Apple thinks it might have a simple way to attract wary publishers to Apple News — give them a larger slice of app sales. TechCrunchreports that Apple has launched a News Partner Program that lowers the tech firm's cut of App Store subscriptions from 30 percent to 15 percent "from day one" if qualified publishers provide their content in the Apple News Format. Outlets previously had to wait until an app's second year on the App Store before Apple's share dropped to 15 percent.

The apps themselves have to deliver "original, professionally authored" news and, unsurprisingly, allow auto-renewing subscriptions through the App Store. If a publisher isn't located in one of Apple News' existing markets (currently the US, UK, Australia and Canada), it can still qualify for the program by providing an RSS news feed.

The move could satisfy publishers that avoided Apple's in-app subscription system, if not the App Store entirely, due to the 30 percent initial cut. You might see more publications on Apple News (if not necessarily News+) as a result. However, it's not clear if antitrust regulators will be thrilled. The program does show that Apple can be more flexible with App Store fees, but it's also an incentive for publishers to dive deeper into Apple's ecosystem.

The Apple Watch may be the best smartwatch for iPhone lovers, but it's a pretty expensive accessory. With the Series 6 setting users back $400, Apple brought the more affordable Watch SE into its lineup so those with tighter budgets could get the same, core Apple Watch experience. Now you can pick up a Watch SE for even less at Amazon while a couple of models are on sale. Key among them is the 44mm, GPS + Cellular Apple Watch SE in silver for $300 — that's $59 off its normal price and a record low. The same Watch in space gray is as low as $319 right now as well, depending on the style of band you pick.

The Apple Watch SE doesn't look all that different from the Series 6, and it has a feature set that will be more than enough for those new to the smartwatch experience. The Watch SE performed well in our testing, despite running on an older processor than the one found in the Series 6, and it has all of the core features of watchOS 7 including heart rate monitoring with high and low alerts, noise monitoring, fall detection, Emergency SOS and more. The fitness features are almost identical to that of the Series 6 — the only things you don't get on the SE are blood oxygen and ECG measurements.

You also don't get the always-on display that the Series 6 has, but the Watch SE has the same size display, which is noticeably larger than that of the old Series 3. And with these models on sale, you're getting cellular connectivity — that means you can make and receive calls, send text messages and more even when your iPhone isn't around. The Apple Watch is still very much an iPhone accessory, but those with LTE will get the most untethered experience.

Even though you have to give up a few features with the Apple Watch SE, you're still getting one of the best smartwatches available today. But we'd be remiss if we didn't mention that Apple may be coming out with new models soon. We typically see new Apple Watches announced along with the latest iPhones in September, but there's no guarantee a new Watch SE will make the lineup this year.

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Google's YouTube Music app for Wear OS is now live, a few months after the tech giant promised to release one for the platform. That certainly sounds like great news for users who've been waiting for it after Google retired Play Music for Wear OS in 2020. The bad news is, as noted by 9to5Google, it only currently works on Google's Wear OS 3 platform. Samsung's Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 4 Classic wearables, which will be available on August 27th, will be the only devices that will be running the OS in the foreseeable future. 

The company killed off the Play Music app for Wear OS watches back in August 2020, weeks before it completely shut the service down in favor of YouTube Music. It quickly released a YouTube Music app for the Apple Watch, but Wear OS users have had to wait for their turn. And, based on what we know now, they may have to continue waiting, unless they're set to get Samsung's new smartwatches tomorrow. In comparison, Spotify's Wear OS app works even on older smartwatches and can be used to stream and download music.

In addition to extremely limited compatibility, the app can't actually be used to stream music. According to 9to5Google's hands-on experience, users will only be able to download tracks on the app. Further, the phone must be plugged in to be able to download anything. For those not bothered by all those limitations and will soon have access to a Galaxy Watch 4, the app is now available on Google Play.

