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Recent mobile & apps coverage, selected for a quick and source-forward read.
Apple CFO Kevan Parekh said third-party AI apps and partnerships could create new revenue streams, without detailing a plan. Reuters says investors are weighing whether Apple could distribute AI agents via the App Store as U.S. commission revenue fell 18%.
The test comes as Hinge’s Q3 direct revenue rose 19% to $221 million, with paying users up 23% to 2.3 million, yet revenue per payer is around $30—nearly twice Tinder’s. The tier adds filters and custom location boundaries; pricing is undisclosed.
Google says Videostrong embedded a backdoor in 1.3 million Android devices, selling access to affiliates for ad fraud, data exfiltration, and residential proxy networks. In November 2026, Google banned the Shenzhen company from certified Android hardware and software.
Meta’s final OS update for Quest 2 and Quest Pro will be version 213 by March 2027, with security patches and critical fixes continuing through the end of 2027. Quest 3/3S are now the baseline ahead of Meta VR Glasses, due spring 2027.
Germany’s BSI says Bundestag members and other public figures received Apple spyware alerts in November 2026, urging recipients to assume their devices may be compromised. Zero-click exploits can steal messages, location data and other sensitive information.
Launched in November 2026, Readwise Books tracks words read, pace, depth, immersion, and individual sessions—more like Strava than a basic reading log. It supports Kindle Cloud Reader, physical-book scans, DRM-free EPUBs, AI tools, a public API, and an MCP server.
Affinity for iPad brings pro design, illustration, photo-editing and layout tools to Apple’s tablet for free from November 2026, with Apple Pencil Pro support and Sketch Studio. Projects use one .af format, while Canva AI Studio adds optional editing tools.
OpenAI says the unified ChatGPT workspace will let users move from brainstorming to execution, using files and plugins to build sites or presentations without switching tabs. It’s rolling out to select users; ChatGPT and Codex will share token allowances, while Codex remains separate.
Apple’s China rollout will use a locally trained model and Alibaba’s Qwen chatbot rather than OpenAI’s ChatGPT. iOS 27.3 beta arrives Nov. 4, with December’s release bringing translation, summaries, writing tools, visual intelligence and photo object removal—but not the new Siri.
A hardcoded password in Applebee’s Android app exposed unrestricted access to customer records, including names, emails, phone numbers, birth dates and IP addresses. Dine Brands patched the flaw after researcher Robert Wiggins’ discovery; it said no unauthorized access was found.
Zest’s concierge uses Plaid-linked dining history to personalize recommendations and text bookings through OpenTable, Resy, and SevenRooms. Added to group chats, it combines tastes, runs in-thread polls, and books for the party; the startup has raised $1.8 million.
Users can now edit generated files in place, from PDFs and Google Docs to spreadsheets, slides, Markdown, TXT, and code. The feature rolled out to all Gemini users on October 29, 2026; non-PDF editing is web-only.
On Mac, users can press Fn to dictate into any app while Granola cleans up and formats their speech. Launched October 29, 2026, the free feature has no word limits; iOS and Windows versions are coming.
Available to all NYT Cooking subscribers on iOS as of late October 2026, the optional chatbot can swap ingredients, adjust equipment, scale servings, and rewrite instructions in real time. Users can’t disable it, prompting criticism over AI’s environmental impact and app experience.
Alexa now handles shopping lists, recurring deliveries, drop-off instructions and payment issues—not just orders. Announced Oct. 29, the update follows an eightfold rise in agentic-feature use and 400M Alexa shoppers in 12 months.
Bluesky says it blocked links to the Icepick archive because it exposes personal contact information without authorization, including names, emails, and phone numbers. The records cover more than 41,000 DHS employees and contractors.
An on-screen notice on Zac Bowden’s LG webOS TV says Microsoft Copilot support for all TVs will end during 2026, though no specific date is set. The assistant offered chats, on-screen content questions, and recommendations on LG and Samsung sets.
Google’s October 2026 public beta lets U.S. developers connect services to Search and Gemini via MCP and AppFunctions APIs. More than 50 Gemini integrations are live, while Calm is set to launch on both platforms; broader availability has no announced timeline.