The long-awaited Apple TV app for Android mobile devices has officially launched on the Google Play Store, providing Android users access to original series and movies on Apple TV+ (currently offered as a seven-day free trial), in addition to MLS Season Pass (in time for Major League Soccer’s 2025 season that begins the weekend of February 22). Apple TV+ also offers a Major League Baseball double-header on Fridays with no local broadcast restrictions. Subscriptions to Apple TV+ and MLS Season Pass are available through Google Play accounts for Android mobile and Google TV devices. The Apple TV+ subscription presently runs $9.99 per month. Continue reading Apple TV App Is Available via Google Play for Android Devices

Apple Invites is a new app that helps iPhone users create and share custom invitations, send RSVPs, and add information to calendars. The app also facilitates contributions to shared photo albums and Apple Music playlists. Users can download Apple Invites from the App Store or access it on the web through icloud.com/invites. An iCloud+ premium subscription is necessary to create and send invitations, but anyone can RSVP and share in group activities, regardless of whether they have an Apple account or use iOS or Android. Additionally, the Invites app integrates with Apple Intelligence. Continue reading Apple’s ‘Invites’ App Does More Than Build Custom Invitations

Google is batting back against malware and backdoor computer infection by adding VPN app verification at the Google Play Store that includes a badge for trusted downloads. Google has indicated that simply selecting reputable brand-name VPNs (virtual private networks) is no longer an effective way of avoiding trouble, as nefarious actors have found ways to infect legitimate VPN apps with malware. Last month, the Google Managed Defense team warned that malware known as Playfulghost had reportedly infected some popular VPNs, using them to inject malware and remotely control infected devices. Continue reading Google Fights VPN Malware with Play Store Verification Badge

Following the phasing out of legacy pricing for YouTube Premium subscribers that began in January in the U.S., the Google-owned streaming service is now doing the same in Europe and elsewhere. Long-time subscribers with pricing plans dating back to discontinued services Google Play Music and YouTube Red will begin paying the equivalent of the current $13.99 per month price starting in January 2025. The price increase encompasses both YouTube Premium, which is ad-free and includes YouTube Music, as well as YouTube’s standalone plans. Concurrently, the streaming giant is also rolling out a controls redesign for iOS and Android. Continue reading YouTube Raises Its Premium Subscription Rates Internationally

Blackmagic Design is releasing its Blackmagic Camera for Android 1.3 update, which adds support for recording timecode and adds anamorphic lens de-squeeze functionality and lens correction settings as well as support for off-speed and time lapse recording. Available at Google Play free of charge, it supports Google’s latest OS, Android 14, which means it should offer some interesting creative possibilities with Gemini, the new Pixel 9 series’ native AI. Some features are backward compatible. Customers with Pixel 6, 7, 8 and 9 phones can record at frames rates of 120fps and 240fps at 720p, and 120fps at 1080p. Continue reading Blackmagic Camera for Android Adds Array of New Features

After teasing a big screen interface for months, social media company X has released the beta version of its new TV app called X TV, designed to provide “a massive leap forward in transforming X into a video-first platform,” while looking to compete with industry leaders such as Google’s YouTube. Importantly, the new presentation provides X with video-specific play for ad partners, which the Elon Musk-owned company has been attempting to lure back after loosened content moderation standards sent many fleeing. X CEO Linda Yaccarino said the X TV app is debuting ad-free, but reports indicate the company will introduce ad options in the future. Continue reading X Launches a Beta Version of Its Video Offering on App Stores

The battle between Epic Games and Apple has arrived at a truce that finds the game maker’s massively popular “Fortnite” title back on iOS in the European Union, where Apple was pushed into the move by the competition-fostering Digital Markets Act. “Fortnite” is now available for iPhones there via the new Epic Games Store as well as the third-party outlet AltStore PAL. The launch comes after years of litigation between Epic and Apple in Europe and the U.S., where the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal, resulting in a decision Epic found less satisfactory than the EU outcome. Continue reading Epic Launches App Store for iOS in the EU, Android Globally

Altice USA has launched a new Internet package for its Optimum Stream platform. Called Entertainment TV, the virtual MVPD service offers premium entertainment content for $30 per month. The move comes as Altice says Optimum is further expanding its Optimum Stream product offering to homes in the U.S., including in Arkansas, Arizona, Louisiana, North Carolina and Texas. Optimum Stream was previously available only to Optimum Internet customers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Optimum Stream debuted in 2021, targeting consumers without linear TV who would be interested in subscribing to a broadband service for $5 per month. Continue reading Altice USA Bows Entertainment TV Internet Streaming Service

