apps

CarPlay continues to give drivers more choice than ever when it comes to which services to use on the road. For example, CarPlay now works with three top AI chatbot apps. This extends the iPhone experience into the car without requiring special integration between automakers and services.

Perplexity has released a brand new version of its macOS app that is replacing the company’s previous Mac software.

Signify, the firm behind Philips Hue, is launching a new Sports Live feature that connects lighting effects to real-time live sports data. The new feature arrives in time for the 2026 FIFA World Cup kickoff.

WWDC 2026 is just around the corner, and Apple has highlighted four Swift Student Challenge app winners. This year, Apple points out AI tools Swift Student Challenge winners are using to help bring their ideas to life.

Prime members have access to unlimited photo backup, and Amazon just redesigned its Photos app for iPhone users.

Meta’s latest attempt to comply with age verification requirements in Europe, Brazil and the US is to roll out AI-powered tech to analyse the faces of teenage users of Facebook and Instagram.

The company says AI analysis will be used to estimate the ages of faces but that it does not amount to face recognition. Update: It doesn’t appear to be working too well – a 12yo kid fooled it by using an eyebrow pencil to draw a fake mustache …

Look, it’s Friday. OpenAI updated Codex. It has Tamagotchi-style pets. You can make your own. Lil Finder Guy is hovering over my Dock.

Epic Games has launched its Star Wars-themed Fortnite update for May, and the release comes with the arrival of Fortnite on the iPhone in Japan.

Fortnite returned to the iPhone and iPad in the US this month a year ago. Next, Epic Games is targeting iOS availability in another region soon. Meanwhile, Fortnite’s return to the Mac doesn’t sound too promising.

Netflix has once again made a controversial change to its Apple TV app. In recent weeks, the company has stopped using the native tvOS 26 video player in favor of a custom player similar to the one it uses on other TV platforms.

In practice, this makes the most common interactions more cumbersome and blocks users from using platform-specific Apple TV features.

As part of iOS 26, Apple launched a revamped experience for airline boarding passes in Apple Wallet.

United and Southwest rolled out support for the new iOS 26 boarding pass experience last year.

Now, American Airlines has officially followed suit by supporting key new boarding pass features in Apple Wallet.

XChat, the standalone messaging app from X, is now available. X’s new iPhone and iPad app has officially arrived on the App Store.

Apple has updated its developer website this week to spotlight third-party apps using Liquid Glass to “create natural, responsive experiences across Apple platforms.”

Last week, Apple released iOS 26.4, which enabled support for voice-based AI apps to CarPlay for the first time.

Just a few days later, OpenAI has updated the ChatGPT app for iPhone to take advantage of this change. Now, ChatGPT is fully accessible via a dedicated CarPlay app.

Apple today announced the “biggest update since its launch” for the Analytics platform inside App Store Connect. Apple touts that there are more than 100 new metrics, new cohort capabilities, new reports for subscriptions and benchmarks, and more.

TikTok is setting itself apart from most other online platforms that offer messaging by stating that it won’t be introducing end-to-end encryption to ensure the privacy of direct messages.

This means that the company will be able to read messages sent between users, which is likely to cause concerns even after its US operations were separated from its Chinese owner …

Update: Added comment from TikTok below