When I really started to amplify my work with AI, the most annoying thing was the message: “you have hit your quota, usage reset at 3:00 AM”. That was Claude telling me I have exhausted all my tokens and I cannot work anymore. I had to stop. Go out and take a break. It felt incredibly frustrating but I had no choice, I had to wait until my quota was replenished.
Since then, I started to experiment with on-device inference. Meaning using models on my own machine, and not via APIs, capped by my current subscription. At the moment of writing, this is still prohibitive. My Mac M1 has 16GB of RAM, which makes it barely usable for coding tasks. The best I can do is to use some 3B (3 billion parameters) model, like Qwen, which is roughly usable for task classification, and impossible for real hardcore coding tasks, the kind that I’m using every day.
The Unexpected Discovery
So running inference on my machine basically means 2 things: first, I have to wait until models are becoming more performant (and it seems this is happening now every 6 months or so) and I have to get a better machine, one with at least 64GB of RAM.
But while I was researching all these AI configurations, I accidentally stumbled upon something called Apple Intelligence. It’s a collection of optimized models which are running on device, and can do decent text and image manipulation. They cannot generate code, or high resolution photos, but they are good enough for low res tasks.
AI Storytelling and Image Generation on device, with Apple Intelligence
So, it works like this: the user picks 5 random words from a pre-made list, we feed these words to the on-device text model and instruct it to make a short story out of them – don’t ask me about what prompt(s) I’m using, it took me a lot of time to get them right. Once the story is done, feed the story to the image generation model and build an image for that story. Everything stays on device, no API calls, nothing.
Looks simple.
Well, in the beginning it was. But the more I worked on it, the deeper I went down the rabbit hole. Sometimes I was hitting some model limitations, like the fact that the text model cannot generate output if a person is involved. I don’t know why, but it’s just how it is. And then I realized the image generation could be further optimized by using different styles and perspectives. So I made a few presets for both styles and perspective.
And then there was the UX angle: how much of this is free, and how much is ad-gated?
After a couple of days of back and forth I came up with something not only working decently, but significantly… addictive. I know, I’m the builder, I’m supposed to like what I’m building, but still. There is something really addictive about watching how words are becoming short stories, almost like haikus, and then on top of them ephemeral, gentle images are being generated. It’s… beautiful.
The Challenges
Apple Intelligence is not available on all Apple devices. You need to be on iOS 18.4 or higher, and have an iPhone 15 Pro or newer, and to enable it in Settings. That’s a significant limitation and it was the biggest source of friction during the AppStore review process. Initially, the App Review team tested on simulators and it instantly rejected the app. I had to actually send them a message with instructions: test on devices, guys, Apple Intelligence doesn’t work in simulators.
On top of that, I had to do significant work in the sharing feature. Because what’s a beautiful image on my phone, if no one else can see it? Does it even exist? Joke aside, I built 3 different share sheets, for Twitter, Instagram and TikTok, trying to bank on the short form content that these platforms are prioritizing.
Try It Out!
The app is finally live in AppStore, so you can try it out. Remember, you’ll need an Apple Intelligence ready device AND need to have Apple Intelligence enabled on that device.
Download Just 5 Words for free from here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/just-5-words/id6753934664 – and let me know what you build. Just share on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok and use the hash tag #5Words, I’ll keep an eye on that one.
All in all, this was one of the most fun experiments I did recently.
About 10 years ago I had the chance to be exposed to real Buddhist teachings—and by “real” I mean coming from a real Geshe monk who had been practicing Tibetan Buddhism for more than 20 years. It was a serendipitous encounter at the co-working space I used to manage in Bucharest. The Geshe visited us for 2 days, held a couple of events and, as a result, a local group based on his teachings was started. I was also personally involved in the seeding of that group, but life unfolded for me differently: a couple of years after that I left Romania, following my location independence calling and moved to Spain. That was the beginning of an 8-year-long trip, still unfolding, that took me to Spain, as I said, and then Portugal, and then Asia, with stays in Korea, Thailand and, recently, Vietnam.
During this time I did my best to follow the teachings and that was by far one of
the best things I did. I am by no means a monk, and I do not aim at becoming one. But I
am grateful every day for my renewed understanding of the world through Buddhist
lenses.
Bringing Practice Closer
Why this long introduction?
Well, one of the things I wanted to do for a long time was to shorten the path between my tech endeavors and the practice. As you know, I’m a geek, that’s how I put bread on the table, and I’ve been a coder for more than 35 years. What if, instead of separating practice from work, I could bring them together? What if I could find a way to integrate the teachings into my coding, or into my apps?
That’s how Zen Tales – Buddhist Stories was born. It’s an app that lets you listen
to short Buddhist stories adapted from various public domain sources. They range from
koans to Buddha life stories, packed as short intermezzos (one to four minutes) that
can be interwoven into the fabric of your day at any moment.
Buddhism in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
I went the extra mile here, and, on top of the listening experience, I added a
little bit more.
After each story is listened to, you can start a series of reflections on that piece, with the help of a specially crafted AI model. Let’s say you finished listening to the koan about “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” You can now tap on a series of pre-made reflections, like “Have you ever understood something by giving up rather than figuring it out?” and the AI model will gently give you more insights, based on the story and on general Buddhist principles.
There are 50 hand-picked stories in this first release, and each of them has 3
pre-made reflections. What happens after you tap on all 3 reflections? Well, you get
your own chat window and can ask your own free-form questions.
Of course, as with any app, there are some guardrails and incentives, like in-app purchases for more chat credits (like going to a retreat to deepen your wisdom). There is no advertising, everything is clean, and for those who really get the benefits there is even a “Practice Dana” section in the Settings, where you can express your gratitude with small tips (like lighting a candle, or ringing the temple bell).
All in all, Zen Tales is the app I wish I’d had 10 years ago. I hope it will support your practice.
Even if you’re not practicing Buddhism, I hope you’ll find some food for thought—or,
who knows, some genuinely useful wisdom—in this ever-changing Samsara.
When our one-year-old started to watch cartoons on iPad, we mostly used YouTube. He learned very soon how to scroll, how to pick new videos from the “related” column, and, sometimes, he even accidentally subscribed to some channels.
The Accidental UX Researcher
The more he watched, the more a clear UX pattern emerged. He didn’t care about the content — he cared about the interaction. Swipe. Tap. Something happens. Swipe again. New thing. Tap again. Sound comes out. That loop was deeply satisfying for him, and, honestly, it was fascinating to watch. A one-year-old who can’t form full sentences yet, but who had already internalized the core interaction patterns of one of the most used apps on the planet.
And that’s when the question hit me.
So one day I thought: “what if I mimicked the same UX on iPad, but with different content? Instead of the main video, some object image. The related column will scroll to related objects. And instead of Subscribe, we will have buttons to SPEAK that word in Romanian, English, and Vietnamese?”
Three Languages, One Kitchen Table
Now, a bit of context here. Our family is a beautiful linguistic mess. I’m Romanian, my wife is Vietnamese, and we talk to each other in English. So our kid is essentially growing up in a trilingual household, which is both a gift and a daily coordination challenge. At any given moment, the same object on the kitchen table has three names, and all three are correct.
This multilingual reality is what made the idea click. YouTube was teaching him to swipe and tap, but it wasn’t teaching him words — at least not the words we wanted him to learn, in the languages we needed him to hear.
It took me less than half of an afternoon to make the MVP, so we started to test. The first version was rough — just a handful of household items with images, a scrollable list on the right, and three language buttons. That’s it. No animations, no fancy design, just the bones of the idea.
Initially, he was surprised there was no video, but the UX patterns were the same. He scrolled, he clicked, and he tapped the language buttons. Within minutes, he was navigating the app the same way he navigated YouTube. He’d pick an object — say, a chair — see the image, and then tap the Romanian button. “Scaun.” Tap the Vietnamese button. “Ghế.” Tap English. “Chair.” Then scroll to the next object and do it all over again.
That was the moment I knew this wasn’t just a weekend hack. This was something real.
That’s how AI Kiddo was born.
From MVP to App Store
I spent the next few weeks turning the MVP into a proper app. Built it in SwiftUI, kept it lean and focused. No backend, no analytics, no third-party SDKs — this is a kids’ app, and I take that seriously. Everything runs locally on the device. The text-to-speech uses Apple’s built-in AVSpeechSynthesizer, which means it works offline and doesn’t send any data anywhere.
The content is organized into packs. You get three free starter packs right out of the gate — Around the House, Kitchen Essentials, and Bathroom Basics. That’s about 50 objects your kid can explore without paying anything. If they (or you) want more, there are twelve expansion packs covering everything from Animals and Food to Numbers, Colors, Body Parts, Actions, and even Weather. Each pack is $0.99, or you can grab the whole bundle for $2.99.
And here’s the part I’m probably most proud of: it doesn’t just do three languages. It does eight. English, Romanian, Vietnamese, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, and Korean. You pick which languages you want to display in the settings, and only those show up as buttons. So if your family is Franco-German, you configure it for French and German. If you’re a Korean family living in Spain, you set it to Korean and Spanish. The app adapts to your family’s actual linguistic landscape.
Simple UI Is The Best UI
The UI stays true to the original insight — it still mimics the two-panel layout that my son had already mastered from YouTube. On iPad, you get a split view: the object image takes up the left two-thirds of the screen, and the scrollable list of items sits on the right. On iPhone, it stacks vertically. Big touch targets everywhere — we’re talking 60 to 80 points minimum — because toddler fingers are not exactly precision instruments.
I also added a parental gate, because App Store requires it for kids’ apps, and honestly, it makes sense. Before any purchase or external link, there’s a simple math challenge (something like “15 + 23 = ?”) that a toddler definitely can’t solve. It keeps the experience safe and gives parents control.
One thing I deliberately left out: gamification. No stars, no streaks, no “you did it!” pop-ups. The reward IS the interaction. Tap a button, hear a word. That’s it. Kids don’t need to be tricked into learning — they just need the right tool at the right moment.
Now it’s live on the App Store with 8 integrated languages, 15 content packs, and over 300 vocabulary items. Instead of watching only cartoons, our son is also actively exploring words in multiple languages, building vocabulary at his own pace, driven by the same swipe-and-tap patterns that YouTube accidentally taught him.
Sometimes the best product ideas don’t come from market research or competitor analysis. They come from sitting on the couch, watching a one-year-old accidentally subscribe to a Cars on the Road channel, and thinking: “There has to be a better use for this skill.”
P.S. That’s not my first attempt to solve real-life problems by coding. Stay tuned, there might be another story about how I won against Mekong Delta mosquitoes soon…
Scrolling used to be relaxing. Now it often feels chaotic. That is not a coincidence. Nearly everything you see on social media is controlled by algorithms that track what you like, watch, click and ignore. Over time, those signals get muddy. One curiosity click can reshape your feed for weeks. The solution is not deleting your accounts. It is retraining the system.
