could figure it out.”
On the contrary, he could just make something great, and people would use it. As for his goal, Weather Line reached number 17 on the App Store charts.
Then, he took detour number two and “accidentally” got hired at Apple. For two years, he sat inside one of the most product-obsessed companies in the world, absorbing how it thinks about design and product. That would become incredibly important for what came next.
The app he wished he had
Flighty didn’t start with a grand plan. It started in an airport Chili’s.
Jones has told this story before: he was stranded during a brutal delay and couldn’t get reliable information from anyone—not the gate agent, not the airline, not the apps that were supposed to help. The data clearly existed. It just wasn’t getting to the people who actually needed it. So he decided to build the app he wished he had.
He tweeted about the idea that night and ended up assembling a small distributed team that would spend the next few years obsessing over a single problem: turning an overwhelming amount of aviation data into something normal people could understand instantly.
“I think what I’m great at is taking nerdy data and making it really simple and visual on small screens,” Jones told me. “That’s what Weather Line was. That’s a lot of what Flighty is.”
Flighty launched in 2019, and from the beginning, it has always done one thing better than anything else: tell you what’s happening with your flight. I cannot even tell you the number of times I’ve been sitting in an airport and Flighty let me know a flight was delayed or canceled long before the airline did.
There’s no magic behind that. It’s the same instinct that powered Weather Line—making something complicated, simple enough for everyone to understand. In this case, it just happens to be applied to a much harder domain.
It also required a different kind of superpower: learning how to negotiate with the obscure companies that sell flight data to airlines, hedge funds, and large industrial customers. That experience became one of Flighty’s not-so-secret advantages. The team figured out how to get world-class data, stitch it together, and wrap it in a design that makes it feel obvious.
Success is a long game
What’s most interesting about Flighty is that none of this came with the typical trappings of a startup “success story.” There’s no giant funding round or massive ad spend. The team is seven people. Marketing is mostly people sharing screenshots because the product gives them something worth sharing.
Even the business model is unconventional. Flighty offers a free tier, along with monthly and annual subscriptions of its Pro tier. But there’s also a flexible weekly plan—one of the only legitimate uses of weekly subscriptions, in my opinion—that aligns with how people actually travel. The annual and lifetime plans serve the frequent-flyer crowd while the free tier gives people a taste without forcing them into a trial they’ll forget to cancel.
Still, nothing compared to what happened during the shutdown.
Becoming an overnight success
When flights started melting down, Flighty didn’t have to reinvent itself. It simply did what it always does—only this time, millions more people were watching. Downloads and subscriptions grew and, for a brief window, the most popular travel app in the world was the one built by a handful of people who spent a decade getting ready without knowing it.
From the outside, that looks like luck. But when you zoom out, it’s the opposite.
This is what it looks like when someone brings a very specific set of skills—visualizing data, designing for clarity, negotiating for obscure inputs, sweating the details—and applies them to a hard problem that almost everyone would like solved.
The truth is, “overnight success” is almost never about timing alone. It’s usually about what happens when someone keeps going long enough for all of those oddly specific experiences to line up at the right moment. For Flighty, that moment was a government shutdown that wreaked havoc on travel.
The thing is, Flighty didn’t become the world’s most useful travel app just last week. It was just the moment everyone finally noticed.
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
For those of us living in the Apple ecosystem, the App Store is second nature. It’s a core part of the Apple experience and the go-to spot for any applications you might want for your device. So I was fairly shocked to learn that up until today, the link apps.apple.com would send you to a page with information about the App Store, but not actually take you to said digital storefront.
That’s right, it took until the year 2025 for Apple to create a browser version of the App Store.
Maybe it never seemed necessary since the App Store is pre-loaded on any Apple device. I don’t foresee many edge cases where I’d want to look in a browser rather than actually use the App Store on one of my machines, although I’m sure now that I’ve said so, I’ll wind up doing exactly that within a week. But still, the first App Store debuted 17 years ago. Which, particularly in tech years, is a really, really long time.