Meta’s popular instant messaging service WhatsApp is reportedly beta testing a feature that would allow the already integrated Meta AI chatbot to edit and reply to images. The capability was spotted in the WhatsApp beta for Android 2.24.14.20, with AI powered by Llama 3, the company’s newest large language model released in April. The beta version works via a camera button added to the text box for Meta AI chat in WhatsApp. When pressed, the button triggers a pop-up that indicates Meta AI can analyze and edit photos, though it’s currently unclear to what extent. Continue reading Meta AI Image Analysis and Editing Beta Tested for WhatsApp

Bellevue, Washington-based startup Butterflies AI has created a new social platform that makes artificial intelligence more interactive with humans, allowing people to create customized AIs that generate posts, comments and DMs to which their creators and other humans — as well as other Butterfly AIs — can respond. Anyone using the platform, which has launched publicly on iOS and Android after 5 months in beta, can create their own AI, called a “Butterfly.” The venture, created by former Snap engineer Vu Tran, has raised $4.8 million on Tran’s premise that the public lacks an “interesting” consumer AI product. Continue reading Butterflies: AI Interacts with Humans on New Social Platform

Voodoo, the French app publisher behind mobile games like “Helix Jump” and “Crowd City” has purchased social network BeReal for $537 million. Paris-based BeReal was launched in 2020, focusing on “authentic interactions,” but didn’t gain widespread popularity until 2022 when it captured the imagination of Gen Z. According to Voodoo, the platform now has more than 40 million active users, largely concentrated in the U.S., Japan and France. The new owner says it will invest in BeReal and plans to “accelerate its growth” using Voodoo’s “expertise and technologies,” adding that the acquisition “accelerates its diversification into consumer apps.” Continue reading Mobile Game Publisher Voodoo Acquires Social App BeReal

The Google Home API has been opened to developers that want to use the smart home devices and automations in apps. “Building on the foundation of Matter, we’ve re-envisioned Google Home as a platform for developers — all developers, not just those that build smart home devices,” the company announced at Google I/O. The new APIs provide access to over 600 million devices with a single integration and create the possibility for Google TVs to serve as smart home hubs. Google’s established partners have access to the Home APIs, and the company is now waitlisting other interested developers. Among the first partners are ADT and Eve. Continue reading Google Reimagines Home as Platform for All App Developers

Microsoft Xbox President Sarah Bond announced the company plans to launch a web-based mobile game store in July, creating a new rival for Google Play and Apple’s App Store. Speaking at the Bloomberg Technology Summit, Bond said the web venue was selected so a single store could serve all users in all countries, “independent of the policies of closed ecosystem stores.” Initially the focus will be on Microsoft games, opening later to other publishers. “This web-based store is the first step in our journey to building a trusted app store with its roots in gaming,” Microsoft said in a post-even statement. Continue reading Microsoft Will Introduce Web-Based Xbox Mobile Game Store

Meta Platforms has rebranded its Quest VR operating system Horizon OS and is opening the platform to third parties. While licensing terms have not been publicly disclosed, Asus and Lenovo have said they’re going to be designing hardware using the system. Microsoft and Qualcomm are also in round one of the companies on the inside track as Meta positions Horizon OS along the lines of a universal VR standard, not unlike Microsoft’s Windows OS for computers. All four companies have already been working with Meta on VR for Quest or its predecessor, Oculus. Continue reading Meta Opens Mixed Reality OS to Third-Party Hardware Makers

Users appear to prefer Meta Platforms’ Threads to Elon Musk’s social platform X, based on the disparity between the number of downloads, which is widening. Globally, Meta’s Instagram spinoff — which has many of the same features as the app formerly known as Twitter — has recently been seeing three times as many daily downloads as X on iOS devices, and more than twice as many from the Google Play app store for Android. The analysis is from intelligence firm Appfigures, which this week lists Threads as No. 2 among all free app downloads, and X at No. 40. As Threads introduces new features, it is also testing a new in-app camera. Continue reading Threads Surpasses X in Downloads, Tests an In-App Camera