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Your social media experience starts the moment you tap an app, and every click helps shape what shows up next.(Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
How social media algorithms decide what you see
Algorithms pay attention to behavior, not intention. They track engagement patterns and repeat what keeps you scrolling. If your feed feels off, it usually means the algorithm learned the wrong lesson. Resetting your feed helps correct that.
Note: This article is written desktop-first (PC or Mac). When a step is phone-only or significantly different on mobile, it is clearly labeled.
How to clean up your Facebook Feed
Primary device: PC or Mac. Phone differences noted.
Use Content Preferences to retrain Facebook (PC or Mac)
Facebook’s feed is built around people, pages and groups you follow, plus recommended content and ads.
Click your profile photo in the upper right
Select Settings and Privacy > Content Preferences
From here, you can:
Add people and groups to Favorites
Snooze posts temporarily
Unfollow accounts without unfriending them
Reconnect with accounts you muted before
These tools are easiest to manage on a desktop.
Filter your Feed view (PC or Mac)
To bypass the main algorithmic feed:
Click Feeds in the left navigation
Choose to view only Favorites, Friends, Groups, or Pages
This shows content chronologically within those categories.
Hide and flag posts as you scroll (PC, Mac and phone)
On any post in your Facebook feed:
Click the three-dot menu in the upper right of the post
Choose Hide post, Snooze, or Unfollow, depending on what appears
Hiding posts and snoozing or unfollowing accounts sends the same signal to the algorithm. Use these options often. Facebook responds more reliably to repeated negative feedback than occasional clicks.
For suggested posts and reels, you may also see Not interested. Selecting it further trains the feed away from similar content.
Cut down ads and sensitive topics (PC, Mac and phone)
When ads appear:
Click the X to hide them
Or use the three-dot menu to hide or report
For deeper control:
Go to Settings and Privacy > Settings
Open Account Center
Click Ad Preferences > Customize ads
Select See All next to Ad Topics
Click View and manage topics
Click the topic name
Choose See less
Repeat this for every topic you want to limit.
To block specific words in comments:
Click your profile picture (top right on desktop)
Settings & privacy → Settings
In the left column, click Profile and Tagging
Under “Profile,” look for Hide comments containing certain words from your profile and click on the arrow next to it.
Choose a list of words, phrases or emojis you want to hide from your profile and type them in the box.
Click Save below it.
Using a computer gives you deeper control over social media settings that are harder to find on a phone.(Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
How to clean up your Instagram feed
Primary device: Phone only
Instagram does not currently offer a reliable, universal option to reset its algorithm. Feed control on Instagram is manual and behavior-based. That means the app learns from what you hide, mute, unfollow and ignore.
Tell Instagram what you do not want to see (phone)
On posts that miss the mark:
Tap the three-dot menu
Select Not interested, Mute or Unfollow, depending on what appears
Use this consistently. Instagram responds more to repeated signals than one-off actions.
Fine-tune who appears in your feed (phone)
Visit accounts directly and tap Following to manage how their content shows up.
From here, you can:
Mute posts or stories
Add or remove Favorites
Restrict interactions
Unfollow the account
These actions immediately influence future recommendations.
Review account-level controls (phone)
Open Settings and review:
Muted accounts
Blocked accounts
Close Friends
Cleaning up these lists helps reduce clutter and repetitive content.
When a new Instagram account makes sense
If your feed still feels off after manual cleanup, starting fresh is the most effective reset.
To do this:
Log out and create a new account
Follow only accounts you truly want to see
Avoid mass-following during setup
Instagram’s algorithm is heavily influenced by early behavior, so a slow, intentional start matters.
Some users may hear about an Instagram “reset” feature, but as of now, it is not consistently available across accounts.
Fine-tune who you see (phone)
Tap the three-dot menu on posts to unfollow or favorite accounts.
From any profile, tap Following to:
Add Close Friend
Add Favorite
Mute posts or stories
Restrict interactions
Unfollow
Under Settings, review:
Muted accounts
Blocked accounts
Close Friends
Instagram’s feed is trained by what you hide, mute and unfollow, not by a single reset button.(iStock)
How to reset your TikTok For You page
Primary device: Phone only
Train the feed gradually (phone)
Press and hold on a video
Tap Not Interested
Consistency matters here.
Remove past likes (phone)
Go to Profile
Tap the heart icon
Unlike videos that may be influencing recommendations
Refresh the entire feed (phone only)
Tap Profile
Tap the three-line menu
Go to Settings and Privacy > Content Preferences
Tap Refresh Your For You Feed
Confirm
This resets recommendations but keeps your following list.
For a total reset, unfollow accounts manually or start fresh with a new account.
TikTok’s For You page reacts quickly when you mark videos as not interested or clean up past likes.(iStock)
Repeat this on videos that miss the mark. YouTube relies heavily on repeated feedback signals. This option is not consistently available on the YouTube mobile app. Use a computer for the best results.
Reset subscriptions (PC, Mac and phone)
Subscriptions heavily shape recommendations. Unsubscribe from channels you no longer watch. Rebuild your list intentionally.
YouTube recommendations are driven by watch history, search history and subscriptions you may have forgotten about.(Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
X does not allow full ad removal, but these steps reduce targeting.
Train the feed as you scroll (PC, Mac and phone)
On posts or ads you do not want to see again:
Click or tap the three-dot menu
Choose Not interested, Block, or Mute, depending on what appears
Also:
Unfollow accounts that no longer add value
Block advertisers directly when possible
Repeated feedback matters more than occasional actions.
When starting a new X account makes sense
X’s algorithm is less forgiving than most platforms. If your feed feels irreparable, the most effective reset is:
Creating a new account
Following only accounts you truly want
Avoiding mass follows early on
Early behavior heavily shapes long-term recommendations. X offers fewer feed controls than most platforms, so changes may feel slower and less dramatic.
Small, consistent actions on your phone can gradually retrain algorithms and reduce daily feed fatigue.(Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
How to clean up Threads
Works on PC, Mac and phone
Control what appears in For You
On the For You feed:
Click the three-dot menu
Mark posts as not interested, mute or block
Use Hidden Words (PC and phone)
Open Settings
Go to Hidden Words
Add words, phrases or emojis separated by commas
These filters apply across Threads and Instagram.
How to make LinkedIn useful again
Primary device: PC recommended
Switch to recent posts (PC and Mac)
At the top of your feed, click Sort by: Top
Change it to Recent
To make it permanent:
Go to Me
Click Settings and Privacy
Select Preferred Feed View
Choose Most recent posts
Click the left arrow to save
Reduce ad targeting (PC and Mac)
Go to Settings and Privacy
Open Advertising Data
Select Interests and Traits
Turn off categories you do not want
Aggressively train the feed (PC, Mac and phone)
On unwanted posts:
Click the three-dot menu
Select Not relevant or Not interested
Under My Network, review Followers and Following and unfollow accounts that add noise.
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Kurt’s key takeaways
Social media feels overwhelming when it runs on autopilot. A few minutes of cleanup can dramatically change what you see. Algorithms respond to clarity. The clearer your signals, the better your feed becomes. You do not need to quit social media to enjoy it again. You just need to take control.
If your feed reflects your behavior, what does yours reveal about how you spend your attention right now? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com
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Copyright 2026 CyberGuy.com. All rights reserved.
Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.
Dating apps are built on trust. You share personal details, photos, preferences and conversations on the assumption that they will remain private. But recent reports suggest that even some of the biggest names in online dating aren’t immune to cyberattacks, and can’t keep your private data “private.”
Dating apps Bumble and Match appear to have been caught up in a breach allegedly linked to the ShinyHunters hacking group, raising fresh concerns about how much of your private life could be exposed when these platforms are targeted.
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Bumble, Match hit by alleged hack linked to ShinyHunters group.(Yu Chun Christopher Wong/S3studio/Getty Images)
What happened with Bumble and Match
The ShinyHunters group recently claimed it had breached both Bumble and Match, adding the companies to its data leak site. For Bumble, the hackers say they stole thousands of internal documents, focusing on files marked restricted or confidential. According to reports, the data allegedly came from internal tools like Google Drive and Slack, not from user profiles.
Bumble later confirmed that one of its contractors’ accounts had been compromised in a phishing attack. The company says the attacker gained brief, unauthorized access to a small part of its network before being removed. Bumble maintains that user data was not affected. It says member databases, profiles, messages and the Bumble app itself were not accessed.
“One of our contractor’s accounts was recently compromised in a phishing incident,” a Bumble spokesperson told CyberGuy. “The account had limited access privileges and was used to make a brief unauthorized access to a small portion of our network. Our InfoSec team quickly detected and eliminated the access, and the incident is contained. We have engaged external cybersecurity experts to investigate and have notified law enforcement. Importantly, there was no access to our member database, member accounts, the Bumble application, or member direct messages or profiles.”
Match confirmed a cybersecurity incident on January 28 and said it is notifying affected users. The company maintains that the incident impacted only a limited set of user data and did not expose passwords, financial information or private messages.
“We are aware of claims being made online related to a recently identified security incident,” a Match Group spokesperson said in a statement to CyberGuy. “Match Group takes the safety and security of our users seriously and acted quickly to terminate the unauthorized access. We continue to investigate with the assistance of external cybersecurity experts. There is no indication that user log-in credentials, financial information, or private communications were accessed. We believe the incident affects a limited amount of user data, and we are already in the process of notifying individuals, as appropriate.”
Why ShinyHunters keep showing up
ShinyHunters has been in the news repeatedly over the past few weeks after breaching several large organizations and allegedly targeting hundreds more. The group is known for phishing and vishing attacks, where attackers impersonate IT or support staff to trick employees into handing over access. Unlike traditional ransomware groups, ShinyHunters no longer focuses on encrypting systems. Instead, it concentrates on stealing data and threatening to leak it. This approach is faster, cheaper and still highly profitable. Other ransomware groups are starting to follow the same playbook.
That shift lowers the barrier to attacks. Even a single compromised employee or contractor account can expose sensitive internal systems, documents and conversations. Even when companies say user data wasn’t accessed, breaches like this still matter. Internal documents can reveal how platforms work, what tools they use and where weaknesses exist. That information can be used to plan future attacks or craft more convincing scams aimed at users.
Dating apps are especially sensitive targets because of the nature of the data involved. Names, photos, preferences and private conversations can be deeply personal. If attackers ever gain access to that kind of information, the fallout can include harassment, blackmail or identity theft. You should always remember that dating platforms, like all online services, are only as secure as their weakest link. Often, that link is phishing.
9 steps you can take to protect yourself on dating apps
When dating platforms get breached, you usually don’t get much warning. These steps help limit what attackers can do with your information if something goes wrong.
