Matt Burgess (MacRumors, ArsTechnica):

On Thursday, San Francisco city attorney David Chiu sent legal notices to Apple and Google demanding that they remove from their app stores 13 face-swapping apps, which allow users to create AI-generated nonconsensual nude images. The letters say the Silicon Valley giants should stop “aiding and abetting” the sale of explicit deepfake images and “sever” business relationships with the app developers.

[…]

Researchers have repeatedly found and reported apps in Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store that allow people to generate sexual images using AI—including some apps being rated as suitable for use by children. While new laws and bans aim to tackle the scourge of explicit deepfakes online, technology and social media companies consistently direct millions of people toward the harmful tech.

Both Apple and Google have developer policies that prohibit pornography, abuse, and harassment on their platforms.

Burgess gives the impression, which is my base assumption, that these 13 apps were clear about what they do, so App Review has no excuse for missing them. But I’m sure it’s keeping us all safe in other regards.

Meanwhile, in a preprint research paper published in May, researchers from Cornell University and Georgetown University identified 420 apps offering general face-swapping capabilities on Google’s and Apple’s app stores. They tested 155 to see if they could be used to create face swaps with nude images; in 70 percent of cases, it was possible, with the apps not including safety measures to prevent this.

Previously:

• Sirius Pomodoro
• Apps for YouTube℠™®•!
• Sanctioned Entities Slip Through App Store Controls

Update (2026-07-21): Danny Bradbury:

Chiu isn’t arguing that hosting an app automatically makes a platform liable for what it does. Platform operators already won that battle with Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. That 30-year-old law says websites generally aren’t responsible for content posted by users, allowing platforms to host user-generated content without getting sued every time someone defames someone in a comment thread.

Courts have often extended those protections to cover app stores too. Apple and Google are treated as distributors of whatever a third-party developer uploads, rather than publishers.

Chiu is attempting to sidestep that argument by focusing on the companies’ payment systems, noting that Apple and Google collect a cut of every in-app purchase. According to the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), that means they profit from apps that generate revenue by creating non-consensual intimate imagery.

Ed Hardy:

Finding useful software in the App Store is about to get easier. Apple is apparently preparing to remove what it describes as “opportunistic” apps that provide little value to iPhone and iPad users.

It already had a policy of not approving applications that are “indistinguishable from what’s already widely available.” This week, it quietly warned developers that it will start removing low-value software that doesn’t attract attention from users.

App Review Guidelines (News):

4.3 (b) Don’t submit apps that are indistinguishable from what’s already widely available. Opportunistically creating variants of existing app categories or popular apps degrades App Store discovery, reduces overall app quality, and harms both users and developers. Certain kinds of apps, such as dating, flashlight, sound effects, wallpaper, simple timers, and fortune telling, are well established on the App Store and we will not accept new submissions unless they offer a meaningfully different or improved experience. We may remove these apps from the App Store going forward if they are not updated, improved, or do not attract customers. Other kinds of apps, such as drinking games, Kama Sutra, fart, and burp apps, are mediocre, low-quality, or low-effort and do not add value to the App Store. Repeated submissions of this kind may lead to removal from the Apple Developer Program.

Previously:

• Updates to Vibe Coding Apps Rejected From the App Store
• Apple’s Explanation for Removing Old Apps
• App Store Removing Old Apps That Still Work
• Wordle Clones
• App Store Competition
• How to Game the App Store
• Removing Abandoned Apps and Shorter App Names
• Removing Unmaintained Apps from the App Store

Update (2026-07-14): Aleksandar Vacić:

Waiting for Review enters day 3. I don’t recall when was the last time this happened for any of the apps I am working for.

[…]

I sent messages to App Review Board and received nothing in response (so far).

It seems that if Apple ever removed your app from App Store for reason of “not sending regular updates” that app is…gone. It’s not deleted but it seems to dwell in some sort of limbo.

Previously:

• Mac App Store Review Times Increasing

Written by Jonathan Tropper and Cassie Pappas and based on Marissa Stapley’s bestselling novel, “Lucky” centers on a young woman (Anya Taylor-Joy) who left behind the life of crime she was raised in years ago, but must now embrace her darker, criminal side one final time in a desperate attempt to escape her past.

Apple TV’s seven-episode series premieres this Wednesday.

Mark Kennedy for The Independent:
‎

Anya Taylor-Joy finds herself in a familiar setting this summer: In the desert, fighting to stay alive.

She did it in “Furiosa” and the upcoming “Dune: Part Three.” Now she’s under the blazing California sun for “Lucky,” a propulsive Apple TV crime thriller that has her trading blows with goons, bloodying her otherworldly face.

“Listen, I’ve been to the desert so many times at this point it’s kind of unreal. I don’t look like a desert creature, and yet I’m always there and I love it,” says the actor. “People like to see me struggle, and they like me to survive. And, luckily, I enjoy doing it, too, so it works out.”

Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine media company approached Taylor-Joy with the book, asking her to not just consider leading the series as an actor but also offering to make her debut as an executive producer.

“I remember crossing my fingers and thinking, ‘God, I really hope I like this book.’ And then I did and I fell in love with Lucky and I felt that I had something to contribute in this space, which I think if you’re coming on as an executive producer is the feeling that you want to have,” says Taylor-Joy.