In any case, the browser App Store lets you pick your hardware platform from a dropdown on the far left, so you can peruse software for different platforms wherever you’re on the web. There’s also a search field as well as a list of app categories that you can sift through. All the stuff you’d expect from the actual App Store, just in a browser. Entries for specific applications will prompt you to open the listing in the device’s App Store where the button would normally let you buy the software. Which leaves me once again surprised this took so long to create and also questioning who will actually use it.
Since its launch on September 30, OpenAI’s Sora app has dominated the iOS App Store charts, thanks to its easy breezy AI video generation and an initially loose interpretation of copyright laws. On Friday, its reign came to an end. Your new champion is … Dave’s Hot Chicken.
Yes! Not ChatGPT or Gemini or Threads or any of the other usual suspects. Dave’s Hot Chicken now rules over the App Store, where its slack-beaked, bug-eyed mascot icon expresses appropriate surprise at its ascent. How did it do it? How did it break the grasp of OpenAI’s golem TikTok? With something people love even more than large language models: free food.
“They’re running a promotion for free sliders in celebration of Drake’s birthday,” says Adam Blacker, PR director of the app analytics firm Apptopia. “Free food always gets the downloads flowing.”
If you’re wondering what Drake has to do with any of this, he invested in the fast casual restaurant chain in 2021, and presumably made a mint when the company sold a majority stake to private equity firm Roark Capital for a reported $1 billion. For the third consecutive year, the company gave away one (1) free slider to anyone who has downloaded the app in honor of Drake’s birthday. (The rapper and Raptors fan turns 39 today; the giveaway was Thursday.)
“We’re celebrating a celebrity that’s popular and that’s currently relevant, and also getting food in people’s mouths,” says Dave’s Hot Chicken chief technology officer Leon Davoyan.
And it truly is a lot of people. On a typical week, Davoyan says, Dave’s sees between 20,000 and 25,000 new sign-ups to its loyalty database. On Thursday alone the promotion drove 343,531 new accounts—a more than 10 percent bump to the brand’s overall membership in a single day, according to the CTO.
It was enough to knock Sora out of the top slot for the first time since October 3, an impressive stretch for an app that’s still invite-only. In the first 23 days since it launched, Sora racked up 3.2 million iOS downloads in the US, according to app analytics company Sensor Tower. That’s a much faster pace than even ChatGPT, which while similarly viral notched 2.3 million US downloads in the same time. (Sora is not yet available in the Google Play Store, but it’s incoming.) OpenAI declined to comment.
While Sora is likely to reclaim the top spot after the Drake promotion dies down, Dave’s Hot Chicken should continue reaping the benefits of its giveaway. Last year, according to Sensor Tower, downloads of the app in the four weeks following the same marketing push were more than 50 percent higher than the month leading up to it. All those free sandwiches are worth the long-term gains.
Apple will owe money to UK users after losing an App Store antitrust lawsuit there on Thursday, according to Financial Times. The Competition Appeal Tribunal ruled that the iPhone maker abused its dominant market position to inflate developer fees.
The tribunal found that the company has “near absolute market power” for iOS app distribution and in-app payments. The decision declared that Apple has been “abusing its dominant position by charging excessive and unfair prices.” FT reports that Apple will appeal the decision.
The class action claimants said damages of about £1.5bn would be split between 36 million consumers. A subsequent hearing to determine the process for “resolving any questions relating to the calculation” of damages could come as soon as next month.
Apple has an increasingly strained relationship with the tighter regulations across the Atlantic. Earlier this week, the company stepped up its attacks on the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), a law designed to protect consumers from Big Tech dominance. And on Wednesday, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) confirmed that Apple has “strategic market status” in the country’s equivalent of the DMA. That gives the CMA authority to “ensure that mobile platforms are open to effective competition.”
Apple provided the following statement in response to the ruling:
“We thank the tribunal for its consideration but strongly disagree with this ruling, which takes a flawed view of the thriving and competitive app economy. The App Store has benefited businesses and consumers across the U.K., creating a dynamic marketplace where developers compete and users can choose from millions of innovative apps. This ruling overlooks how the App Store helps developers succeed and gives consumers a safe, trusted place to discover apps and securely make payments. The App Store faces vigorous competition from many other platforms — often with far fewer privacy and security protections — giving developers and consumers many options in how they build, share, and download apps. We intend to appeal.”
