Bitchat, Jack Dorsey's Bluetooth-based offline messaging app, has been removed from Apple's and Google's app stores in India after the government invoked Section 69A of the IT Act. Apple's takedown notice, shared by Dorsey, said the app remains available outside India but that access via TestFlight is also blocked there, and Bitchat's website appears inaccessible across Indian ISPs. The move follows an earlier July order directing GitHub to remove Bitchat's code repositories.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-10-03
Apple Arcade added five games to its subscription library, which now exceeds 200 titles. The lineup includes Pusheen's Place, a new exclusive life-sim game, alongside ad-free, purchase-free Arcade versions of Terraria+, Touchgrind BMX 2+, and River City Survivors, plus one additional title.
9to5mac.com
· 2026-10-01
Apple TV has been inaccessible since September 30 at 4:43PM, according to Apple's System Status page. The same page had also shown outages for the iOS and Mac App Stores, Fitness+, Music, and subscription and AppleCare+ purchases, but those services were restored within a few hours while Apple TV remained down.
engadget.com
· 2026-10-01
Apple's System Status page listed eight active issues Tuesday evening, including Apple TV, App Store, Fitness+, Apple Music, Mac App Store and Subscription Purchase. Apple attributed most disruptions beginning around 4:22 p.m. ET to routine maintenance, though Apple TV's outage at 4:43 p.m. ET was described as scheduled maintenance that could leave the service unavailable. Some apps also briefly showed internal localization text instead of normal interface labels shortly before the outages began.
9to5mac.com
· 2026-09-30
Sensor Tower reports Meta's agentic AI assistant Muse has surpassed 5 million downloads roughly three weeks after its US launch, faster than ChatGPT, Grok, or Claude reached the same milestone. The app, which can browse the web and perform tasks like booking travel or sending emails, has held the top spot on the US App Store for 12 consecutive days.
9to5mac.com
· 2026-09-30
Apple sent Rep. Jamie Raskin a letter last July explaining its decision to pull ICEBlock and similar ICE-tracking apps from the App Store, citing agent-safety concerns raised partly by the Trump administration after a fatal shooting at a Dallas ICE facility. Raskin has now sent a follow-up letter questioning Apple's justification, according to CNN.
9to5mac.com
· 2026-09-29
At its Dev Day event, OpenAI unveiled a plugin/extension architecture that lets developers build interactive apps inside ChatGPT's chat interface, alongside new agentic assistants called Dots and updated AI models. The company also introduced ways for users to carry their ChatGPT identity into third-party apps and use existing AI usage allowances there. OpenAI says ChatGPT now has 1.2 billion weekly users and will begin surfacing app suggestions mid-conversation.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-29
Rep. Jamie Raskin sent a letter to Apple this week arguing the company has no evidence to support claims that apps like ICEBlock endangered ICE officers, following Apple's removal of such apps from the App Store. Apple had earlier told Raskin the apps were pulled after a fatal shooting at a Dallas ICE facility, but Raskin disputes DHS and FBI claims linking that shooter to app usage, calling the justification unsupported.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-09-29
The developer behind PokerNexus built a custom shortlink service at go.pokernexus.com/app that detects a visitor's device and routes iPhones to the App Store, Android phones to Google Play, and all other devices to the website. The system uses a lightweight Hono-based server and a browser-based QR code generator that boosts error correction to level H so a logo can sit in the code's center without breaking scans.
matthuggins.com
· 2026-09-24
The U.S. government and several legal and business groups have submitted amicus briefs to the Supreme Court supporting Apple's bid to overturn a civil contempt ruling stemming from its App Store dispute with Epic Games. The contempt finding arose after Apple began charging a 27% commission on purchases made through external links, which Epic argued violated a prior injunction. Apple maintains the injunction's original wording never explicitly barred such a commission, and that lower courts wrongly invoked the 'spirit' of the order rather than its text.
9to5mac.com
· 2026-09-22
A São Paulo court has issued an emergency injunction requiring Apple to block minors from downloading Casino Roulette: Roulettist and to add age verification before users can buy virtual chips with real money. The order followed a July lawsuit from four child rights groups alleging minors could easily access the 18+ rated app and spend real money in it. Apple has five days to comply, must extend similar controls to other casino-style apps, and faces a daily fine of about $19,500 if it fails to act.
9to5mac.com
· 2026-09-22
Apptopia data shows Meta's new AI app Muse recorded 1.8 million iOS downloads in the U.S. and Canada during its first 12 days, versus 1.3 million for ChatGPT in the same window after its 2022 debut. Muse also topped ChatGPT in daily active users at a comparable stage, with 642,000 U.S. daily users versus ChatGPT's 231,000, and has climbed to the No. 1 spot on the U.S. App Store.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-21
GoKawiil