‎
MacDailyNews Take: Congrats to Taylor-Joy on her first executive producing gig!

MacDailyNews Note: Apple TV is available on the Apple TV app in over 100 countries and regions, on over 1 billion screens, including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV 4K, Apple Vision Pro, Mac, popular smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony, VIZIO, TCL and others, Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices, Chromecast with Google TV, PlayStation and Xbox gaming consoles, and at tv.apple.com, for $12.99 per month with a seven-day free trial for new subscribers. For a limited time, customers who purchase and activate a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV 4K or Mac can enjoy three months of Apple TV for free.

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The post Apple TV series ‘Lucky,’ starring Anya Taylor-Joy is ‘a propulsive crime thriller’ – The Independent appeared first on MacDailyNews.

iOS 27 Developer Beta 1 has been out since WWDC 2026, with the second beta slated to be released soon. There are a number of changes and performance improvements to be appreciated in this very first developer beta, along with oddities to be expected with prerelease software. Just like last year, I decided to take […]

The post iOS 27 Beta 1: Impressions on Build 24A5355q after 1 week appeared first on Low End Mac.

It's been a good few weeks for games on rails. Nintendo's Star Fox remake wisely kept the tightly scripted, action-packed levels from Star Fox 64 largely the same, and they're still fun to fly through nearly 20 years later. Denshattack!, a new game from Undercoders, similarly features levels packed with carefully orchestrated sequences to great effect. Except instead of flying through space as an unnervingly realistic anthropomorphic fox, you're flying - and flipping, and spinning, and grinding - through Japan while driving a blindingly fast train.

Calling Denshattack! a train game radically undersells what you actually do. Across a bright …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Balmuda has engineered a remarkably pleasant breeze with its new NatureWind Studio, but is it worth hundreds more than its competition?

Balmuda has engineered a remarkably pleasant breeze with its new NatureWind Studio, but is it worth hundreds more than its competition?

When Lucid introduced the Air electric sedan in late 2021, the first Air Dream Edition I tested packed over 1,100 hp (820 kW) and carried a $180,000-plus window sticker. It's easily the most powerful street car I've tested; the only vehicle I've driven with more power was a purebred race car with a third the mass, and it was on a proper track. Its combustion engine was also about 1,000 times louder than the Air, helping to remind us that "combustion" really does mean explosion after explosion.

For Lucid's second act, the company debuted the Gravity electric SUV last year, and I've just tested the 2026 Gravity Touring, which starts at about $82,000 in the US, including the required destination charge.

My test model carried a bevy of options, including a 22-speaker audio system, the Comfort and Convenience package, third-row seating, a Dynamic Handling package (combining rear-wheel steering and three-chamber air suspension), a luxury seating package (bundling Nappa leather and massaging and ventilated front seats), and special metallic paint.

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© Jim Resnick

Great for indie darlings, but Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo remain kings of TV gaming.

Great for indie darlings, but Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo remain kings of TV gaming.

Projectors are adopting RGB backlighting, the hottest tech from the world of TVs. This large but vivid projector is a great option for summer movie nights.

Projectors are adopting RGB backlighting, the hottest tech from the world of TVs. This large but vivid projector is a great option for summer movie nights.

But with great power comes a great price.

Google’s first new smart speaker in six years is here and once again leads its competitors—now with paywalled features.

Google’s first new smart speaker in six years is here and once again leads its competitors—now with paywalled features.

BenQ’s 4100i projector shines with its amazing color reproduction, excellent contrast, and a buttery cinematic mode.

BenQ’s 4100i projector shines with its amazing color reproduction, excellent contrast, and a buttery cinematic mode.

After a slower start than its major rivals, Toyota has been making up for it with a flurry of new electric vehicles for the North American market. Its first attempt, the bZ4x, was an also-ran, but a new battery pack, more efficient motors, and a NACS charging port transformed the face-lifted bZ into an EV I happily recommend. Then, earlier this year, it followed up with some bZ-related variants. For those who miss the vibe of a station wagon, there is the bZ Woodland, and an all-electric Highlander is nearing the showroom, too. But today's focus is the C-HR, and I'm still not entirely sure what to make of it.

It's the smallest of the bunch, some 6.7 inches (170 mm) shorter than the bZ. But it's still as wide and only a little more than an inch shorter. So if you're put off by the bZ's size and are looking for something diminutive—and based on reader feedback, there are many of you out there—this small SUV will probably still fail to pass muster.

It's not any cheaper than the bZ until you consider that the C-HR is only available with one choice of powertrain: a twin-motor AWD setup with a combined 338 hp (252 kW) powered by a 74.7 kWh battery pack. That same arrangement, with a 223 hp (167 kW), 198 lb-ft (268 Nm) front motor and 118 hp (88 kW), 125 lb-ft (169 Nm) rear unit, costs almost $3,000 more in a bZ than the $37,000 starting price of the C-HR.

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© Toyota

HP’s OmniBook Ultra 14 is one of the best alternatives to the MacBook Air you can buy right now, and it’s more affordable than many of its Windows competitors.

Wooting’s 60HE v2 isn’t just a terrific Hall Effect keyboard. It’s a fantastic keyboard period.