Update, October 23, 2025, 5:30PM ET: This story has been updated to include a statement from Apple on today’s ruling.
Apple has removed dating apps Tea and TeaOnHer from the App Store for violating rules related to content moderation and user privacy. The company told TechCrunch that it pulled the apps as they broke several of its rules, including one mandating that apps can’t share or otherwise use an individual’s personal info without getting their permission first.
Apple said they also violated a rule concerning user-generated content, which stipulates that apps need to allow for reporting offensive or concerning material, an option to block abusive users and the ability to filter “objectionable material from being posted.” In addition, Apple claimed the apps broke rules related to user reviews. It told TechCrunch they had an “excessive” volume of negative reviews and complaints from users, including ones related to minors’ personal details being shared. The company noted that it raised these issues’ with the apps’ developers, but they were not resolved.
As it stands, both apps are still available on Android through the Google Play Store. Tea (which is formally called Tea Dating Advice) enables women to post details about men they’ve met or dated. It allows them to post and comment on photos, look up public records on individuals, carry out reverse image searches, share their experiences and rate or review men. Users can, for instance, say whether they’d give a man a “green flag” or a “red flag.”
TeaOnHer flips that format on its head, with men sharing info about women. Both are pitched as dating safety apps, with Tea telling users they can “ask our anonymous community of women to make sure your date is safe, not a catfish and not in a relationship.”
Tea first emerged in 2023 and it went viral this year. In July, hackers breached the app and leaked tens of thousands of images, including around 3,000 selfies and photo IDs that users submitted to verify their accounts. The other images included posts, comments and private messages. A second hack exposed more than a million private messages.
Days after TeaOnHer went live in August (ripping off text from Tea’s App Store description in the process), it emerged that app had its own security issues. It was possible to view photo IDs and selfies that users had submitted for account verification, as well as their email addresses.
A person is dead after a solo vehicle crash in Elk Grove, Elk Grove police said.Elk Grove Boulevard between Shorelake Drive and Waterfowl Drive is closed in both directions, police said. It is unclear what led up to the fatal crash, or how long the roads will be closed.This is a developing story. See news happening? Send us your photos or videos if it’s safe to do so at kcra.com/upload.If this story happened near you or someone you know, share this article with friends in your area using the KCRA mobile app so they know what is happening near them. The KCRA app is available for free in Apple’s App Store and on Google Play.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
ELK GROVE, Calif. —
A person is dead after a solo vehicle crash in Elk Grove, Elk Grove police said.
Elk Grove Boulevard between Shorelake Drive and Waterfowl Drive is closed in both directions, police said.
It is unclear what led up to the fatal crash, or how long the roads will be closed.
This is a developing story.
See news happening? Send us your photos or videos if it’s safe to do so at kcra.com/upload.
If this story happened near you or someone you know, share this article with friends in your area using the KCRA mobile app so they know what is happening near them. The KCRA app is available for free in Apple’s App Store and on Google Play.
Texas could have a serious legal battle on its hands thanks to an age verification law for app stores that it recently enacted. In response to the Texas App Store Accountability Act, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) filed a lawsuit that argues the new order goes against First Amendment rights. The not-for-profit trade association has Amazon, Apple and Google amongst its members.
The law goes into effect on New Year’s Day and requires app store users to verify their age before downloading apps or making in-app purchases. If underage, users have to get parental consent each time they want to download an app or make another in-app purchase. Along with those stipulations, the suit claims that there’s an additional burden on developers, who have to “age-rate” their apps for different age groups.
“This Texas law violates the First Amendment by restricting app stores from offering lawful content, preventing users from seeing that content, and compelling app developers to speak of their offerings in a way pleasing to the state,” Stephanie Joyce, senior vice president and chief of staff for the CCIA, said in a press release.