Dating apps Bumble and Match face scrutiny after breach claims.(Alicia Windzio/picture alliance via Getty Images)
1) Use a strong, unique password for every dating app
If attackers steal data from one service, they almost always try the same credentials elsewhere. Using a unique password ensures that even if a dating app account is compromised, your email, social media or banking accounts remain protected. Avoid passwords tied to your name, birthday or location. A password manager generates and stores strong passwords so you don’t have to reuse them or write them down. Many managers also warn you if a password appears in a known breach or if you’re entering credentials on a suspicious site, which adds an extra layer of protection.
Next, see if your email has been exposed in past breaches. Our No. 1 password manager pick includes a built-in breach scanner that checks whether your email address or passwords have appeared in known leaks. If you discover a match, immediately change any reused passwords and secure those accounts with new, unique credentials.
Check out the best expert-reviewed password managers of 2026 at Cyberguy.com.
2) Enable two-factor authentication (2FA) wherever possible
Two-factor authentication (2FA) adds a second step to the login process, usually through an app or device you control. Even if someone gets your password through phishing or a breach, 2FA makes it much harder for them to access your account.
3) Be cautious of phishing messages
Cybercriminals often follow up breaches with fake emails or in-app messages pretending to offer help or security updates. Always double-check the sender and avoid clicking links. When in doubt, open the app or website directly rather than responding to the message. Using strong antivirus software adds another layer of protection by flagging malicious links and blocking known threats before they can do harm. This protection can also alert you to phishing emails and ransomware scams, keeping your personal information and digital assets safe.
Get my picks for the best 2026 antivirus protection winners for your Windows, Mac, Android and iOS devices at Cyberguy.com.
4) Limit the personal details you share
Dating apps encourage openness, but oversharing can backfire. Avoid quickly sharing your phone number, employer, home address, or social media profiles. If attackers ever gain access to messages or profiles, less exposed information means less risk of harassment or identity abuse. For added protection, identity theft protection services can help monitor for misuse of your personal information and alert you early if your data shows up in fraudulent activity. Identity Theft companies can monitor personal information like your Social Security number (SSN), phone number, and email address, and alert you if it is being sold on the dark web or being used to open an account. They can also assist you in freezing your bank and credit card accounts to prevent further unauthorized use by criminals.
See my tips and best picks on how to protect yourself from identity theft at Cyberguy.com.
5) Reduce your digital footprint with a data removal service
A lot of targeted scams start with personal information pulled from data broker sites. Data removal services help take down your phone number, address and other details from these databases, making it harder for attackers to target you after a breach. While no service can guarantee the complete removal of your data from the internet, a data removal service is really a smart choice. They aren’t cheap, and neither is your privacy. These services do all the work for you by actively monitoring and systematically erasing your personal information from hundreds of websites. It’s what gives me peace of mind and has proven to be the most effective way to erase your personal data from the internet. By limiting the information available, you reduce the risk of scammers cross-referencing data from breaches with information they might find on the dark web, making it harder for them to target you.
Check out my top picks for data removal services and get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web by visiting Cyberguy.com.
Get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web: Cyberguy.com.
6) Secure your email account first
Your email account controls password resets for most services. Protect it with a strong password and 2FA. Regularly review login activity and recovery settings so attackers can’t use your email to take over other accounts.
Dating apps Bumble and Match appear to have been caught up in a breach allegedly linked to the ShinyHunters hacking group, Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson writes.(SrdjanPav/Getty Images)
7) Review app permissions and connected accounts
Dating apps often ask for more access than they truly need. That can include your contacts, photos, location, or linked social media accounts like Instagram or Spotify. If a platform or connected service is ever compromised, those permissions can expose more of your personal data than you expect. Take a few minutes to review what each dating app can access on your phone. Remove permissions that are not essential. You should also disconnect any third-party accounts you no longer use inside the app. Fewer connections mean fewer ways for attackers to reach you.
8) Watch for account changes after breach news
Not every breach leads to immediate account takeovers. In some cases, attackers quietly test access weeks later. That is why staying alert after breach reports matters. Watch for password reset emails you did not request, profile changes you did not make, or new messages you did not send. Unexpected logouts or security alerts are also red flags. If you notice anything unusual, change your password immediately and review your security settings.
9) Use built-in safety and privacy tools inside dating apps
Most major dating apps now include safety features that many users ignore. These tools are designed to limit exposure and give you more control over who can contact you. Use features like in-app messaging, video chat before meeting in person, profile visibility controls and easy blocking or reporting options. Keeping conversations inside the app for as long as possible reduces the risk of scams and limits how much personal information you expose.
Dating apps thrive on intimacy, but cyberattacks turn that intimacy into a massive risk. Even when companies say user data wasn’t directly accessed, breaches show how easily attackers can get a foothold through phishing and weak accounts. If you think you have been affected, lock down your accounts, share thoughtfully and remember that anything you put online is only as private as the systems protecting it.
Do you trust dating apps to keep your personal data safe, or have breaches changed how much you share? Let us know your thoughts by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.
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Copyright 2026 CyberGuy.com. All rights reserved.
Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.
It’s common for people to play continuous wave sounds and other gentle nature noises on their phones to lull themselves to sleep. But this type of “pink noise” may actually be backfiring, a new Penn Medicine study suggests.
The Sleep Foundation‘s definition of pink noise is a bit technical: “noise frequencies that decrease in power with each higher octave to create a lower pitch.” But it’s often compared to nature sounds like steady rainfall, wind or waves.
Health experts sometimes prescribe pink noise for people who have trouble sleeping or to promote relaxation, because it has been found to be more gentle than white noise, which has a higher pitch and sounds similar to static from an untuned radio or TV.
But researchers from the University of Pennsylvania found pink noise interferes with restorative rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and sleep recovery. Wearing earplugs is a more effective way to block out traffic noise, the study found.
“REM sleep is important for memory consolidation, emotional regulation and brain development, so our findings suggest that playing pink noise and other types of broadband noise during sleep could be harmful — especially for children whose brains are still developing and who spend much more time in REM sleep than adults,” said Dr. Mathias Basner, the study’s lead author.
For the study, published Monday in the journal Sleep, researchers had 25 adults spend their nights for an entire week in a sleep lab. The participants were not in the habit of using noise to help them sleep and had no sleep disorders.
The researchers exposed the participants to aircraft noise, pink noise, aircraft noise with pink noise and aircraft noise with earplugs. Researchers then used different methods each morning to test the participants’ sleep quality, alertness and other health effects.
They found exposure to aircraft noise overnight led to a 23-minute drop in the deepest stage of REM sleep, but wearing earplugs essentially blocked out the air traffic sounds.
Pink noise by itself, equivalent to “moderate rainfall,” was linked to a loss of 19 minutes of REM sleep. And pink noise combined with aircraft noise led to “significantly shorter” time spent in deep sleep and REM sleep compared to nights without any type of noise.
Participants also reported that their sleep felt lighter, that they woke up more frequently throughout the night and that their overall quality of sleep was worse when they were exposed to aircraft or pink noise. But using earplugs against pink noise and aircraft noise improved their overall quality of sleep.
The effects of pink noise, white noise and other types of broadband noise — used by 16% of Americans at night — need further study, the researchers concluded.
“Overall, our results caution against the use of broadband noise, especially for newborns and toddlers, and indicate that we need more research in vulnerable populations, on long-term use, on the different colors of broadband noise, and on safe broadband noise levels in relation to sleep,” Basner said.
This Cash App review is based on years of real-world use, and I can confidently say it’s transformed how I handle group expenses, whether splitting dinner bills or paying back friends.
The other night I was out to dinner at a local restaurant, when a group of 6 ladies were seated at the next table. The waitress came over to begin taking their drink orders and I overheard one of the ladies say what no waiter or waitress ever wants to hear: “Can we get separate checks?”
The waitress was very nice and with a straight face said “Sure, no problem,” and continued with their drink orders. As someone who waited on many tables myself, I knew that even though her face was saying yes, her brain was actually thinking things like “Really?” and “Are you people kidding?”
Luckily this particular restaurant allowed check splitting. But what if they didn’t? One person would have to sacrifice their credit card for the good of the group and wait, hope, and pray they were paid back. Can anyone say awkward?
Well, guess what? There’s an app for that. It’s called Cash App, and it’s become my go-to solution for sending and receiving money.
Key Takeaways
Free to use for standard transfers (no monthly fees or hidden charges)
Instant money transfer between users appears in seconds
Works with non-users who receive a link to claim money
Multiple payment options including debit cards, credit cards, and bank accounts
$Cashtag feature creates a personal payment link for easy collection
Perfect for splitting bills, group travel, roommate expenses, and casual payments
What Is Cash App?
Cash App is a free mobile payment service that lets you send and receive money instantly. Think of it as a digital wallet that lives on your phone. Whether you need to split a restaurant bill, pay your roommate for utilities, or collect money for a group vacation, Cash App makes it ridiculously simple.
The best part? It works even if the person you’re sending money to doesn’t have a Cash App account. They’ll receive a link to claim the money, making it more flexible than some competing apps that require both parties to be users.
My Cash App Experience: Real-World Use
I’ve been using Cash App for several years now, and it’s become indispensable for everyday money situations. Here’s what I love about it:
Speed and Convenience
Money transfers are instant. When someone sends you money, it’s available in your Cash App balance immediately. You can then transfer it to your linked bank account, typically within 1-3 business days (or instantly for a small fee if you need it faster).
This is perfect for situations like splitting costs on a weekend getaway where you need to settle up quickly without the awkwardness of tracking who owes what.
User-Friendly Interface
The app is incredibly intuitive. Even my least tech-savvy friends figured it out on their first try. The clean design makes sending money as simple as sending a text message. No confusing menus, no complicated setup process, just straightforward functionality.
Multiple Payment Options
You can link debit cards, credit cards, or bank accounts. This flexibility means you’re never stuck unable to pay someone back just because your preferred payment method isn’t working.
The $Cashtag Feature
This is genuinely clever. Your $Cashtag (like $YourName) is your unique identifier on Cash App. It comes with a personalized webpage at cash.me/$yourcashtag where anyone can send you money. This makes it perfect for collecting payments for group events, accepting donations, or even running a small side business.
How Cash App Actually Works
Let me walk you through the process, because it’s even simpler than you’d expect:
Getting Started
Download the app (it’s free for both iPhone and Android), create an account with your email and phone number, and choose your unique $Cashtag. The whole setup takes about 3 minutes.
Linking Your Payment Method
Connect a debit card, credit card, or bank account. You can link multiple options and choose which one to use for each transaction. Cash App uses bank-level security and encryption to protect your information.
Sending Money
Enter the recipient’s email address, phone number, or $Cashtag. Type in the amount you want to send, add an optional note (like “dinner last night” or “your share of the hotel”), and hit send. Done. The money transfers immediately.
Requesting Money
This is where Cash App really shines. Instead of awkwardly reminding your friend they owe you $40, you can send them a payment request through the app. They get a notification, can pay with one tap, and everyone avoids that uncomfortable conversation.
