Apple is launching new tools to comply with the growing number of age verification laws both in the U.S. and abroad. As part of the changes, Apple will block the downloads of apps rated 18+ in Brazil, Australia, and Singapore, while also rolling out other features to comply with laws in the U.S. states of Utah and Louisiana.

The company informed developers on Tuesday that it’s expanding its set of “age assurance” tools, including an updated Declared Age Range API now available for beta testing.

These tools allow developers to obtain a user’s age range without gaining access to the user’s personal information, like their date of birth. The need for a technical solution like this came about as more governments around the world have created laws to block or restrict certain apps like social media that can only be used by adults 18 and up.

In Brazil, for example, developers can use the Declared Age Range API to obtain the user’s age category, if the user or their parent or guardian chooses to share it.

In addition, Apple will block users in Australia, Brazil, and Singapore from downloading apps rated 18+, starting today, until they confirm they are adults. In this case, the App Store will perform the age confirmation automatically, but Apple notes that developers may still have separate compliance requirements they need to meet.

Also, developers whose games contain loot boxes, a gambling-like mechanism that lets players spend money for a random chance at in-game rewards, and that lawmakers believe shouldn’t be available to kids, will see their apps’ age ratings updated to reflect an 18+ audience in Brazil, specifically.

In the U.S., new users in Utah and Louisiana will soon have their age categories shared with their developers’ apps through the Declared Age Range API, as well. The company said it has expanded its other tools around age ratings and permissions to meet its compliance obligations.

“New signals are now available through the Declared Age Range API, including whether age-related regulatory requirements apply to the user and if the user is required to share their age range,” reads the Apple blog post. “The API will also let you know if you need to get a parent or guardian’s permission for significant app updates for a child.”

Apple last October worked to comply with similar age assurance requirements in Texas, but put some of its plans on hold back in December, as the state’s law is being fought in court. It also updated its age ratings system last year with more granular age ranges than before, and added a variety of new questions for developers submitting apps to Apple for review.

[This is a sponsored article with U Business.]

U Business just launched a new mobile device bundle to solve one of the biggest headaches for growing companies: getting teams properly equipped without burning cash upfront.

The U Biz 3-Line Bundle is a limited-time offer that packages multiple business lines together under one plan, with free flagship smartphones. Yes, including the latest Apple iPhone 15 and Samsung Galaxy S25.

Designed to make connectivity easier, it’s built on U Mobile’ 5G network to support the day-to-day needs of Malaysian entrepreneurs and SMEs, regardless of whether your team is desk-bound or constantly on the move.

Here’s everything you need to know about the new U Biz 3-Line Bundle.

The smarter business upgrade

As mentioned, the bundle gives businesses three mobile lines under a single plan, available with either the U Biz 68 or U Biz 98. Each line comes with a free flagship 5G smartphone, with no upfront payment required for the devices.

Instead of buying phones separately and managing multiple subscriptions, this limited-time offer bundle allows companies to consolidate your mobile needs into one structured plan. 

In today’s Instagram and TikTok-driven world, flagship 5G smartphones are now a necessary productivity tool for businesses. Yet, buying several devices at once may not be financially strategic as it can strain cash flow, especially when paired with recurring operational expenses.

With the U Biz 3-Line Bundle, entrepreneurs and SMEs are able to spread those costs into predictable monthly payments. 

What’s more if this new bundle includes flagship 5G devices. Businesses can choose between premium iOS and Android options, including the Apple iPhone 15 and Samsung Galaxy S25.

Access to these newer flagship 5G devices means that the team is able to enjoy stronger performance and longer software support. Thereby translating to more reliable day-to-day work tools.

Business performance without compromise

Businesses get to choose between the U Biz 68 (which starts from RM68/month per line) and the U Biz 98 (which starts from RM98/month per line). 

Both plans are built for high-usage business environments. On the data front, users get up to 1,000GB of 5G high-speed data, supporting faster downloads, smoother video calls, real-time cloud collaboration, and reliable hotspot usage across teams.

Communication-wise, the bundle includes unlimited local calls, so teams can stay connected internally and with clients without worrying about extra charges.

There’s also free global roaming in over 60 destinations, useful for businesses that have regional travel needs or cross-border operations.

By combining multiple lines and devices under one bundle, companies can better optimise their monthly expenses. 

All-in-one connectivity for SMEs

As Malaysia’s 5G ecosystem continues to expand, having access to a strong 5G network becomes increasingly important for businesses that operate across multiple locations.

Whether you’re a new startup or a business scaling up, the U Biz 3-Line Bundle is suited for teams of all sizes who want to stay connected without breaking the bank, regardless of where work takes you.

So if your team is seeking premium devices, then this is one bundle deal you do not want to miss. 