Along with CCIA, a student advocacy group called Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT) filed a similar lawsuit objecting to Texas’ upcoming app store requirements. Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, the firm representing SEAT and the two high school students named in the lawsuit, said the law “violates the First Amendment by imposing sweeping restrictions on access to protected speech and information.” The law firm also noted the potential dangers associated with collecting personal information, like government IDs, when it comes to verifying identity.
California has become the latest state to age-gate app stores and operating systems. AB 1043 is one of several internet regulation bills that Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law on Monday, including ones related to social media warning labels, chatbots and deepfake pornography.
The State Assembly passed AB 1043 with a 58-0 vote in September. The legislation received backing from notable tech companies such as Google, OpenAI, Meta, Snap and Pinterest. The companies claimed the bill offered a more balanced approach to age verification, with more privacy protection, than laws passed in other states.
Unlike with legislation in Utah and Texas, children will still be able to download apps without their parents’ consent. The law doesn’t require people to upload photo IDs either. Instead, the idea is that a parent will enter their child’s age while setting up a device for them — so it’s more of an age gate than age verification. The operating system and/or app store will place the user into one of four age categories (under 13, 13-16, 16-18 or adult) and make that information available to app developers.
Enacting AB 1043 means that California is joining the likes of Utah, Texas and Louisiana in mandating that app stores carry out age verification (the UK has a broad age verification law in place too). Apple has detailed how it plans to comply with the Texas law, which takes effect on January 1, 2026. The California legislation takes effect one year later.
AB 56, another bill Newsom signed Monday, will force social media services to display warning labels that inform kids and teens about the risks of using such platforms. These messages will appear the first time the user opens an app each day, then after three hours of total use and once an hour thereafter. This law will take effect on January 1, 2027 as well.
Elsewhere, California will require AI chatbots to have guardrails in place to prevent self-harm content from appearing and direct users who express suicidal ideation to crisis services. Platforms will need to inform the Department of Public Health about how they’re addressing self-harm and to share details on how often they display crisis center prevention notifications.
The legislation is coming into force after lawsuits were filed against OpenAI and Character AI in relation to teen suicides. OpenAI last month announced plans to automatically identify teen ChatGPT users and restrict their usage of the chatbot.
In addition, SB 243 prohibits chatbots from being marketed as health care professionals. Chatbots will need to make it clear to users that they aren’t interacting with a person when they’re using such services, and instead they’re receiving artificially generated responses. Chatbot providers will need to remind minors of this at least every three hours.
Newsom also signed a bill concerning deepfake pornography into law. AB 621 includes steeper potential penalties for “third parties who knowingly facilitate or aid in the distribution of nonconsensual sexually explicit material.” The legislation allows victims to seek up to $250,000 per “malicious violation” of the law.
In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255 or you can simply dial 988. Crisis Text Line can be reached by texting HOME to 741741 (US), CONNECT to 686868 (Canada) or SHOUT to 85258 (UK). Wikipedia maintains a list of crisis lines for people outside of those countries.
It seems to be the end of the road for Apple’s Clips app. The company said on a support page that it has stopped updating the video-editing app, and new users can no longer download it from the App Store. Existing users on iOS and iPadOS will continue to have access for the time being, but the company hasn’t said how long that will last. “If you previously downloaded the Clips app, you can still redownload it from your Apple account in the App Store,” the support page notes.
Clips was introduced in 2017 and offers a host of editing tools geared toward creating videos for social media. But Clips never really caught on, and many of the features it boasts are pretty much standard fare on the social apps now. Apple has recommended that Clips users save their videos to their photo libraries or elsewhere, so if you are one of the few users hanging on, you should probably go ahead and do that before it’s too late.
This week, OpenAI announced that apps can now run directly inside ChatGPT, letting users book travel, create playlists, and edit designs without switching between different apps. Some immediately declared it the app platform of the future — predicting a ChatGPT-powered world where Apple’s App Store becomes obsolete.
An open question was answered today – “what will the AI-native distribution channel be?”
It looks like ChatGPT will be that channel with 800M active users + the Apps SDK.
