Fakespot, an app that analyzes Amazon reviews to determine which ones are fake, is no longer available for iOS. Amazon has successfully convinced Apple to remove it from the App Store after the company raised concerns that the application provides misleading information and creates potential security vulnerabilities. The e-commerce giant has confirmed to Engadget that it reported Fakespot for investigation. One of its biggest concerns, Amazon told us, was that the redesigned app Fakespot launched in June "wraps" and injects code into its website.

"Wrapping" would make it possible, in theory, for the app to collect data and put customers' sensitive information, including credit card numbers, at risk. The e-commerce titan told us it got in touch with Fakespot directly to address its security concerns and that the app developer didn't take action. 

Amazon said in a statement:

"Amazon works hard to build a shopping experience that delights customers, and a selling experience that empowers brands and sellers to build and grow their business. The app in question provides customers with misleading information about our sellers and their products, harms our sellers’ businesses, and creates potential security risks. We appreciate Apple’s review of this app against its Appstore guidelines."

Fakespot founder and CEO Saoud Khalifah has admitted to CNBC that his company collects some user data, but he said that it doesn't sell information to third parties. Further, he denies Amazon's claim that the app presents security risks. "We don't steal users' information, we've never done that. They've shown zero proof and Apple acted on this with zero proof," he told the publication. Apparently, Apple didn't give his company adequate warning before the app was taken down and didn't even give it a chance to rectify any issue the tech giant may have. 

While Apple has yet to issue a statement that would clarify why exactly Fakespot was pulled down, Amazon pointed Engadget to two App Store guidelines, in particular. One of those guidelines states that an app that displays content from a third-party service must secure permission from that service. The other prohibits applications from displaying false information. 

Back in early 2020, Amazon went after another add-on used to track prices and discount: Honey, a $4 billion PayPal acquisition. People using Honey saw a warning on Amazon's website that said the extension "tracks [their] private shopping behavior, collects data like [their] order history and items saved, and can read or change any of [their] data on any website [they] visit."

Instagram is running a new test to tell users about another app they might want to check out: Facebook. The photo sharing app is experimenting with a notice at the top of users’ feeds that encourages them to check out features that are “only available” on Facebook.

“We’re testing a way to let people who have connected their Instagram accounts to Facebook know about features only available there, such as how to find a job, date online, buy and sell goods, or catch up on the latest news,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

That the company is using one of its billion-user apps to promote another billion-user app might not seem to make a lot of sense, but it’s only the latest (and perhaps most aggressive) way the social network has used Instagram to drive people back to its main app. The company has been steadily bringing the two apps closer together and has been encouraging users to link their accounts. (A book published last year reported that Mark Zuckerberg was “jealous” of Instagram’s success and worried the app could eventually “cannibalize” Facebook. Tensions between him and the app’s founders ultimately led to their departure in 2018.)

Facebook points out that only “a very small group” of Instagram users who have previously opted to link their accounts will see the messages, which can be dismissed. But even if it never expands, it would suggest that the company is far from done with its attempts to get Instagram users to spend more time on Facebook.

Google is still racing to pull Android apps that commit major privacy violations. Ars Technicanotes that Google has removed nine apps from the Play Store after Dr. Web analysts discovered they were trojans stealing Facebook login details. These weren't obscure titles — the malware had over 5.8 million combined downloads and posed as easy-to-find titles like "Horoscope Daily" and "Rubbish Cleaner."

The apps tricked users by loading the real Facebook sign-in page, only to load JavaScript from a command and control server to "hijack" credentials and pass them along to the app (and thus the command server). They would also steal cookies from the authorization session. Facebook was the target in each case, but the creators could just have easily steered users toward other internet services.

There were five malware variants in the mix, but all of them used the same JavaScript code and configuration file formats to swipe information.

Google told Ars it banned all the app developers from the store, although that might not be much of a deterrent when the perpetrators can likely create new developer accounts. Google may need to screen for the malware itself to keep the attackers out.

The question, of course, is how the apps racked up as many downloads as they did before the takedown. Google's largely automated screening keeps a lot of malware out of the Play Store, but the subtlety of the technique might have helped the rogue apps slip past these defenses and leave victims unaware that their Facebook data fell into the wrong hands. Whatever the cause, it's safe to say that you should be cautious about downloading utilities from unknown developers no matter how popular they seem.

China's app privacy crackdown just struck one of its largest targets yet. Bloombergreports that China's Cyberspace Administration has ordered the removal of Didi Chuxing's ride hailing app from mobile stores, including Apple's App Store and Huawei's AppGallery. The software allegedly committed serious regulatory breaches through its collection and use of personal data, officials said.

The government didn't explain the decision, which came just two days after a formal review began. Didi's app is still functional if you've already downloaded it and have an account— you just can't download a new copy.

Didi said it planned to fix the app to honor Chinese regulations, and had paused new user registrations as of July 3rd. It's not certain when sign-ups and the app will return.