Receiving Money
When someone sends you money, it appears in your Cash App balance instantly. You can leave it there and use it for future Cash App payments, or transfer it to your linked bank account. Standard transfers are free and take 1-3 business days. Instant transfers cost a small fee (typically 1.5% with a minimum of $0.25) but arrive in minutes.
Real-World Scenarios Where Cash App Saves the Day
Group Travel: Planning a trip to Atlantic City for summer fun at Ocean Casino Resort with friends? One person can book the hotel, and everyone else can instantly send their share via Cash App. No more tracking IOUs or waiting weeks for checks to clear.
Restaurant Bills: Remember those 6 ladies from the beginning? With Cash App, one person pays the check, sends payment requests to the group, and gets reimbursed before they even leave the restaurant.
Concert Tickets: Bought tickets for everyone? Share your $Cashtag link and collect payment without the hassle of coordinating five different Venmo requests or PayPal transfers.
Office Collections: Organizing a retirement party or baby shower gift? Create a $Cashtag link and share it with coworkers. They can contribute whatever they want without anyone knowing individual amounts.
Roommate Expenses: Splitting utilities, rent, groceries? Cash App makes monthly payments automatic and trackable. No more “did you pay me back for the electric bill?” conversations.
Small Business: If you have a side hustle, craft business, or provide services, the Cash App business account lets customers pay you easily without expensive payment processing fees.
Cash App Review: What I Love
✓ What I Love
It’s completely free for standard transfers (no hidden fees or monthly charges)
Instant money transfer between users
Works with non-users (they receive a link to claim money)
Clean, intuitive interface that anyone can figure out
Multiple payment options (debit, credit, bank account)
$Cashtag feature makes collecting payments incredibly easy
Business account option for entrepreneurs
Strong security with encryption and fraud protection
Transaction history for easy record-keeping
⚠ Minor Drawbacks
Instant transfers cost a small fee (though standard transfers are free)
Customer service can be slow to respond if issues arise
Credit card payments incur a 3% fee
Scam protection is limited once you authorize a payment
Cash App vs. Competitors
I’ve used Venmo, PayPal, and Zelle as well. Here’s how Cash App compares:
vs. Venmo: Similar functionality, but Cash App’s $Cashtag system is more versatile for collecting payments from non-users. Venmo has a more social feel with its public feed, which some people love and others find invasive.
vs. PayPal: Cash App is simpler and cleaner. PayPal offers more features (like buyer protection for purchases), but Cash App wins for quick, casual transfers between friends.
vs. Zelle: Zelle is built into many banking apps, which is convenient, but requires both parties to have accounts. Cash App’s flexibility with non-users gives it an edge.
See also
Is Cash App Safe?
Cash App uses encryption and fraud detection systems to protect your money and information. However, like any payment app, you should only send money to people you trust. According to the Federal Trade Commission, payment app users should treat these services like cash: once you send it, it’s very difficult to get back.
Enable security features like PIN protection and Face ID/Touch ID. Never send money to strangers or in response to suspicious requests. Cash App will never call or email asking for your PIN or sign-in code. For security questions, visit Cash App’s help center.
Cash App Review: The Bottom Line
After years of regular use, I can confidently say Cash App is one of the most practical apps on my phone. It’s eliminated countless awkward money conversations, made splitting group expenses painless, and saved me countless trips to the ATM.
The free service, instant transfers, and user-friendly design make it perfect for anyone who regularly deals with splitting bills, paying back friends, or collecting money for group activities. Whether you’re organizing a St. Michaels restaurant crawl or just need to pay your roommate for groceries, Cash App handles it seamlessly.
Who should use Cash App:
Anyone who frequently splits bills with friends
Roommates managing shared expenses
Small business owners accepting casual payments
Event organizers collecting money from groups
Anyone tired of tracking who owes them money
Who might look elsewhere:
People needing buyer protection for purchases (use PayPal)
Those who prefer banking app integration (use Zelle)
Anyone uncomfortable with digital payment systems
How to Get Started with Cash App
Ready to simplify your money transfers? Here’s what to do:
Download the App: Visit cash.app to get it free from the Apple App Store (iPhone) or Google Play Store (Android).
Create Your Account: Sign up with your email and phone number. The process takes just a few minutes.
Choose Your $Cashtag: Pick something easy to remember and share with friends. This becomes your personal payment link.
Link Your Payment: Add a debit card, credit card, or bank account to fund your transfers.
Start Using It: Send money, request payments, or share your $Cashtag link to collect funds.
This Cash App review is based on several years of real-world use across countless transactions. It’s free, it’s fast, and it works. In today’s world where splitting costs is part of daily life, Cash App has become as essential as the contacts list on my phone.
Say goodbye to awkward money conversations forever and start enjoying seamless peer-to-peer payments today.
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Apple often promotes the App Store as a secure place to download apps. The company highlights strict reviews and a closed system as key protections for iPhone users. That reputation now faces serious questions.
New research shows that thousands of iOS apps approved by Apple contain hidden security flaws. These flaws can expose user data, cloud storage and even payment systems.
The issue is not malware; it’s poor security practices baked directly into the app code.
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Cybernews researchers found that many iOS apps store sensitive secrets directly inside app files, where they can be easily extracted.(Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
What researchers discovered inside iOS apps
Security researchers at Cybernews, a cybersecurity research firm, analyzed the code of more than 156,000 iPhone apps. That represents about 8% of all apps available worldwide.
Here is what they found:
Over 815,000 hidden secrets inside app code
An average of five secrets per app
71% of apps leaked at least one secret
These secrets include passwords, API keys and access tokens. Developers place them directly inside apps, where anyone can extract them. According to Cybernews researcher Aras Nazarovas, this makes attackers’ jobs much easier than most users realize.
What are hardcoded secrets in simple terms?
A hardcoded secret is sensitive information saved directly inside an app instead of being protected on a secure server. Think of it like writing your bank PIN on the back of your debit card. Once someone downloads the app, they can inspect its files and pull out those secrets. Attackers do not need special access or advanced hacking tools. Both the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation warn developers not to do this. Yet it is happening at a massive scale.
Cloud storage leaks exposed huge amounts of data
One of the most serious problems involves cloud storage. More than 78,000 iOS apps contained direct links to cloud storage buckets. These buckets store files such as photos, documents, receipts and backups. In some cases, no password was required at all. Researchers found:
836 storage buckets are fully open to the public
Over 76 billion exposed files
More than 406 terabytes of leaked data
This data included user uploads, registration details, app logs and private records. Anyone who knew where to look could view or download it.
This chart shows the most common types of hardcoded secrets found inside iOS apps, with Google-related keys appearing most often, according to Cybernews research.(Cybernews)
Firebase databases were also left open
Many iOS apps rely on Google Firebase to store user data. Cybernews found more than 51,000 Firebase database links hidden in app code. While some were protected, over 2,200 had no authentication. That exposed:
Nearly 20 million user records
Messages, profiles, and activity logs
Databases that are mostly hosted in the U.S.
If a Firebase database is not locked down, attackers can browse user data like a public website.
Payment and login systems were at risk too
Some of the leaked secrets were far more dangerous than analytics or ads. Researchers discovered secret keys for:
Stripe, which handles payments and refunds
JWT authentication systems that control logins
Order management tools used by shopping apps
A leaked Stripe secret key can allow attackers to issue refunds, move money or access billing details. Leaked login keys can let attackers impersonate users or take over accounts.
AI and social apps were among the worst offenders
Some of the apps with the largest leaks were related to artificial intelligence. According to VX Underground, security firm CovertLabs identified 198 iOS apps leaking user data. The worst known case was Chat & Ask AI by Codeway. Researchers say it exposed chat histories, phone numbers and email addresses tied to millions of users. Another app, YPT – Study Group, reportedly leaked messages, user IDs and access tokens. CovertLabs tracks these incidents in a restricted repository called Firehound. The full list of affected apps has not been publicly released, and researchers say the data is limited to prevent further exposure and to give developers time to fix security flaws.
This example shows how sensitive keys like Google API credentials and Stripe payment secrets can be stored directly inside an iOS app’s files, where they are easy to extract.(Cybernews)
Why Apple’s App review can miss hidden security risks
Apple reviews apps before they appear in the App Store. However, the review process does not scan app code for hidden secrets. If an app behaves normally during testing, it can pass review even if sensitive keys are buried inside its files. This creates a gap between Apple’s security claims and real-world risks. Removing leaked secrets is not simple for developers. They must revoke old keys, create new ones and rebuild parts of their apps. That can break features and delay updates. Even though Apple says most app updates are reviewed within 24 hours, some updates take weeks. During that time, vulnerable apps can remain available.
CyberGuy contacted Apple for comment, but did not receive a response before publication.
Ways to stay safe right now
You cannot easily inspect an app for hidden secrets. Apple does not provide tools for that. Still, you can reduce your risk and limit exposure by being selective and cautious. These steps help reduce the risk if an app leaks data behind the scenes.
1) Stick to established app developers
Well-known developers tend to have stronger security teams and better update practices. Smaller or unknown apps may rush features to market and overlook security basics. Before downloading, check how long the developer has been active and how often the app is updated.
2) Review and limit app permissions
Many apps ask for more access than they need. Location, contacts, photos and microphone access all increase the risk of data leaks. Go into your iPhone settings and remove permissionsthat are not essential for the app to work.
3) Delete apps you no longer use
Unused apps still retain access to data you shared in the past. They may also store information on remote servers long after you stop opening them. If you have not used an app in months, remove it. Here’s how: Open Settings, tap General, select iPhone Storage, and scroll through the list of apps to see when each one was last used. Tap any app you no longer need and select Delete App to remove it and reduce ongoing data exposure.
4) Be cautious with personal and financial details
Avoid entering sensitive information unless it is absolutely necessary. This includes full names, addresses, payment details and private conversations. AI apps are especially risky if you share deeply personal content.
5) Use a password manager for every account
A password manager creates strong, unique passwords for each app and service. This prevents attackers from accessing multiple accounts if one app leaks data. Never reuse passwords tied to your email address.
Next, see if your email has been exposed in past breaches. Our No. 1 password manager pick includes a built-in breach scanner that checks whether your email address or passwords have appeared in known leaks. If you discover a match, immediately change any reused passwords and secure those accounts with new, unique credentials.
Check out the best expert-reviewed password managers of 2026 at Cyberguy.com.
6) Change passwords tied to exposed apps
If an app uses your email address for login, change that password immediately. Do this even if there is no confirmation of a breach. Attackers often test leaked credentials across other services.
7) Consider using a data removal service
Some leaked data ends up with data brokers that sell personal information online. A data removal service can help find and remove your details from these databases. This reduces the chance that exposed app data gets reused for scams or identity theft.