This is likely as important as Steve Jobs announcing the app store in March of 2008 … pic.twitter.com/6RCbIi0foq
But while OpenAI’s app platform presents an emerging threat, Apple’s vision for an improved Siri — though still seriously delayed — could still play out in its favor.
After all, Apple already controls the hardware, the operating system, and has roughly 1.5 billion iPhone users globally, compared to ChatGPT’s 800 million weekly active users. If Apple’s bet pays off, it could position the iPhone maker in a way that would not only maintain its app industry dominance but also modernize how we use apps in the AI era.
Apple’s plan is to kill the app icon without killing the app itself. Its vision for AI-powered computing — introduced at its developer conference last year — would see iPhone users interact with an overhauled version of Siri and a revamped system that changes the way you use apps on your phone. (Imagine less tapping and more talking.)
Apps are passé, long live apps?
It’s an idea whose time has come.
Organizing little tappable icons on your iPhone’s Home Screen to make online information more accessible is a dated metaphor for computing. Meant to resemble a scaled-down version of a computer’s desktop, apps are becoming a less common way for users to interact with many of their preferred online services.
These days, consumers are just as likely to ask an AI assistant for a recommendation or insight as they are to do a Google search or launch a dedicated, single-purpose app, like Yelp. They’ll talk out loud to their smart speakers or Bluetooth-connected AirPods to play their favorite tunes; they’ll ask a chatbot for business information or a summary of reviews for a new movie or show.
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The AI, a large language model trained on web-scraped data and more, determines what the user wants to know and spits out a response.
This is arguably easier than scouring through Google’s search results for the right link with the answer. (That’s something Google itself realized over a decade ago, when it startedputtinganswers to user queries right on the search results page.)
AI is also often easier than finding the right app on your now overcrowded iPhone, launching it, and then interacting with its user interface — which varies from app to app — to perform your task or get an answer to your question.
However, ChatGPT’s app system, while seemingly improving on this model, remains locked inside the ChatGPT user experience. It requires consumers to engage in a chatbot-style interface to use their apps, which could require user education. To call up an app, you have to name it as the first word of your prompt or otherwise mention the app by name to get a button that prompts you to “use the app for the answer.” Then, you have to type in an accurate query. (If you mess this up, early tests by Bloomberg indicate you could get stuck on a loading screen with no results!)
We have to wonder: is this the future of apps, or just the future while there’s no other competition? When another solution becomes available — one that’s built into your iPhone, no less — will consumers keep using ChatGPT, or are they still willing to give Siri another try? We don’t know, but we wouldn’t count out Apple yet, even though Siri has quite a badreputation to salvage at this point.
Siri may be an embarrassment as it stands today, but Apple’s overall ecosystem has advantages. For starters, consumers already have the apps they want to use on their phone or know how to find them on the App Store, if not. They’ve used many of these apps for years. Muscle memory goes a long way!
Meanwhile, there are a few roadblocks to getting started with ChatGPT’s app platform.
You have to install the app in question, of course; then you have to connect the app to ChatGPT by jumping through a warning-filled permission screen. This process requires you to authenticate with the app using your existing username and password, and to enter the two-factor authentication code, if applicable.
After this one-time setup, things should be easier. For instance, after you generate a Spotify playlist with AI, it can be launched in the Spotify app with a tap.
However, this experience won’t differ much from Apple’s plans if Apple is able to make things work as promised. Apple says you’ll be able to talk or text Siri to control your apps.
There are other disadvantages to the OpenAI app model. You can only interact with one app at a time, instead of being able to switch back and forth between apps — something that could be useful when comparing prices or trying to decide between a hotel room and an Airbnb.
Using apps within ChatGPT also strips away the branding, design, and identity that consumers associate with their favorite apps. (For those who hate how cluttered Spotify’s app has become, perhaps that’s a good thing. Others, however, will disagree.) And, in some cases, using the mobile app version to accomplish your goals may still be easier than using the ChatGPT app version because of the flexibility the former offers.