We're not sure who or how many people use Microsoft Office on a Chromebook but if that's you, you're in for a downgraded experience. Microsoft will soon kill its Office app for Android on Chrome OS, the company confirmed Wednesday to About Chromebooks. The app will leave the Google Play Store on September 18th, at which point users will need to sign in through the web via Office.com or Outlook.com. As 9to5Google notes, the Office app will still be available on Android phones, even as it vanishes from Chrome OS.

Though signing in via the web app should work in a pinch, it's clearly an inferior experience to what the Android app has offered until now, not to mention what Google's G Suite can do on its native Google-controlled platform. In particular, be warned that the web app offers almost no offline access, something users have enjoyed on the Google Play Store version. 

It's unclear why Microsoft is making this change, except that the company described the move in a statement to About Chromebooks as an "effort to provide the most optimized experience for Chrome OS/Chromebook customers." Whatever the intention, this is likely to give Chromebook users another reason to give the G Suite a try, if they haven't already. Or hey, perhaps they'll ditch their Chromebooks and download the Android app on Windows 11.

Following a meeting with President Joe Biden today, Google and Microsoft promised to invest a total of $30 billion in cybersecurity advancements over the next five years. Google pledged $10 billion, while Microsoft pledged $20 billion. 

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said on Twitter that $150 million of that money will be used to expand Microsoft's training network and help US government agencies upgrade their digital security systems. The White House described that particular investment as follows: "Microsoft ... will immediately make available $150 million in technical services to help federal, state, and local governments with upgrading security protection, and will expand partnerships with community colleges and non-profits for cybersecurity training."

Google, meanwhile, will focus on extending the zero-trust security model, securing the software supply chain, building out open-source security, and offering more training opportunities to Americans. Specifically, Google said it will help 100,000 Americans over the next three years earn Google Career Certificates in cybersecurity fields.

Today, President Biden met with technology companies and cybersecurity thought leaders to discuss threats like the recent SolarWinds attack and how the US can better defend its digital systems. In addition to Google and Microsoft's financial infusion, Apple will establish new, widespread supply-chain protocols in the name of tighter security, and Amazon will offer its internal cybersecurity training to the public at no charge. Other organizations, including IBM, Girls Who Code and Code.org, made plans to expand cybersecurity defenses across government, society and industry.

It was unclear what would actually shake out of today's White House cybersecurity meeting, and $30 billion (and then some) certainly isn't a bad place to start.

Whether you’re an Android or iOS user, there’s a good chance you look at user reviews and ratings before you decide whether to download an app to your device. In hopes of making those more useful for everyone, Google plans to make two tweaks to the Play Store.

Starting in November, the ratings you see will be based on where you live. So, for example, if your device is registered to Japan, you will first see what other Japanese users think of the app you’re about to download. Then, sometime early next year, Google plans to further tweak Play Store ratings to better reflect the device you’re using, be that a phone, tablet, foldable, Chromebook or smartwatch. “This will give users a better impression of the experience that they can expect for the device they’re using,” the company says of the change.

In part, Google is making these tweaks to help developers. It wants to avoid a situation where ratings in one area impact the global perception of an app. This can happen in cases where a bug only affects one localized version of the software. Of course, that compartmentalization means you can learn of those same bugs before you download an app.

Around 38 million records from north of a thousand web apps that use Microsoft's Power Apps platform were left exposed online, according to researchers. The records are said to have included data from COVID-19 contact tracing efforts, vaccine registrations and employee databases, such as home addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers and vaccination status.

Data from some large companies and institutions was exposed in the incident, according to Wired, including American Airlines, Ford, the Indiana Department of Health and New York City public schools. The vulnerability has mostly been resolved.

Researchers from security company Upguard started looking into the issue in May. They found data from many Power Apps that was supposed to be private was available for anyone to access if they knew where to look. 

The Power Apps service aims to make it easy for customers to make their own web and mobile apps. It offers application programming interfaces (APIs) for developers to use with the data they collect. However, Upguard found that using those APIs makes the data obtained through Power Apps public by default, and manual reconfiguration was required to keep the information private.

