GoKawiil
Tech News
Meta's Muse, an AI agent app launched earlier this month, has climbed to the top of Apple's free iPhone app rankings in the US, pushing OpenAI's ChatGPT out of first place. The surge follows Meta's expansion of Muse to Mac desktops, though that version doesn't count toward App Store rankings since it's downloaded via the web.
XChat, the standalone messaging app X launched earlier this year for direct messaging between users, has disappeared from the iOS App Store. The Android version remains available on Google Play, and no reason has been given for the iOS removal.
X Corp and xAI have filed to dismiss their antitrust lawsuit against Apple in a Texas federal court, with no explanation given for the move and no confirmation of a settlement. The suit had accused Apple of favoring OpenAI's ChatGPT within Apple Intelligence to the detriment of competitors like Grok. Musk's companies say their claims against OpenAI, also named in the original suit, will continue.
A new essay outlines a startup evaluation heuristic focused on power rather than incremental revenue growth: asking how a company can own the customer relationship, control money flow, become a platform others build on, or create network effects. The piece argues these structural shifts can multiply a company's value far more than simple revenue optimization.
Farwave is a new iOS app that lets users explore a 3D globe to discover and listen to radio stations from around the world, including a 'Take me anywhere' shuffle feature and listening history. Beyond radio, the app organizes podcasts and personal music imports onto separate visual 'planets,' supporting playback queues, speed control, and offline downloads.
Apple has begun accepting app submissions built with the iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, tvOS 27, visionOS 27, and watchOS 27 SDKs ahead of their September 14 launch. Developers can now download the Xcode 27 Release Candidate to prepare their apps for approval before the public rollout.
Meta's new agentic AI app Muse has been downloaded over 83,000 times on iOS in the US since its Tuesday launch, pushing it to the No. 2 spot on Apple's App Store charts, according to Sensor Tower data. That pace trails Meta's own past launches like Threads and the Meta AI app, as well as ChatGPT's debut week, and Muse is performing far weaker on Android, ranking only 338th in Google Play's Productivity category.
A federal court rejected claims by rival startup Project Bluebird that X Corp. had abandoned the TWITTER, TWEET and Bird Logo trademarks after Elon Musk rebranded the platform. Project Bluebird had filed intent-to-use applications for TWITTER and TWEET and rebranded its own app from twitter.new to tweet.app following the ruling. The court pointed to X's Apple App Store listing, which still describes the app as 'formerly known as Twitter,' as evidence of continued bona fide trademark use.
9to5Mac's daily podcast episode for September 8, 2026 rounds up recent reporting on rumored HomePod developments and anticipated changes to the App Store. The episode is available across major podcast platforms and is sponsored by productivity app Stuff and device-management tool iMazing.
Sonos has released its Sonos 27 app update for all S2-compatible hardware, adopting a new year-based naming convention similar to iOS. The update lets pairs of portable speakers like Move 2 or Sonos Play act as rear surrounds with a compatible soundbar, introduces a redesigned navigation interface with swipe gestures and pinned rooms, and adds early-access features for headphone-speaker audio handoff and third-party AI assistant integration.
Meta has moved its agentic AI assistant, Muse, into a limited closed testing phase, according to Testing Catalog, gating access through a waitlist and invite codes. An App Store listing reveals the app can connect to Gmail, Google Calendar, health apps, and even users' bank accounts and cards to track spending and suggest canceling unused subscriptions.
Reports say Apple is developing a privacy-focused home security and monitoring device that uses AI rather than video footage, tied to a new subscription service. Separately, executives including Eddy Cue are reportedly exploring ways to raise App Store margins and extract more recurring revenue from developers.