While no service can guarantee the complete removal of your data from the internet, a data removal service is really a smart choice. They aren’t cheap, and neither is your privacy. These services do all the work for you by actively monitoring and systematically erasing your personal information from hundreds of websites. It’s what gives me peace of mind and has proven to be the most effective way to erase your personal data from the internet. By limiting the information available, you reduce the risk of scammers cross-referencing data from breaches with information they might find on the dark web, making it harder for them to target you.
Check out my top picks for data removal services and get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web by visiting Cyberguy.com.
Get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web: Cyberguy.com.
8) Monitor your accounts for unusual activity
Watch for unexpected emails, password reset notices, login alerts, or payment confirmations. These can signal that leaked data is already being abused. Act quickly if something looks off.
9) Pause use of risky AI and chat apps
If you use AI apps for private conversations, consider stopping until the developer confirms security fixes. Once data is exposed, it cannot be pulled back. Avoid sharing sensitive details with apps that store conversations remotely.
Kurt’s key takeaways
Apple’s App Store still offers important protections, but this research shows it is not foolproof. Many trusted iPhone apps quietly expose data due to basic security mistakes. Until app reviews improve, you need to stay alert and limit how much data you share.
How many apps on your iPhone have access to information you would not want exposed? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.
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Copyright 2026 CyberGuy.com. All rights reserved.
Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.
Yesterday, Apple blogger John Gruber of Daring Fireball posted the overall most popular iPhone apps for all of 2025, and the top five were:
ChatGPT
Threads
Google
TikTok
WhatsApp
I’m not the first person to point this out, but it’s not exactly a stretch to infer that the three apps that have suddenly squeezed in between ChatGPT and Threads are on the list due to dissatisfaction with TikTok. Two are VPN apps, which can theoretically be used to access TikTok from a virtual network in a country where the U.S. version of TikTok is unnecessary, and one, UpScrolled, is an Australian video and text sharing app that recently went viral.
To refresh your memory on what’s going on with TikTok, after years of trying to force Chinese-owned ByteDance to relinquish ownership and let a U.S.-friendly buyer take over, a legal entity was created earlier this month that can take ownership of TikTok, with Adam Presser as its new CEO. This allows TikTok to comply with a new U.S. law essentially requiring TikTok to be run by a U.S. company or be banned.
But this entity, a complex joint corporate venture in charge of U.S. operations for TikTok, appears from the outside to be struggling to keep everything in order, amid the handoff from TikTok’s Singapore base of operations (U.S. TikTok data was already largely housed in the U.S., so it’s not clear if this transition actually involves any large, burdensome data transfers).
The issues TikTok is referring to dovetail nicely with the descriptions of problems described by users likw videos that sit in review indefinitely, and posts that get low or zero view counts, often despite high numbers for other engagement metrics like comments or shares. Other general issues that fit with a data center interruption include a possible lack of analytics in TikTok Studio, livestreamers apparently getting random messages saying they need to stop streaming immediately, and irrelevant search results.
However, the hiccups at TikTok are, at least in part, being perceived as the technical consequences of a right-wing takeover. That’s in part because that 15 percent of TikTok U.S. now held by Oracle is controlled by the right-wing billionaire Larry Ellison, and the ownership transition is of course being shepherded along by the Trump Administration. And that’s not to mention the fact that the Biden-era push to ban TikTok emerged amid paranoia that it was turning the youth into Maoist, Hamas-supporting terrorists.
Gizmodo reached out to TikTok’s U.S. joint venture for clarification about the causes of the platform’s recent problems. In a reply, we received links to statements on X, including the one from Oracle. We followed up, specifically asking if any content rules had been changed since the ownership transition. We will update if we hear back.
Around Sunday, TikTok users started writing that they felt like their political posts were being censored.
“TikTok has been under new leadership for like a day and I made a slideshow with posts from the ICE rally today and it immediately got out under review and is not being published,” wrote Bluesky user @pnwpolicyangel.bsky.social.
“TikTok is cooked. They won’t even post my last two videos — I can see them, but anyone else who goes to my profile won’t even see them. Overnight, our federal government has silenced and suppressed dissent [on] one of our largest platforms. Not just content, but everything from certain people.”
It would be corporate malpractice to roll out such insidious and restrictive policies right out of the gate like this, particularly amid the present backdrop of political upheaval. Once again, TikTok still has not commented on this speculation from some of its users.
But if it’s true that users are flocking to other options for political reasons despite no hard evidence that the new TikTok U.S. joint venture has already begun some kind of crackdown on political speech, that also doesn’t necessarily mean they’re misled. They might just expect changes along the lines of what happened at Twitter when Elon Musk took over. Content standards there took a hard right turn very quickly. So with that in mind, some TikTok users might just be leaving preemptively at the first sign of an annoying glitch in order to avoid enduring even worse changes that they perceive to be on the horizon.
A new mobile app from China is going viral for a reason that feels both unsettling and familiar. It exists to answer one basic question for people who live alone: Are you still alive? The app is called “Are You Dead?” and it has surged to the top of China’s paid app charts. It also climbed into the top ten paid apps in the United States. Its popularity reflects more than curiosity. It highlights how many people now live by themselves and worry about what happens if something goes wrong.
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A Chinese-made mobile app called “Are You Dead?” is climbing paid app charts by offering a simple check-in system for people who live alone.(Photo by Hendrik Schmidt/picture alliance via Getty Images)
How the ‘Are You Dead?’ app works
The app’s design is intentionally simple. After paying about $1.15, users add an emergency contact and agree to check in every two days.
Here is how it works in practice:
Users tap a large green button with a cartoon ghost to confirm they are OK
If they miss two check-ins, the app sends an email alert on the third day
The alert tells the emergency contact that something may be wrong
That is it. No tracking. No health data. No constant monitoring. The goal is reassurance, not surveillance. On its English-language page, the app goes by the name Demumu. The developers describe it as a “lightweight safety tool” meant to make solitary life feel less risky. For now, the app is available only on Apple’s App Store for iPhone and iPad.
Why the ‘Are You Dead?’ app went viral in China
The app debuted quietly in May. Then it took off. It is now the top-paid app on China’s Apple App Store and ranks sixth among paid apps in the U.S. The surge reflects a major social shift. More people in China live alone than ever before. One-child policies, rapid urbanization and work that pulls people far from their families all play a role. By 2030, China is projected to have around 200 million one-person households. At that scale, a simple safety check turns from a niche idea into a mass-market tool.
Why users say the app provides peace of mind
For many users, the app is not a joke. It is a safety net. One 38-year-old user told reporters he lives far from his family and worries about dying alone in a rented apartment. He set his mother as his emergency contact so someone would know if something happened to him. Others echoed a similar sentiment online. People living alone, introverts, unemployed workers and those dealing with depression said the app offers peace of mind without requiring constant interaction. Some users even reportedly framed it as a practical courtesy to loved ones rather than a morbid tool.
The viral “Are You Dead?” app alerts an emergency contact if a user fails to check in every two days.(Photo by Stefan Sauer/picture alliance via Getty Images)
The name of the app sparks debate
Not everyone is comfortable with the app’s blunt branding. Some users say the name is too dark and turns people away. Several suggested a simple fix: rename it “Are You Alive?” One commenter argued that death in this context is not only literal but social. A softer name might signal care rather than fear. Some users said they would gladly pay for the app if it sounded less grim. The developers appear to be listening.
What the developers of the app plan next
The app is built by a small Gen Z team at Moonscape Technologies. In public statements, the company said it plans to refine the product based on feedback.
Planned updates include:
Adding direct messaging to emergency contacts
Making the app more friendly for older users
Reconsidering the app’s name
Those changes matter in a country where about one in five people is now over age 60.
Loneliness is not just a problem in China
The app’s success abroad suggests the issue is global. In the U.S., living alone is becoming the norm rather than the exception. According to recent census data, 27.6% of U.S. households had just one person in 2020. That figure was under 8% in 1940. Loneliness trends among younger men are especially striking. A Gallup poll found that about one in four Gen Z and millennial men in the U.S. report feeling lonely. That rate is higher than in peer countries like France, Canada, Ireland and Spain. Against that backdrop, an app that asks people to check in feels less extreme and more revealing.
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The “Are You Dead?” app reflects growing anxiety among people who live alone and fear medical emergencies going unnoticed.(Getty)
Kurt’s key takeaways
“Are You Dead?” succeeds because it addresses a fear many people rarely say out loud. As more people live alone, the worry is not only about loneliness but also about invisibility. A simple tap every two days becomes a quiet signal that someone still knows you are here. The app may evolve, change its name or add features. The problem it highlights is not going away.
If an app has to ask whether you are alive, what does that say about how disconnected modern life has become? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com
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Copyright 2026 CyberGuy.com. All rights reserved.
Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.
In 2025, consumers spent more money on non-game mobile apps than they did on games for the first time, according to the findings from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower’s annual “State of Mobile” report. While this milestone had been seen in particular markets, like the U.S., or during certain quarters, 2025 marked the first time it occurred globally. Worldwide, consumers spent approximately $85 billion on apps last year, representing a 21% year-over-year increase. The figure was also nearly 2.8x the amount spent just five years ago.
Image Credits:Sensor Tower
Generative AI, a defining trend over the past year, led the revenue growth, as in-app purchase revenue in this category more than tripled to top $5 billion in 2025. Downloads of AI apps also grew, doubling year-over-year to reach 3.8 billion.
Image Credits:Sensor Tower
The segment’s growth can be attributed to several factors. For one, the popularity of AI assistants among consumers was a large driver, with all of the top 10 apps by downloads being AI assistants. This group was led by OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and DeepSeek. ChatGPT alone generated $3.4 billion in global in-app purchase (IAP) revenue — a figure that we reported on late last year.
Image Credits:Sensor Tower
In 2025, consumers spent 48 billion hours in generative AI apps, or 3.6x the total time spent in 2024 and 10x the level seen in 2023. Session volume, meaning the number of times users opened and used an app, topped one trillion in 2025. Of note, this figure was growing faster than downloads, suggesting that existing users were deepening their engagement faster than the apps were adding new users.
Image Credits:Sensor Tower
Another factor driving AI app revenue and adoption is that big tech companies like Google, Microsoft, and X have been heavily investing in their AI assistants to challenge ChatGPT. Over the past year, they’ve been rolling out new capabilities at a rapid pace, improving in areas like coding assistance, content generation, reasoning, task execution, accuracy, and more. The report specifically called out improvements in image and video generation, like ChatGPT’s GPT-4o image generation model released in March, and Google’s Nano Banana.
Among the top AI publishers, OpenAI and DeepSeek accounted for nearly 50% of global downloads, up from 21% in 2024. Meanwhile, big tech publishers grew their share of the market from 14% to nearly 30% during this same time, crowding out earlier ChatGPT competitors like Nova, Codeway, and Chat Smith.
Image Credits:Sensor Tower
The report also highlighted the role that mobile plays in connecting users to generative AI services. Sensor Tower estimates that the total audience for AI assistants topped 200 million in the U.S. by year-end, and more than half (110M) were accessing the assistants exclusively on mobile devices. In 2024, for comparison, only around 13 million users were mobile-only.