Finally, compelling users to switch app platforms could be difficult when there isn’t an obvious advantage to using apps within ChatGPT — except for the fact that it’s neat that you can.
Can Apple save Siri’s reputation with AI features?
In its WWDC 2024 demonstration — which Apple swears was not “demoware” — the company showed how the apps would function under this new system and how they could use other AI features like proofreading.
Most importantly, Apple told developers that they’ll be able to take advantage of some of its AI capabilities without having to do additional work — like a note-taking app using proofreading or rewriting tools. Plus, developers who have already integrated SiriKit into their apps will be able to do more in terms of having users take action in their apps. (SiriKit, a toolkit for making apps interoperable with Siri and Apple’s Shortcuts, is something developers have been using since iOS 10.)
These developers will see immediate enhancements when the new Siri rolls out.
Image Credits:Apple
Apple said it will focus on categories like Notes, Media, Messaging, Payments, Restaurant Reservations, VoIP Calling, and Workouts, to start.
Apps in these categories will be able to let their users take actions via Siri. In practice, that means Siri will be able to invoke any item from an app’s menus. For example, you could ask Siri to see your presenter notes in a slide deck, and your productivity app would respond accordingly.
The apps would also be able to access any text displayed on the page using Apple’s standard text systems. That could make the app interactions feel more natural, without the user having to give specifically worded prompts or commands. For instance, if you had a reminder to wish your grandpa a happy birthday, you could say “FaceTime him” to take that action.
Image Credits:Apple
Apple’s existing Intents framework is also being updated to gain access to Apple Intelligence, covering even more apps in categories like Books, Browsers, Cameras, Document Readers, File Management, Journals, Mail, Photos, Presentations, Spreadsheets, Whiteboards, and Word Processors. Here, Apple is creating new “Intents” that are pre-defined, trained, and tested, and making them available to developers.
That means you could tell the photo-editing app Darkroom to apply a cinematic filter to an image via Siri. Plus, Siri will be able to suggest an app’s actions, helping iPhone users discover what their apps can do and take those actions.
Developers have been adopting the App Intents framework, introduced in iOS 16, because it offers other functionality to integrate their app’s actions and content with other platform features, including Spotlight, Siri, the iPhone’s Action button, widgets, controls, and visual search features — not just Apple Intelligence.
Image Credits:Apple
Also, unlike ChatGPT, Apple runs its own operating system on its own hardware and offers the App Store as a discovery mechanism, the app infrastructure, and developer tools, APIs, and frameworks — not just the AI-powered interface that will help you use your apps.
Though Apple may have to borrow some AI tech from others to do that last bit, it has the data to personalize your app recommendations, and, for the privacy-minded, the controls that let you limit how much information apps themselves can collect. (Where’s the “Do Not Track” option for ChatGPT’s app system, we wonder?)
OpenAI’s system doesn’t work out of the box with all your apps at launch. It requires developer adoption and relies on the Model Context Protocol (MCP), a newer technology for connecting AI assistants to other systems. That’s why ChatGPT currently works with only a handful of apps, like Booking.com, Expedia, Spotify, Figma, Coursera, Zillow, and Canva. MCP adoption is growing, but the delay in its becoming broadly adopted could give Apple the extra time it needs to catch up.
What’s more, word is that Apple’s AI system is nearly ready. The company is reportedly already internally testing this, allowing users to take actions in apps by using Siri voice commands. Bloomberg reported that this smarter version of Siri works out of the box works with many apps, including those from major players like Uber, AllTrails, Threads, Temu, Amazon, YouTube, Facebook, and WhatsApp. And it’s still on track to ship next year, Apple confirmed to TechCrunch.
Apple has an iPhone, OpenAI has Jony Ive
The iPhone’s status as an app platform will also be difficult to disrupt, even from a company as large and powerful as OpenAI.
The ChatGPT maker understands this, too, which is why OpenAI is exploring its own device with Apple’s former head of design, Jony Ive. It wants its AI to become more of a part of consumers’ everyday lives and habits, which could require a hardware device.