The move might help protect privacy, but it also reflects China's mounting attempts to rein in domestic tech giants. It recently fined Alibaba $2.8 billion for alleged monopolistic practices, for instance. Didi was already under scrutiny for possible antitrust violations and security issues — the order represents both an escalation of that scrutiny and a signal that China is ready to get tough if companies don't fall in line.

The iOS 15 public beta is live today, which means a larger swath of people can now check out the latest features coming to iPhones later this year. Despite being a beta, it’s surprisingly complete, with most of the coming changes already available. Some of the updates getting the most buzz are the new Focus modes and FaceTime sharing tools, but there are also changes across Messages, Maps, Weather, Safari, Photos and more to check out.

So far, the preview software seems largely stable. But as always with betas, think twice about how willing you are to risk bricking your phone in exchange for early access to new features. Regardless of whether that's you, we've put together a detailed preview of how iOS 15 will work when it launches in the fall.

FaceTime: SharePlay, screen sharing and spatial audio

Though it would have been a lot more helpful if Apple had launched this feature during the throes of the pandemic, FaceTime’s SharePlay feature will still be useful for many of us. Whether you want to watch an episode of Ted Lasso with your long-distance buddy or provide remote tech support to your relatives, SharePlay and screen sharing over FaceTime will make your life a little easier.

Screenshots of iOS 15 beta

Unfortunately, my colleague Mat Smith and I had to futz around for ages before we figured out how to SharePlay something. While screen sharing is more straightforward — just press a button at the bottom right of a new control panel at the top of FaceTime calls — SharePlay options only show up when you have a compatible media app open during a chat. Mat and I are seasoned tech journalists and we still spent some time looking for a SharePlay-specific button, which seems like the more intuitive way.

Once we figured it out, things went a little more smoothly. When you try to play an episode or video while on a FaceTime call, a window pops up asking if you want to use SharePlay. From there, you can choose to stream with your caller (or callers), play it only for yourself, or cancel.

As a reminder, depending on the app, both you and your friend will need subscriptions to watch stuff together on SharePlay. For Apple’s services like TV+ and Music, you’ll both need a subscription or trial. Other streaming apps like HBO Max, Hulu and Disney+ will be the ones that decide whether all parties need accounts to watch shows together on SharePlay, but it’s highly unlikely they allow it some other way.

On our attempts to stream episodes of Mythic Quest and Central Park on SharePlay, though, Mat and I kept getting a failure notice saying “Unable to SharePlay. This title isn’t available to SharePlay with people in different countries or regions.” It’s odd, since both those shows are available in both our regions. It’s also sad that you wouldn’t be allowed to watch it with someone abroad. Apple hasn’t said if this limit will be in place when iOS 15 launches, but if it is it’ll be disappointing for anyone that was looking forward to SharePlaying with their overseas partners, families and friends. We’ll update this article if Apple confirms this either way.

Screen sharing worked better. I was able to show Mat my dubious shopping list on Instagram though, as it does with other video chat apps, my camera automatically turned off whenever I shared my screen. When Mat streamed his display, his camera stayed on. We suspect this has something to do with the fact that he’s using a more capable iPhone 12 mini while I was on an aging iPhone XR that was burning up from my testing. This is a known issue with SharePlay that has been detailed in the iOS 15 developer beta release notes, so it may get fixed in time. 

Screenshots of the iOS 15 beta

Two other FaceTime features that are also live in this beta: links to join calls from non-Apple devices and spatial audio. The latter lets you hear each person in a call from the direction where they’re positioned on your FaceTime grid. Since it required multiple people running the beta to work, I couldn’t fully experience this. I got on a call with Mat and our former colleague Chris Velazco, and while Mat and I were able to hear each other from different directions, Chris wasn’t on the beta and did not notice the effect.

I also sent FaceTime web links to Chris, as well as Engadget staffers Nathan Ingraham and Valentina Palladino. The URL brought us to a page that prompted us to enter our names, and as the host I could choose to allow or block each would-be participant. Chris was able to join my call from a non-Apple laptop, while Valentina and Nate went through the browser on their Macs. Meanwhile, I was using an iPhone. Everyone looked and sounded great… to me.

Valentina and Nate couldn’t hear each other until they used the FaceTime app on their MacBooks. Chris also couldn’t hear other people on the call — all anyone heard was my beautiful voice. (As it should be.) But really, this appears to be an issue with how browsers handle audio input devices or a possible bug in the beta.

It’s not yet clear whether the region-specific SharePlay restrictions will also work this way in the stable release. But so far, barring some glitches, the updates to Apple’s video calling app appear meaty and potentially very useful.

Focus modes

I’ve spent too much time talking about FaceTime, so I’m going to try to succinctly describe the other iOS 15 features I’ve tested thus far. One of these felt incredibly relevant as I spent time finishing this article on deadline: Focus modes. Here, Apple allows you to customize profiles that will allow notifications from specific apps or people when enabled.