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Beyond assistants, other popular AI apps included the AI music generation app Suno; ByteDance’s text-to-video app, Jimeng AI; and AI companion apps like Character.ai and PolyBuzz.
Image Credits:Sensor Tower
However, AI wasn’t the only revenue driver last year, Sensor Tower found. Other apps, including those in categories like social media, video streaming, and productivity, also helped fuel the growth, the report noted. For instance, consumers spent an average of 90 minutes per day on social media apps, totaling nearly 2.5 trillion hours, up 5% year-over-year.
The blocklist was introduced after the White House and other government agencies under the Trump administration signed up for Bluesky last October to post messages blaming Democrats for the government shutdown. The accounts that joined at the time included the Departments of Homeland Security, Commerce, Transportation, the Interior, Health and Human Services, State, and Defense, in addition to the White House itself.
The move made the White House one of the most-blocked accounts on Bluesky, and today it remains in the No. 2 position, just behind Vice President J.D. Vance, per stats shared on the tracking site Clearsky. (The site leverages Bluesky’s API to track which accounts are the most blocked and other blocking activity.)
ICE, however, did not join Bluesky in October. According to Bluecrawler’s Join Date Checker, the account @icegov.bsky.social joined the social network on November 26, 2025.
The account was verified a few days ago according to the independently-run Verified Account Tracker, which suggests that either Bluesky’s team didn’t have enough information to apply the verification checkmark, was somehow unaware of the account’s existence (doubtful!), or was internally debating how to handle the issue. Bluesky hasn’t responded to a request for comment.
One tracker now shows the ICE account as being over 60% of the way to being the most-blocked Bluesky account.
ICE today has many accounts across other social media sites, including X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn. These accounts tend to be verified on platforms that have a verification mechanism, with YouTube being an exception.
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The decision from Bluesky to host and verify ICE establishes the social network as one that’s now fitting in more with other, larger social media giants, rather than with the original ethos of the open social web known as fediverse, where the user community is more in control of which accounts gain attention and traction.
The fediverse, which represents a network of independent but interconnected social media platforms, includes apps like Mastodon, Pixelfed, PeerTube, Flipboard, and, to some extent, Instagram Threads, though Meta’s app isn’t fully federated. The U.S. government doesn’t have Mastodon accounts, but users can follow accounts like @potus on Threads from their Mastodon accounts, if they choose.
One reason for avoiding Mastodon, an open source federated app that runs on the ActivityPub protocol, could be its smaller size. But also, any government account joining this network could be easily blocked by individual server operators. This wouldn’t prevent the account from setting up its own server to post to the fediverse, but other communities could refuse to federate (interoperate) with that server, greatly diminishing its reach.
Reached for comment, Rochko wouldn’t confirm whether or not ICE’s participation on Bluesky was a factor in his decision to leave the bridge, saying that the decision was a “personal” one.
Meta’s enormous bet on virtual reality ended last week, with the company reportedly laying off roughly 1,500 employees from its Reality Labs division — about 10% of the unit’s staff — and shutting down several VR game studios, according to The Wall Street Journal. It’s a huge reversal for a company that, just four years ago, staked its entire identity on the concept.
Few are going to miss it.
As industry watchers might remember, Facebook rebranded itself as Meta in 2021, promising to usher in a new era of technology led by VR devices.
In part, the decision was a bet on Gen Z’s preference to socialize in online games like Fortnite and Roblox as opposed to traditional social media apps. The change also helped Meta distance itself from the negativity surrounding its Facebook brand. Over the years, the brand had been damaged by data privacy scandals like Cambridge Analytica; reports from Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, who shared documents indicating Facebook knew of its negative impacts on children and teens; Congressional hearings over Facebook’s digital surveillance; its role in the spread of misinformation; its monopolistic practices, and more.
Meta’s vision at the time was that the metaverse would be the next big social platform, where users connected in a virtual world via Meta’s Horizon Worlds app and played games on their VR headsets.
Fast-forward, and the metaverse has effectively been abandoned in favor of AI.
According to CNBC, some of the casualties include studios making VR titles inside Meta, like Armature Studio (“Resident Evil 4 VR“), Twisted Pixel (“Marvel’s Deadpool VR“), and Sanzaru (“Asgard’s Wrath). Meanwhile, the VR fitness app Supernatural, which Meta acquired in 2023 for $400 million, will no longer produce new content and will move into “maintenance mode.” Camouflaj, the studio behind the “Batman: Arkham Shadow” VR game, has also been impacted by layoffs, as reported by GeekWire.
And last week, The Verge noted that Meta’s program to bring VR to work, Workrooms, is shutting down, as well.
The news follows an earlier Bloomberg report from December, which said that Meta was slashing the virtual reality department’s budget by up to 30%. Around the same time, Meta announced that it was pausing its program to share its Meta Horizon operating system, which runs on its Quest-branded VR headsets, with other third-party headset device makers.
Unlike the news of Meta’s rebrand, the deprioritization of the company’s metaverse efforts should come as no surprise — the division lost money at an excessive rate, worryinginvestors, and had never turned a profit.
In total, the company had funneled some $73 billion into Reality Labs. To put that into context, you’d have to spend $1 million per day for 200 years to match that kind of spending.
“Building in the open” fails
Besides beingoverhyped by investors and analysts alike, initial versions of the metaverse were just bad products. The goofy, soulless avatars didn’t even have legs, and one metaverse selfie of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was so bad it even became a viral meme. In short, Meta was overpromising a future while its product still under-delivered. It was a failure of the “build in the open” model, where early tech products are shipped to consumers in hopes of getting feedback that can be used to iterate.
Image Credits:Facebook
That model works when customers are actively interested in a technology. But in the case of the metaverse, there was only middling consumer demand. Though Meta quickly gained a majority share of the VR market with its Oculus headsets, the headsets saw declining sales. Last spring, Counterpoint Research noted that global VR headset shipments had fallen by 12% year-over-year in 2024, which was their third consecutive year of declines. Meta had accounted for 77% of those 2024 headset shipments.
Image Credits:Meta
Meta, betting on the “if you build it, they will come” strategy, was more interested in the profits that could be made from running its own platform for apps and games than whether or not consumers even wanted these so-called face computers.
Specifically, Zuckerberg was looking for a way to bypass the ability of Apple and Google to tap into Meta’s revenue through their app stores.
“This period has…been humbling, because as big of a company as we are, we’ve also learned what it is like to build for other platforms. And living under their rules has profoundly shaped my views on the tech industry,” Zuckerberg said in a keynote speech at the company’s Facebook Connect 2021 event, referencing the Apple-Google duopoly. “I’ve come to believe that the lack of choice and high fees are stifling innovation, stopping people from building new things, and holding back the entire internet economy.”
He proposed that the metaverse could grow to a billion people in the next decade, hosting “hundreds of billions” of dollars in digital commerce. Analysts like McKinsey & Co. and investment bank Citi backed up this questionable forecast with their own heady estimates of the metaverse becoming a multi-trillion-dollar platform by 2030.
Meta quest app store
Meta may have had dollar signs in its eyes, but the apps built for the metaverse weren’t being adopted in massive numbers, at least for a company of Meta’s size.
Though there’s no external visibility into Meta’s own VR app store, you can look at Meta’s apps with iOS and Android counterparts as a proxy for adoption. According to modeled estimates from app intelligence provider Apptopia, the Meta Horizon app has been downloaded 60.4 million times globally and 39.8 million times in the U.S. since May 2018. A better estimate for adoption, however, is its app activity.
From a U.S. panel, Apptopia has figures for the average sessions per daily active user in the U.S., which grew from 3.49 in January 2023 to 4.93 in January 2026. While that’s still a high-water mark for the app, it may not have been enough for Meta.
For comparison, outside of VR, Meta now has over 3.5 billion daily active users across its social apps Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger.
An attendee wears a Quest 3s virtual reality headset during the Meta Connect event in Menlo Park, California, US, on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. Image Credits:David Paul Morris/Bloomberg / Getty Images
Of course, had this all succeeded, Meta would have created a new social empire, built on the back of VR gaming — not unlike Facebook’s early days as a social network, when partners like Zynga — whose games included Farmville, and Words with Friends — drove double-digit revenue streams for Facebook. (Ultimately, Facebook’s 30% cut of virtual goods sales, combined with restrictive platform policies, drove Zynga to launch its own gaming portal and pivot to mobile.)
But this time, Zuckerberg telegraphed his desire to tap into developer revenue far too soon. Meta might have had a better shot at attracting developers to build for VR if it promised to undercut Apple or Google’s standard 30% fees, or those of other gaming platforms. Instead, Meta did the opposite: it charged more.
Even before VR became a sizable platform worth investing in, Meta announced its plans to take a whopping 47.5% of the sales of digital assets within Horizon Worlds, consisting of a 30% hardware platform fee and another 17.5% fee for Horizon Worlds itself. Creators, unsurprisingly, were not happy.
Image Credits:Meta
As bad, Meta wasn’t building the metaverse with user safety as a top priority. As with its rush to scale its social network, the company tended to be reactive rather than proactive about safety features. For instance, the company only rolled out its “Personal Boundary” feature, which put a buffer between avatars, after reports that users were experiencingsexual harassment in the metaverse. In some cases, users had even engaged in virtual rape and gang rape in Meta’s Horizon Worlds. Meta later dialed back the safety feature a bit by adjusting the Personal Boundary to only default to “on” when a user is engaging with “non-friends” in the metaverse and allowing users to switch it off entirely.
In May 2022, TechCrunch asked a Meta rep to detail its support measures for Horizon Worlds. The company described several tools, including blocking and reporting features, a “safe zone” button for users to instantly block and mute others, and a feature to temporarily remove disruptive people from venues that was built in response to user feedback. Despite outlining these tools, Meta declined to say what sort of actions it would take to address individual bad actors’ behavior.
Image Credits:Meta
At the time, users told TechCrunch that those who faced abuse in the metaverse would often react with an obvious move: instead of recording the abuse, they would take off their headset and take a break from VR. But when they returned, their harasser would still appear in their list of recent encounters, and it was too late to submit a report of the abuse with the video and audio attached.
These types of scenarios were seemingly not thought through from the start, and detailed policies around what constitutes abuse didn’t exist. When a metaverse code of conduct was later published, it still didn’t detail any consequences beyond saying Meta would “take action on users.”
Also around this time, Meta declined to share the makeup of its team building the metaverse with TechCrunch. (But if we had to bet, we’d guess there weren’t as many women on the project as men. This would reflect the makeup of Meta overall, so it’s not a bad bet!)
AR, mixed reality, and AI proved more popular
Another nail in the proverbial coffin for the metaverse was the success of Meta’s Ray-Ban AR glasses, which have seen increased consumer interest in recent months. With features like the ability to record hands-free, stream music, and chat with Meta AI, the glasses began to outsell traditional Ray-Bans in some retail stores in 2024. The company is now considering doubling the output of the glasses to meet consumer demand, Bloomberg reported this week.