Three people were shot early Sunday morning in midtown Sacramento at The Lock & Key, officials said. Officers went to J Street near 27th Street around 12:45 a.m. for a report of a shooting, the Sacramento Police Department said. Upon arrival, three people were found with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds. They were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment.KCRA 3 spoke with a mother of one of the victims. She said her daughter was shot in the leg during her 28th birthday celebration inside the lounge. The mother explained that her daughter and son-in-law told her about a fight that broke out between two men inside the club.No arrests have been made in connection with the shooting. The investigation is still ongoing. KCRA 3 reached out to the Lock & Key for more information was unsuccessful.This story was curated by Hearst’s KCRA Alert Desk.See news happening? Send us your photos or videos if it’s safe to do so at kcra.com/upload.If this story happened near you or someone you know, share this article with friends in your area using the KCRA mobile app so they know what is happening near them. The KCRA app is available for free in Apple’s App Store and on Google Play.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
Three people were shot early Sunday morning in midtown Sacramento at The Lock & Key, officials said.
Officers went to J Street near 27th Street around 12:45 a.m. for a report of a shooting, the Sacramento Police Department said. Upon arrival, three people were found with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds. They were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment.
KCRA 3 spoke with a mother of one of the victims. She said her daughter was shot in the leg during her 28th birthday celebration inside the lounge.
The mother explained that her daughter and son-in-law told her about a fight that broke out between two men inside the club.
No arrests have been made in connection with the shooting. The investigation is still ongoing.
KCRA 3 reached out to the Lock & Key for more information was unsuccessful.
This story was curated by Hearst’s KCRA Alert Desk.
See news happening? Send us your photos or videos if it’s safe to do so at kcra.com/upload.
If this story happened near you or someone you know, share this article with friends in your area using the KCRA mobile app so they know what is happening near them. The KCRA app is available for free in Apple’s App Store and on Google Play.
Following Apple’s removal of ICEBlock from the App Store, an app used to report on the activity of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, 404 Media reports that Google is also removing similar apps from the Play Store. In a statement to Engadget, Google said “ICEBlock was never available on Google Play, but we removed similar apps for violations of our policies.”
Google says that it decided to remove apps that shared the location of a vulnerable group following a violent act that involved the group and a similar collection of apps. It suggests the apps were also removed because they didn’t appropriately moderate user-generated content. To be offered in the Play Store, apps with user-generated content have to clearly define what is or isn’t objectionable content in their terms of service, and make sure those terms line up with Google’s definitions of inappropriate content for Google Play.
404 Media report specifically focuses on Red Dot, an app that both Google and Apple removed. Like ICEBlock, Red Dot designed to let users report on ICE activity in their neighborhood. Rather than just rely on user submissions, the app’s website says that it “aggregates verified reports from multiple trusted sources” and then combines those sources to determine where to mark activity on a map of your area. “Red Dot never tracks ICE agents, law enforcement, or any person’s movements” and the app’s developers “categorically reject harassment, interference, or harm toward ICE agents or anyone else.” Despite those claims, the app is not currently available to download from the Play Store or the App Store.
The pushback against ICE tracking apps seemed to begin in earnest following a shooting at a Dallas ICE facility that injured two detainees and killed another on September 24. According to an FBI agent that spoke to The New York Times, the shooter “had been following apps that track the location of ICE agents” in the days leading up to the event.
Apple pulled the ICEBlock app from the App Store yesterday following a request from US Attorney General Pam Bondi. In a statement shared with Fox Business, Bondi said that “ICEBlock is designed to put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs, and violence against law enforcement is an intolerable red line that cannot be crossed.” Apple’s response was to remove the app. “Based on information we’ve received from law enforcement about the safety risks associated with ICEBlock, we have removed it and similar apps from the App Store,” Apple told the publication.
Google says it didn’t receive a similar request to remove apps from the Play Store. Instead, the company appears to be acting proactively. The test for either platform going forward, though, is if there’s a way that developers can offer these apps without them being removed again.