Upguard says it sent a vulnerability report to the Microsoft Security Resource Center on June 24th, including links to Power Apps accounts on which sensitive data was exposed and steps to identify APIs that enabled anonymous access to data. Researchers worked with Microsoft to clarify how to reproduce the issue. However, an Microsoft analyst told the firm on June 29th that the case was closed and they “determined that this behavior is considered to be by design.”

Upguard then started notifying some of the affected companies and organizations, which moved to lock down their data. It raised an abuse report with Microsoft on July 15th. By July 19th, the company says that most of the data from the Power Apps in question, including the most sensitive information, had been made private. Engadget has contacted Microsoft for comment.

Earlier this month, Microsoft said Power Apps will keep data private by default when developers harness the APIs. In addition, it released a tool for developers to check their Power Apps settings.

There's no indication as yet that any of the exposed data has been compromised. Among the most sensitive information that was left in the open were 332,000 email addresses and Microsoft employee IDs that are used for payroll, according to Upguard. The company also says that more than 39,000 records from portals related to Microsoft Mixed Reality were exposed, including users' names and email addresses.

The incident underscores the fact that a misconfiguration, no matter how seemingly minor, could lead to serious data breaches. That doesn't appear to be the case here, thankfully. Still, it goes to show that developers should probably triple check their settings, especially when plugging in an API they haven't designed themselves.

Lumen is a crowdfunded tracking device which purports to analyze your breath to determine what state your metabolism is in. Now, the company behind it is launching an app for the Apple Watch to make it easier for you to use the hardware when you’re on the go. Users will be able to use the device and then see the results on their wrist, in a way that CTO and co-founder Avi Smila says “seamlessly integrated into daily life.”

The pitch for Lumen is, essentially, to enable you to learn as and when you should be eating and in what quantities. The system can tell you when you should eat, based on your metabolism, and suggests carb servings, meal plans and macros for the day. Should it be a lack of a smartwatch app has held you back from buying a Lumen thus far, you can pick up a unit for as little as $199, plus a monthly subscription of $19 a month.

For a few years now, wireless carriers in the US have offered their customers all manner of video and music freebies. Verizon (Engadget's parent company) has offered free subscriptions to Disney+, Apple Music and AMC+ recently, while T-Mobile has long offered its customers free Netflix access. Today, T-Mobile is adding another freebie to its offerings: Apple TV+. Starting on August 25th, customers on the carrier's Magenta or Magenta Max plans (as well as some Sprint legacy plans) will get one year of free Apple TV+ access. 

If you're already paying for Apple TV+, you can still take advantage of this deal. It'll just add a free year of access and pause billing until the trial is up. If you haven't used Apple TV+ yet, it is naturally available on basically all current Apple hardware, but it's also available on a pretty large number of third-party set-top boxes, gaming consoles and TVs, as well. 

This move comes as Apple itself has cut back on the length of its Apple TV+ free trials. Ever since the service launched, Apple offered a year free to basically anyone who bought new hardware from the company, and it extended that free period multiple times. But lately, people have noticed that Apple is finally charging them for the service, and the free trial period has been cut down to three months. That's still quite generous, but all these changes indicate Apple is keen to start collecting money for Apple TV+. Unless, of course, you're a T-Mobile subscriber, in which case it's a perfect time to start your Ted Lasso binge.

Lumen is a crowdfunded metabolism-tracking device which purports to analyze your breath to determine what state your digestive system is in. Now, the company behind it is launching an app for the Apple Watch to make it easier for you to use the hardware when you’re on the go. Users will be able to use the device and then see the results on their wrist, in a way that CTO and co-founder Avi Smila says “seamlessly integrated into daily life.”

The pitch for Lumen is, essentially, to enable you to learn as and when you should be eating and in what quantities. The system can tell you when you should eat, based on your metabolism, and suggests carb servings, meal plans and macros for the day. Should it be a lack of a smartwatch app has held you back from buying a Lumen thus far, you can pick up a unit for as little as $199, plus a monthly subscription of $19 a month.