Meta Ray-Ban displayImage Credits:Meta / Meta
With an eye on AI, the company more recently introduced Ray-Ban Display last year, which are similar smart glasses that also include a display for apps, alerts, and directions on the right lens. The company has since paused its international plans for this product, citing “unprecedented demand.” (Or rather, overly conservative inventory forecasting.)
With other companies, including OpenAI, Amazon, and various startups, looking to hardware AI devices as the next potential computing platform, VR seems even more of a dated relic of a vision for the web that never came to pass.
Combined, these factors, and particularly the adoption of AI as a possible app platform, make it hard for Meta to continue to justify spending on VR. Instead, Meta will focus on the products that have potential, like its Ray Ban and AI glasses, AI app’sgrowth, and large language models.
A report from market intelligence firm Similarweb suggests that Meta’s Threads is now seeing more daily usage than Elon Musk’s X on mobile devices. While X still dominates Threads on the web, the Threads mobile app for iOS and Android has continued to see an increase in daily active users over the past several months.
Similarweb’s data shows that Threads had 141.5 million daily active users on iOS and Android as of January 7, 2026, after months of growth, while X has 125 million daily active users on mobile devices.
This appears to be the result of longer-term trends, rather than a reaction to the recent X controversies, where users were discovered using the platform’s integrated AI, Grok, to create non-consensual nude images of women, including, sometimes minors. Concern around the deepfake images has now prompted California’s attorney general to open an investigation into Grok, following similar investigations by other regions, like the UK, EU, India, Brazil, and many more.
The drama on X also led social networking startup Bluesky to see an increase in app installs in recent days.
Instead, Threads’ boost in daily mobile usage may be driven by other factors, including cross-promotions from Meta’s larger social apps like Facebook and Instagram (where Threads is regularly advertised to existing users), its focus on creators, and the rapid rollout of new features. Over the past year, Threads has added features like interest-based communities, better filters, DMs, long-form text, disappearing posts, and has recently been spotted testing games.
Combined, the daily active user increases suggest that more people are using Threads on mobile as a more regular habit.
According to Meta’s official numbers, the tech giant said in August 2025 that Threads had reached over 400 million monthly active users. The company subsequently reported in October of last year that Threads had 150 million daily active users.
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The growth trends have been continuing for many months. Similarweb last summer reported that Threads was closing the gap with X on mobile devices after seeing 127.8% year-over-year growth as of late June 2025.
Relatedly, Similarweb observed that X is still ahead of Threads in the U.S., but the gap is narrowing. A year ago, X had twice as many daily active users in the U.S. as it does now.
In addition, Threads has little traction on the web while X maintains a fairly steady web audience with around 150 million daily web visits, according to Similarweb data. As of earlier this week (January 13), X was seeing 145.4 million daily web visits, while Threads saw 8.5 million daily web visits across Threads.com and Threads.net combined.
TikTok has quietly released a new standalone short drama app called PineDrama in the U.S. and Brazil. The app offers access to micro dramas, which are essentially bite-sized TV shows that can be watched in a series of one-minute episodes. Think TikTok, but every single video you come across is a short episode of a fictional story.
PineDrama is available on iOS and Android. It’s free and currently ad-free, though that could change in the future.
You can find content through the app’s “Discover” tab, where you can sort through “All” or “Trending dramas, or through endless vertical recommendations that are tailored to your taste. PineDrama features a variety of genres, including thriller, romance, family, and more. Examples of popular shows include “Love at First Bite” and “The Officer Fell For Me.”
The app features a “Watch history” section where you can jump back into the various series you’re watching. There’s also a “Favorites” section where you can save the dramas you like the most. You can also share thoughts with other viewers in the comment section, and enter a full-screen viewing experience that gets rid of the caption and sidebar.
Image Credits:TikTok
The move comes as TikTok launched a “TikTok Minis” section in its app late last year, where users can watch micro dramas.
With the launch of PineDrama, TikTok is taking on popular micro drama platforms like ReelShort and DramaBox. While the micro drama industry wasn’t that popular until recent years, it’s racing toward $26 billion in annual revenue by 2030, as reported by Variety.
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Short-form storytelling hasn’t always found success, even with notable backing. In 2020, DreamWorks co-founder and former Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg launched a short-form streaming platform called Quibi with $1.75 billion in funding. The platform offered episodes under 10 minutes featuring popular Hollywood actors, but failed to gain traction and was shut down six months later.
ReelShort and DramaBox succeeded where Quibi failed because while Quibi tried to compress Hollywood TV into shorter episodes, ReelShort and DramaBox created low-budget stories that hook viewers within the first few seconds, followed by continuous cliffhangers, all featuring non-union talent. Additionally, they target fans of soapy romance and revenge thriller stories, while Quibi tried to target everyone.
TikTok is now looking to replicate this success with PineDrama. The company already dominates the short-form social media space and is now aiming to take on another media category.
No, the title is not a mistake, it’s a reality. You can literally insert any app name there and it will still hold true. I know, I know, not quite ALL apps are replaceable by Claude Cowork, but still, a very sizable majority.
What Is Claude Cowork?
Think Claude Code, but for everyday tasks. If you are a coder (or a vibe coder), you already know what Claude Code is: the de facto AI tool for writing software, and it’s a damn good one. I’ve been using it for a few months already, as a developer (and not only) and I’m very pleased with it. It really makes my tedious tasks a thing of the past, and I can focus on high level architecture, bug fixing or adding features.
Now, Claude Cowork does the same, only not for the code. I know it’s a bit difficult to wrap your head around this.
So I’ll give you a few examples:
you can organize some files on your computer
you can ask Cowork to send messages (emails) for you
you can create files
you can crunch data from existing files and generate charts and diagrams
Claude Cowork is in research preview at the moment of writing, only available to Max users – but I honestly think this product was launched with market fit already.
The New UI Is Natural Language
I’ve been using an app called CleanMyMac for many years. It essentially scans my hard drive every once in a while and helps me get rid of the clutter. Identify huge files, leftovers, duplicates, and delete them.
I think you already know where I’m heading. Here’s a prompt I just used with Claude Cowork:
evaluate my Desktop folder and suggest improvements of the file organization. Some of them I still need, but it’s difficult to find them. The first thing that comes to my mind is organizing everything by year folders (maybe months inside year folders too?), but also some thematic structuring will be useful. Just give me your feedback, don’t do anything yet
It took Cowork about 5-6 minutes to:
identify duplicates and delete them
understand the type of file and its content (not only size or date, which CleanMyMac also does)
create a semantically correct folder structure: Boarding Passes, Projects, Data Exports, etc
move all the files around and show me the new structure
I find this impressive. And I think this hints at a completely new way (I was about to use the word “paradigm”, but let’s stick to “way” for now) in which we are using computers.
Before, we had visual interfaces with fixed layouts and actionable surfaces – buttons, checkboxes, menus. We were the ones initiating a workflow through these actionable surfaces, to generate some outcome.
Now, we instruct someone else about the outcome and things get done. That’s it.
But it goes even further. It can accomplish complex flows, involving several tools, for which there is no app yet. Read that again.
Here’s another prompt:
I want you to look in the Desktop folder and find me appTaskManager screenshots for Assess, Decide, Do and search functionality. I also want to use these screenshots to create a hero image 1256×640, with Assess, Decide, Do screens showing up the ADD framework.
Claude Cowork identified the screenshots, created the hero image with all the required constraints, here’s a part of its output:
The hero image is 1256×640 pixels and displays all three ADD framework screens (Assess, Decide, Do) side by side with color-coded labels matching your app’s theme (red for Assess, orange for Decide, green for Do).
I followed up with this prompt:
convert the hero image to .webp, make a folder called app_assets and move there the generated hero image, the containing iPhone screens as separate files, also .webp. and the hero search image, as separated .webp file
It did this in a few seconds. I estimate this workflow would have taken me maybe 10-15 minutes, on a good day. Cowork did it in less than a minute.
Endless Effectiveness
I think AI tools, and especially Claude Cowork – which seems to have found its market fit from day one – are becoming extremely effective now. I didn’t use the words “good at what they do”, because that’s not the point. They are very, very effective tools.
Imagine now that instead of prompting, we can chain a couple of other AI tools, like real time voice transcription and text-to-voice transform. That means we can actually talk to the machine. No more apps, no more UIs. Just endless effectiveness.
Pitfalls? Yes, Quite A Lot
While I find Claude Cowork extremely impressive, I think there are also some serious downsides. Some behavioral, some purely economical.
From an economical point of view, an entire app ecosystem will crumble. Maybe not today, maybe not next week, but we will see this unfolding before our eyes in less than 6 months. Apps will fold. Companies will close. Developers will switch jobs.
At the behavioral level, I already touched on this in a couple of posts here. If AI brings instant gratification, a.k.a. getting what we want instantly, then patience will become obsolete. If the friction involved in learning something new is gone, then we will literally become more stupid.
And last, but not least, if content production will become that easy, a lot of people will jump to the low hanging fruit of letting AI do everything, flooding the market with cheap, bad, but instantly available content. Because of this, I strongly believe bio content, or content generated by humans, will become a delicacy, carrying a significant premium.
Like this article, for instance. Not a word here was written with AI, yet I’m sharing my personal, live experience of using AI – which, in this current context, is like selling shovels instead of digging for gold.
The subscription economy helped boost mobile app revenues in 2025, even as app downloads declined for the fifth consecutive year, according to app intelligence firm Appfigures‘ annual report. In 2025, global downloads of all mobile apps and mobile games via the App Store and Google Play reached an estimated 106.9 billion, 2.7% lower than the year prior. Consumer spending, meanwhile, climbed 21.6% to reach an estimated $155.8 billion during the same period.
The data indicates that app developers, marketers, and publishers have been successful in getting their users to make in-app purchases or activate subscriptions, even as the number of new users downloading apps has been falling.
The report also reflected the continued shift away from mobile games as the primary revenue driver for the app economy. In 2025, consumers spent $72.2 billion on mobile games, accounting for about 46% of all spending within mobile apps. While that figure is up 10% year-over-year, spending on non-game mobile apps also increased. In fact, non-game app spending is up 33.9% year-over-year and reached $82.6 billion in 2025, Appfigures said.
While consumers may not like that nearly every app now has in-app purchases or a subscription model built in, this has offered a more sustainable path for app developers. Plus, the shift toward ongoing payments for apps has helped fuel an ecosystem of businesses serving the mobile app ecosystem. This includes subscription management platform RevenueCat, which raised a $50 million Series C this past year, and Appcharge, a startup helping mobile games improve their monetization, which announced a $58 million Series B back in August. This week, Liftoff Mobile, which helps market and monetize apps, filed for an IPO.