Apple has removed ICEBlock, the app which allowed users to put a pin on a map to show where ICE agents have recently been spotted, from the App Store. It has also pulled other apps that served a similar purpose. According to Fox Business, Attorney General Pam Bondi demanded their takedown, telling Apple that the apps were “designed to put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs.” Bondi added that “violence against law enforcement is an intolerable red line that cannot be crossed.” She also said that the “Department of Justice will continue making every effort to protect [its] brave federal law enforcement officers, who risk their lives every day to keep Americans safe.”
“We created the App Store to be a safe and trusted place to discover apps,” Apple told the publication in a statement. “Based on information we’ve received from law enforcement about the safety risks associated with ICEBlock, we have removed it and similar apps from the App Store.”
Bondi demanded the apps’ removal after the FBI and the administration reported that the gunman who attacked an ICE facility in Dallas used tracking apps, including ICEBlock, to open fire from a rooftop. The gunman killed two immigrants and injured a third, but he was allegedly targeting ICE agents. Joshua Aaron, the app’s developer, told Fox Business that he was “incredibly disappointed” by Apple’s actions. “Capitulating to an authoritarian regime is never the right move,” he said. “Apple has claimed they received information from law enforcement that ICEBlock served to harm law enforcement officers. This is patently false.” Aaron added: “We are determined to fight this with everything we have. Our mission has always been to protect our neighbors from the terror this administration continues to reign down on the people of this nation.”
ICEBlock climbed to the top of the App Store charts in July after administration officials slammed it, making more people aware of its existence. At the time, officials warned Aaron that they were “looking at him, and he better watch out” because the app threatens the lives of law enforcement agents. NBC News reports that it was downloaded more than 1 million times since it was introduced. Tom Homan, the administration’s “border czar,” recently told Fox News that the government will investigate the “people who put these apps up” because they put “law enforcement at great risk.”
The Mokelumne River Bridge on Highway 12 was closed Sunday morning in Rio Vista, Caltrans said. The bridge was closed as of 11 a.m., California Highway Patrol online logs show. It was unclear why the bridge was closed. There is no estimated time for reopening. Drivers should expect delays and seek alternative routes at this time This story was curated by Hearst’s KCRA Alert Desk.See news happening? Send us your photos or videos if it’s safe to do so at kcra.com/upload.If this story happened near you or someone you know, share this article with friends in your area using the KCRA mobile app so they know what is happening near them. The KCRA app is available for free in Apple’s App Store and on Google Play.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
RIO VISTA, Calif. —
The Mokelumne River Bridge on Highway 12 was closed Sunday morning in Rio Vista, Caltrans said.
The bridge was closed as of 11 a.m., California Highway Patrol online logs show. It was unclear why the bridge was closed.
There is no estimated time for reopening. Drivers should expect delays and seek alternative routes at this time
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This story was curated by Hearst’s KCRA Alert Desk.
See news happening? Send us your photos or videos if it’s safe to do so at kcra.com/upload.
If this story happened near you or someone you know, share this article with friends in your area using the KCRA mobile app so they know what is happening near them. The KCRA app is available for free in Apple’s App Store and on Google Play.
A California bill that would require operating system and app store providers to verify users’ ages before they can download apps has cleared the Assembly 58-0, and will now move on to Gov. Gavin Newsom, reports. The Digital Age Assurance Act (AB 1043), introduced by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, does not require photo identification for verification, but puts the onus on the platforms to provide tools for parents to indicate the user’s age during a device’s setup, and use this information steer kids toward age-appropriate content and screen time.
It comes after and both adopted app store age verification laws earlier this year that have been criticized as posing potential privacy risks, and faced opposition from the likes of Google and Apple. The California bill has been received more positively by Big Tech, with Google, Meta and others putting out in support of it in the leadup to a Senate vote on Friday. Kareem Ghanem, Google’s Senior Director of Government Affairs & Public Policy, called the bill “one of the most thoughtful approaches we’ve seen thus far to the challenges of keeping kids safe, recognizing that it’s a shared responsibility across the ecosystem.” Gov. Newsom now has until October 13 to sign or veto the bill, according to Politico.
