Google has announced that with the help of AI, it blocked 1.75 million apps that violated its policies in 2025, significantly down from 2.36 million in 2024. The lower numbers this year, it said, are because its "AI-powered, multi-layer protections" are deterring bad actors from even trying to publish bad apps.
Google said it now runs more than 10,000 safety checks on every app and continues to recheck them after they're published. Its use of the latest generative AI models helps human reviewers discover malicious patterns more quickly, it added. The company also blocked 160 million spam ratings, preventing an average 0.5-star rating drop for apps targeted by review bombing. Finally, Google stopped 255,000 apps from gaining excessive access to sensitive user data in 2025, down from 1.3 million the year before.
Meanwhile, Google Play Protect, the company's Android defense system, sniffed out over 27 million new malicious apps, either warning users or preventing them from running. The company added that Play Protect's enhanced fraud protection now covers 2.8 billion Android devices in 185 markets and blocked 266 million risky "side-loading" installation attempts.
"Initiatives like developer verification, mandatory pre-review checks, and testing requirements have raised the bar for the Google Play ecosystem, significantly reducing the paths for bad actors to enter," the company said its blog. "This year, we'll continue to invest in AI-driven defenses to stay ahead of emerging threats and equip Android developers with the tools they need to build apps safely."
Google has steadfastly justified its relatively high fees on app purchases and subscriptions by touting its investments in app safety. However, its Play store has been under pressure from regulators in Europe a
A recent Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage that lasted 13 hours was reportedly caused by one of its own AI tools, according to reporting by Financial Times. This happened in December after engineers deployed the Kiro AI coding tool to make certain changes, say four people familiar with the matter.
Kiro is an agentic tool, meaning it can take autonomous actions on behalf of users. In this case, the bot reportedly determined that it needed to "delete and recreate the environment." This is what allegedly led to the lengthy outage that primarily impacted China.
Amazon says it was merely a "coincidence that AI tools were involved" and that "the same issue could occur with any developer tool or manual action." The company blamed the outage on "user error, not AI error." It said that by default the Kiro tool "requests authorization before taking any action" but that the staffer involved in the December incident had "broader permissions than expected — a user access control issue, not an AI autonomy issue."
Multiple Amazon employees spoke to Financial Times and noted that this was "at least" the second occasion in recent months in which the company's AI tools were at the center of a service disruption. "The outages were small but entirely foreseeable," said one senior AWS employee.
Instead of jumping straight to code, the IDE pushed them to start with specs. ?? Clear requirements. ?? Acceptance criteria. ?? Traceable tasks.
Their takeaway: Think first. Code later.
Get the full breakdown here ??… pic.twitter.com/eD7ZrEdEn5
Meta is formally sectioning off Horizon Worlds, the closest thing it has to a metaverse, from its Quest VR platform, according to a new blog post from Samantha Ryan, Meta's VP of Content, Reality Labs. While the decision runs counter to Meta's original plan to own an immersive virtual world that could serve as the future home for all online interaction, it fits with the recent cuts it made to its costly Reality Labs division, and Mark Zuckerberg's public commitment to focus the company on AI hardware like smart glasses going forward.
"We're explicitly separating our Quest VR platform from our Worlds platform in order to create more space for both products to grow," Ryan writes in the blog post. "We're doubling down on the VR developer ecosystem while shifting the focus of Worlds to be almost exclusively mobile. By breaking things down into two distinct platforms, we'll be better able to clearly focus on each."
Meta has been developing mobile and web versions of Horizon Worlds in parallel with its VR app since at least 2023. Switching Worlds to being a mobile-first software platform isn't good for VR diehards, but it does make it a more natural competitor to something like Roblox or Fortnite, which also offer user-created and monetizable worlds and games.
Amazon this week has a pair of discounts on a few AirPods models, including the AirPods 4 and AirPods Max. You can get the AirPods 4 for $99.00, down from $129.00.
macOS Tahoe will be the last version of macOS that supports Intel-based Macs, with Apple planning to phase out Intel Macs entirely following its transition to Apple silicon.
Apple still hasn't officially announced a foldable iPhone, but the rumor mill hasn't slowed down. Over the past few months, analysts, supply-chain watchers and leakers have continued to sketch out what Apple's first folding phone might look like and when it could finally arrive. Most signs still point to a late-2026 debut, though plenty could change between now and then.
As always with unreleased Apple hardware, nothing here is confirmed. Plans can shift, features can be reworked and timelines can slip. Still, the volume and consistency of recent reporting gives us a better sense than ever of how the so-called iPhone Fold could take shape.
Below, we've rounded up the most credible rumors so far, and we'll keep this guide updated as new details emerge.
When could the iPhone Fold launch?Rumors of a foldable iPhone date back as far as 2017, but more recent reporting suggests Apple has finally locked onto a realistic window. Most sources now point to fall 2026, likely alongside the iPhone 18 lineup.
Mark Gurman has gone back and forth on timing, initially suggesting Apple could launch "as early as 2026," before later writing that the device would ship at the end of 2026 and sell primarily in 2027. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has also repeatedly cited the second half of 2026 as Apple's target.
Some reports still claim the project could slip into 2027 if Apple runs into manufacturing or durability issues, particularly around the hinge or display. Given Apple's h
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