As revenue rose, downloads dropped again in 2025.
After reaching an all-time high of 135 billion in 2020 during the pandemic, downloads have been on the decline. This year’s figure of 106.9 billion installs was down from 109.8 billion in 2024, and follows slowed download growth between 2023 and 2024, when installs were down 3.3%.
Mobile game downloads saw a larger decline this year. In 2025, mobile games were downloaded 39.4 billion times, down 8.6% year-over-year, after a 6.6% decline from 2023 to 2024. Non-game app downloads were essentially flat — they only saw a slight increase of 1.1% year-over-year, reaching 67.4 billion.
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The full report also takes a look at the U.S. market specifically. Here, consumers spent an estimated $55.5 billion across all mobile apps, up 18.1% year-over-year from $47 billion in 2024. Downloads reached 10 billion, down 4.2% from the 10.4 billion in 2024. U.S. consumers spent $33.6 billion on non-game apps, up 26.8% year-over-year, and spent $21.9 billion on games, up just 6.8%.
U.S. non-game app downloads were an estimated 7.1 billion in 2025, while games were downloaded 2.9 billion times.
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.
Lossless audio is becoming more common, but many people are still unsure what the term means. In simple words, lossless audio keeps all the details from the original recording. Nothing is removed to make the file smaller, so the music sounds closer to what the artist created. Apple Music, Spotify and Amazon Music all support at least CD-quality sound. The one major service that still relies on compressed formats is YouTube Music.
Even if your favorite app does not offer lossless quality, you can still improve how your music sounds. Most streaming apps use default settings that focus on convenience instead of clarity. With a few quick tweaks, you can unlock richer audio without buying new gear.
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Man listening to a podcast while exercising.(iStock)
Turn off volume normalization
Volume normalization changes the loudness of your tracks so they match each other. It softens loud songs and boosts quiet ones. That may keep things balanced, but it alters the original recording and can cut the dynamic range.
Turning it off keeps your music closer to what the artist intended. You may adjust the volume more often, but your sound gets cleaner.
How to turn off volume normalization on Spotify
Click your picture icon in the upper left
Tap Settings and privacy
Click Playback
Then turn off Enable Audio Normalization (or Volume normalization, depending on your version).
How to check volume normalization on YouTube Music
YouTube Music is the only major music service that still does not support lossless audio, and its volume settings can add more confusion. In 2025, Google began rolling out a feature called Consistent volume, which normalizes loudness between tracks so they play at a more similar level. The catch is that this setting has not reached every account yet. To see if you have it:
YouTube Music (Android and iOS)
Open YouTube Music
Tap your profile photo
Go to Settings
Select Playback (on some iPhones, it appears under Playback & restrictions)
Look for a toggle called Consistent volume
If you see Consistent volume, turn it off for the most accurate sound and the widest dynamics. (If you do not see that option on your devices, your version of YouTube Music likely has not received the rollout yet, and there is currently no direct way to disable its volume normalization.)
How to turn off volume normalization on Amazon Music
Amazon Music includes a feature called Normalize Volume, which smooths out loudness between tracks. Turning it off keeps the dynamic range closer to the original recording.
iPhone and Android
Settings may vary depending on your Android phone’s manufacturer.
Open the Amazon Music app
Tap your profile icon in the upper left
Tap Settings
Scroll to Playback
Turn Loudness Normalization off (This may appear as “Normalize Volume” on some versions of the app.)
Mac (desktop app)
Open the Amazon Music app
Click your profile photo in the upper right corner
Click Settings
Go to Playback
Turn Normalize Volume (or Loudness Normalization) off
Desktop web player (browser)
The web player does not always include a Normalize Volume option. If you see it under Settings → Playback, turn it off. If you do not see it, your account type or browser version does not support changing this setting on the web.
Tune the EQ to your taste
Your equalizer shapes the way your music sounds. It can highlight bass, smooth out middle tones or brighten treble. Many apps include presets. Others let you make custom profiles. If your streaming app falls short, you can try third-party EQ apps like Wavelet on Android or Boom on iOS.
Adjusting your EQ helps shape the sound so your favorite songs feel fuller and more balanced.(Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
How to adjust your EQ settings
Spotify EQ
Click your picture icon in the upper left
Go to Settings and Privacy
Tap Playback
Click Equalizer
Once you open the Equalizer, you will see sliders that control different parts of the sound:
Bass for low tones
Mids for middle tones like vocals and guitars
Treble for higher tones
You can pick a preset such as Bass Booster, Vocal Booster or Acoustic. You can also move the sliders to create your own profile. Start with a preset, then adjust each slider a little at a time until the music matches what you like.
YouTube Music EQ
Tap the initial icon in the upper right of the screen
Click Settings
Tap Playback
If you see an option labeled Equalizer, tap it to open your device’s audio settings. You can adjust bass, mids, or treble based on your taste.
If you do not see an Equalizer option, that is completely normal. YouTube Music does not include its own EQ on most devices. The app only shows an EQ button when your phone or tablet has a system equalizer that YouTube Music can access. Many iPhones and several Android models hide or remove access to the system EQ, so the setting never appears.
To use EQ on devices that do not support it, consider a third-party app such as Wavelet on Android or Boom on iOS.
Apple Music EQ on iPhone
Apple Music does not include an EQ menu inside the app. To adjust your sound profile:
Pick a preset like Vocal Booster, Reduce Bass or Acoustic, or try a few options to find the sound you prefer.
Switching EQ presets is one of the fastest ways to make your music feel new again.
Apple Music EQ on Mac
The Mac version of Apple Music includes its own equalizer, but it can be hard to find if you are not used to the Mac menu bar. Here’s exactly what you should see:
Open Finder
Go to Applications
Open the Music app
Once the Music app is open, look at the very top of your screen, above everything else. This thin horizontal strip is the Mac menu bar. It does not sit inside the Music app window. It is always at the very top of macOS.
You should see words in the menu bar that look like this (from left to right):
Music File Edit Song View Controls Account Window Help
Click Window in that row
A dropdown menu should appear beneath the word “Window”
In that dropdown, look for Equalizer and click it
As soon as you click Equalizer, a small floating window should appear with:
A dropdown menu of presets (Bass Booster, Classical, Vocal, Acoustic, etc.)
A row of vertical sliders for different frequency bands
A checkbox to turn the EQ on or off
If the Equalizer option does not appear in the Window menu, or the EQ window does not pop up when selected, that is a known issue affecting some macOS versions in late 2025. It is not something you’re doing wrong.
You can also check Window > Sound Enhancer to disable Apple’s extra processing if you prefer clean sound.
Amazon Music EQ
Amazon Music does not include its own built-in EQ in the app. Instead, it uses your device’s system equalizer.
If your device has a system EQ:
You will see an Equalizer button inside Amazon Music under Settings > Playback
Tapping it opens your device’s sound settings
If you do not see an Equalizer option, your phone does not expose a system EQ to apps. This is normal on many iPhone and Android models. For EQ control, Amazon Music recommends using third-party EQ apps or system-level audio tools.
Avoid Dolby Atmos if you want lossless quality
Dolby Atmos adds a spatial effect. It makes sound feel like it is coming from around you. It is immersive but not the same as lossless quality. Many users mix these up and lose out on higher audio fidelity without realizing it.
On Apple Music, you can download songs in Dolby Atmos or in lossless quality, but not both at the same time. If Atmos is on, your downloads will not save in lossless format.
Choosing the right audio quality setting gives you richer detail across every streaming service.(Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
How to check your settings
Apple Music
On your iPhone, click Settings
Click Apps
Tap Music
Scroll down to Dolby Atmos and turn it off
Pro Tip: Delete and re-download songs to replace Atmos files with Lossless or Hi-Res Lossless versions.
Amazon Music
How to check your audio quality settings on Amazon Music
Open the Amazon Music app
Tap your profile icon in the upper left
Tap Settings
Go to Playback
Check these options:
Streaming Audio Quality
Choose HD or Ultra HD for lossless playback
If you only see “Best Available”, click it as it will automatically use HD/Ultra HD when your plan and device allow
Download Audio Quality
Some users only see Standard and Space Saver, which means lossless downloads are not available on that plan or device. If HD/Ultra HD downloads are supported on your account, set this to HD or Ultra HD for lossless offline files. Not every user will see them. Amazon has not rolled out lossless downloads universally, even for Unlimited subscribers.
Spatial Audio (only appears on supported accounts)
If visible, turn Spatial Audio off for consistent lossless stereo. Dolby Atmos or 360 Reality Audio may override Ultra HD when both versions exist. If the toggle does not appear, your device or account is not part of Amazon’s spatial-audio rollout.
Spotify
Spotify does not support Dolby Atmos. You will not see a toggle for it, and there is no risk of replacing lossless files with Atmos versions. Spotify streams only in stereo.
YouTube Music
YouTube Music supports spatial audio on some devices, but the service does not offer lossless audio at all. Turning on spatial audio does not affect lossless quality because lossless formats are not available.
Improve your audio quality settings on any streaming service
Every platform lets you raise streaming quality. Free tiers often default to lower quality to save data. Paid plans unlock higher bitrates. Here’s what you get with the top tiers:
If you want even better audio, try a few hardware checks.
Confirm your earbuds or headphones support high-resolution Bluetooth codecs like LDAC or AptX Adaptive
Use a USB-C DAC if your headphones do not support high-res codecs
Match your audio gear to your source to avoid compression issues
Small swaps can produce big upgrades.
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Better sound is only a few taps away. These settings help you unlock cleaner audio, wider dynamics, and more detail without buying expensive equipment. Small changes can make your music feel richer and more immersive across every track.
What tweak made the biggest difference for your sound? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.
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Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.
PORTLAND, OR – Advanced practice providers from Legacy Go Health clinics and Legacy Pediatrics say will join the 140 APPs from Legacy’s hospitals and clinics already on strike. The 80 members launching the solidarity strikes are also represented by the Oregon Nurses Association, and ONA leaders say the expanding strike reflects widespread frustration with Legacy’s bargaining approach and unsatisfactory working conditions.
Members of Legacy Go Health will hold a two-day strike on December 21 and 22, while Pediatric APPs will hold their strike on December 22 and 23.
“We didn’t take this vote lightly,” said Sara Lopez, a physician associate at Legacy Go Health clinics. “Our patients rely on us every day, but we also rely on a system that treats providers fairly and ensures care is safe and sustainable. Standing with our colleagues is the only way to move Legacy toward a solution that supports both providers and patients.”
Legacy put out a statement in which they wrote, “(we) provided our offer on Nov. 20, before ONA issued its strike notice. To date, almost three weeks later, we have not received a counter. ONA does not need to wait for mediation to provide its counteroffer and can do so at anytime. The ball is in their court.”
According to Legacy officials, that offer would allow the most experienced APPs to make between $197,500 and $215,000, depending on position.
Additional negotiations are possible on December 15, 18, and 22.