To sign up or learn more about the U Biz 3-Line Bundle, check out the website here.

Tens of millions of people listen to podcasts and stream internet radio every day. The challenge isn’t access, it’s organization. With content spread across multiple apps and platforms, discovery can feel fragmented, and for many listeners that means sticking to the familiar rather than finding something new.

BluOS, the premium multi-room audio software platform from Lenbrook Media Group is addressing that with a new partnership with airable. The first phase integrates airable’s extensive global catalog of internet radio stations and podcasts directly into the BluOS Controller app.

The update gives BluOS users centralized access to a wide range of programming, from independent shows like the eCoustics Podcast to widely followed titles such as The Joe Rogan Experience, The Daily, and thousands of global radio stations. Rather than requiring separate apps, content is surfaced within the BluOS interface itself, with browsing tools organized by country, genre, city, and newly added stations.

Because BluOS operates as the software layer across hardware brands including Bluesound, NAD Electronics, PSB Speakers, DALI, Monitor Audio, Cyrus Audio, and Roksan, the integration rolls out across a broad installed base without requiring new hardware.

The goal is straightforward: streamline radio and podcast discovery inside the same control environment users already rely on for music streaming and multi-room playback.

What Is airable?

airable is a Germany-based media services provider that supplies internet radio and podcast aggregation to audio brands, automakers, and streaming platforms.

In simple terms, airable is the infrastructure layer. It licenses, organizes, and maintains access to a massive catalogue of global radio stations and podcasts, then integrates that catalogue into partner ecosystems through APIs and backend services.

Rather than each company negotiating station agreements or building its own discovery engine, airable handles:

• Aggregation of tens of thousands of global radio stations
• Podcast indexing and catalog updates
• Metadata, categorization, and search tools
• Geographic portals (country, city, genre browsing)
• Ongoing catalogue maintenance and scalability

For platforms like BluOS, airable acts as the content backbone behind the scenes. The user experience lives inside the BluOS Controller app, but the station and podcast database, discovery structure, and updates are powered by airable’s media services platform.

It’s not a consumer-facing brand most listeners recognize — and that’s intentional. It operates quietly in the background, enabling centralized radio and podcast access without requiring users to jump between separate apps.

The Bottom Line

By integrating airable into BluOS, Lenbrook adds a large, structured catalogue of global radio stations and podcasts directly inside the BluOS Controller app. That means no separate radio app, no bouncing between podcast platforms, and no fragmented search experience.

Who benefits? Existing BluOS users across Bluesound, NAD Electronics, PSB Speakers, DALI, Monitor Audio, Cyrus Audio, and Roksan. They get broader access and improved discovery through a software update, not a hardware upgrade.

In practical terms, BluOS becomes a more complete listening hub with music, radio, and podcasts in one control environment without adding complexity.

For more information: bluos.io

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from the gargantuan-ego dept

We’ve explained in detail how Larry Ellison is trying to scuttle Netflix’s planned merger with Warner Brothers because he wants to buy CNN and HBO, and, as he’s doing with CBS (and now TikTok) turn them into a safe space for right wing zealots, autocrats, and oligarchs. He’s unsubtly trying to build the kind of autocrat-friendly state television we’ve seen arise in places like Orban’s Hungary.

Since Donald Trump and MAGA want the same thing, they’ve been helping Ellison’s quest along, first by launching a campaign against “woke Netflix” across right wing media, and more recently by launching a fake DOJ “antitrust investigation” that scrutinizes the Netflix Warner Bros merger “to protect the public interest,” but ignores the fact that a Paramount/Warner tie up would be arguably worse.

Enter Director James Cameron, who last week decided to “help” by writing a publicized letter to Senator Mike Lee, lamenting the Netflix Warner Brothers merger (and only the Netflix merger) as “disastrous to the motion picture business.” Cameron, who in the letter calls himself a “humble movie farmer,” seems to mostly be concerned with the a possible shortening of the 45-day theater-to-streaming window:

He’s also doubtful Netflix would stick to its pledge about keeping movies in theaters for a set amount of time; his letter cited a 17-day theatrical window that was cited in an earlier Deadline report, rather than the more recently mentioned 45-day window.

“What administrative body will hold them to task if they slowly sunset their so-called commitment to theatrical releases?” Cameron wondered.

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Traditional theater owners have been particularly and understandably sensitive about the shortening of this window since COVID demonstrated the outdated nature of such arbitrary restrictions. Major chains like AMC haven’t helped themselves on this front; their biggest innovation of late has been to saddle brick-and-mortar theater visitors with more ads than ever.

Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos didn’t take Cameron’s public grievances well, saying he’d already met with Cameron about maintaining the 45-day release window, and lamented Cameron’s participation in a “Paramount disinformation campaign:”

“I met with James personally in late December and laid out for him our 45-day commitment to theatrical exhibition of films and to the Warner Bros slate,” Sarandos told Fox Business’ The Claman Countdown today in the latest sit-down in the exec’s seemingly never-ending media blitz this week. “I have talked about that commitment in the press countless times. I swore under oath in front of the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust that that’s what we would be doing.”  

“So I am … I’m particularly surprised and disappointed that James chose to be part of the Paramount disinformation campaign that’s been going on for months about this deal,” Sarandos said, sticking it at the same time to the Oscar winner and his David Ellison-owned WB rival.

The weird part about Cameron’s missive is he doesn’t mention Paramount at all in his letter to Lee, despite the fact that it’s extremely likely that Paramount would be just as bad on shortening release windows. And given that Paramount and Warner have way more structural similarities than Netflix and Warner, the number of layoffs would likely be significantly worse.

This is before you even get to the fact that Larry Ellison is clearly gobbling up media giants in service to our violent kakistocracy, something that seems kind of important to mention if you’re going to inject yourself into the middle of the debate. Cameron mentions none of this; either because he doesn’t know, or because he was potentially made promises by Ellison and Paramount and didn’t want to be transparent about it (neither of which is good).

None of this is to say that a Netflix Warner Brothers merger would be great for consumers or the market. Media consolidation always results in layoffs, higher prices and steadily eroded product quality. Ideally you’d block all additional media consolidation and impose meaningful limits. But that’s simply not happening under Trump, making the Netflix Warner tie up the best of a bunch of bad options.

Anybody trying to do any good (and that includes Dem lawmakers) in the regulatory reality we currently inhabit would likely have to concur Netflix owning Warner is better than Ellison owning the entirety of U.S. media. Especially given what we’ve all been witnessing over at CBS (and know from years of watching Ellison’s nonexistent ethics at Oracle). Strange days, strange bedfellows.

Filed Under: consolidation, film, james cameron, larry ellison, media, mike lee, release windows, state television, streaming, ted sarandos, theaters

Companies: netflix, paramount, warner bros. discovery

The ShinyHunters extortion group has published personal information in more than 12 million records allegedly stolen from CarGurus, a U.S.-based digital auto platform.

CarGurus is a publicly traded automotive research and shopping company that operates in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. Its website has an estimated 40 million monthly visitors and helps people find, compare, and contact sellers of new and used vehicles.

On February 21, the threat group published a 6.1GB archive containing 12.4 million records, saying it was from CarGurus. A day later, the HaveIBeenPwned (HIBP) data breach monitoring and alerting platform added the dataset, listing the following data types as compromised:

• Email addresses
• IP addresses
• Full names
• Phone numbers
• Physical addresses
• User account IDs
• Finance pre-qualification application data
• Finance application outcomes
• Dealer account details
• Subscription information

Although CarGurus has not released an official statement disclosing a data breach and did not respond to BleepingComputer’s request for comment, it is important to note that HIBP attempts to confirm the validity/authenticity of the leaked records before adding them.

HIBP reports that 70% of the leaked data was already on its database from previous incidents, so roughly 3.7 million records are fresh. Since the information is freely available for download, cybercriminals could take advantage of it for phishing attacks.

CarGurus users are advised to stay alert for potentially malicious communications and scam attempts leveraging the leaked information.

The ShinyHunters data extortion group has been very active recently, claiming multiple attacks on large companies and leaking their data when negotiations reached a dead end.

The most recent examples include Dutch telecommunications provider Odido, ad tech firm Optimizely, fintech firm Figure, outerwear brand Canada Goose, restaurant chain Panera Bread, online dating company Match Group, and music streaming platform SoundCloud.

The threat group typically uses social engineering, most commonly voice phishing, to breach organizations, directing victims to credential-harvesting pages that grant them access to SaaS platforms such as Salesforce, Okta, and Microsoft 365.

Previous ShinyHunters campaigns also involved tricking employees into installing malicious OAuth applications that granted them API-level read access to customer data tables inside Salesforce instances. 

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• Dark Sky founders have launched a new forecast app, Acme Weather
• The new app displays alternate forecast readings to show weather changes that could occur throughout the day
• It’s also added a community reporting tool, as well as refined custom notifications settings

Remember the days of the Dark Sky weather app before it was dissolved by Apple? Well, its creators are back with an alternative that acknowledges that weather forecasts are often very wrong.

The new weather forecast platform, called Acme Weather, is now available to download on iOS devices, with plans to bring it to Android already in the works. You can try it out with a two-week free trial, and then it requires a $25 yearly subscription fee, working out a lot cheaper than Dark Sky’s $3.99 monthly charge.