Screenshots from the iOS 15 beta

Three placeholders are available at the start: Work, Bedtime and Personal. On your first time trying to enable each, you’ll have to set up which contacts and apps to allow. You can also choose to enable your Focus Status so people who try to reach you will see that you’re away when they’re using a compatible app. Developers of messaging apps will have to use Apple’s API to enable this, so that your friends who hit you up on, say, Telegram or Facebook Messenger will see your status too.

For now, only Apple’s own Messages supports it and I was able to see below our conversation that Mat had silenced notifications. I sent a message anyway, and the app showed my text was “delivered quietly.” Just like you can on Slack, you can choose to “notify anyway” so your message breaks through the wall of silence. (I’m not an awful person so I didn’t, poor Mat had already put up with my relentless testing and FaceTiming all day.)

With each Focus mode, you can also pick a home screen showing just the apps you want. To do so, you’ll have to first create each page as an additional panel on your main screen, then select the relevant one when customizing your Focus mode. I created a barebones page with just four apps and designated it as my main Personal screen. I also made a different option for Work and was able to have apps appear on multiple pages — Instagram and Twitter could be placed on every page, for example. When each mode was enabled, I couldn’t see any other page; swiping sideways only showed the apps drawer and the Today view.

I haven’t spent enough time with the beta to know how useful these customized views will be, but I’m already in love with the ability to pick different notifications profiles. You can also set them to automatically activate based on the time of day, your location or app usage. Again, this is something I’ll need to use for more than a few days, but I appreciate the concept. Unfortunately, I haven’t encountered Notifications summaries in the beta yet.

Live text (aka Apple’s version of Google Lens)

Many other iOS 15 updates are similar to features that competitors already offer, and the most obvious of these is Live Text. This tool scans the photos on your device for words and turns them into text you can actually use, whether it’s copying and pasting a phone number to another app or translating foreign words on a menu. This is basically Apple's answer to Google Lens, which has been around for years.

Screenshots of the iOS 15 beta

Similar to Lens, Apple’s version will show a small symbol at the bottom right of each image in the Photos app to indicate it’s found something. Tap that icon, and all the characters in that picture will be highlighted, and you can select the portions you need. I snapped a picture of my bottle of moisturizer and was able to copy all the words on the label and URLs also got identified as links I could click through. You can also use Live Text via the Camera app’s viewfinder without snapping a shot, by the way. When your phone detects words in the scene, the same icon will appear in the bottom right and you can hit it to pull up the snippets that Live Text noticed.

So far, this generally performed as expected, though it's worth noting that as its name suggests, Live Text only works on images that have a lot of words in them. But even a photo of my dinner, which included a container of yogurt with a brand name prominently displayed on it, didn’t trigger Live Text. Google’s Lens, meanwhile, will identify buildings, pets, furniture and clothes in pictures with nary a letter in them.

Maps, Photos and generally tighter integration

Elsewhere in iOS 15 you’ll find updates to Maps, Weather and Photos. In some cities, Apple’s maps look richer and more detailed than before, thanks to meticulous drawings of individual trees, lanes, traffic lights and more. I was able to explore a golf course in San Francisco, as well as the Conservatory of Flowers and Dutch Windmill in the Golden Gate Park in surprisingly detailed 2D and 3D views. I was disappointed when I zoomed super close to the Penguin Island in the San Francisco zoo and there were no cute little feathered friends. But I guess that’d be too much to ask.

Screenshots of the iOS 15 beta

Memories in Photos has also been updated to give you greater control over who shows up in them and what music plays in the background. You can now edit your pictures’ descriptions to create richer alt text that stays with each image as you forward them to friends. I liked using this to identify people and places in a photo for contacts who are blind or have low vision. Even though I added keywords like “sunset” and people’s names to some pictures’ descriptions, searches for those words in my iPhone’s Spotlight didn’t return those images. It would be nice, but the descriptions aren’t currently being indexed for that.

But that’s another update in iOS 15: Spotlight searches for all things in your phone will now include your photos in results, too. It uses Apple’s own machine learning to detect things in your library though, and this is still sometimes inaccurate. I searched for “Cherlynn” and “Sunset” and was shown screenshots with my name in them and an image of a red-hot map of New York from the Weather app that Apple thought was a sunset. This isn’t perfect, but at least photos are better integrated into Spotlight now.

Another update that provides better integration across iOS is the consolidation of media that your friends send you. Apple calls this Share With You, and things from your recent interactions with each person will show up there — pictures that Mat sent me of his adorable baby niece, as well as the screenshots he shared from our FaceTime adventures, were all in his page in the Phone app.

Screenshots of the iOS 15 beta

There’s still a ton more to explore not only in the public beta but in iOS 15 when the final release is ready. The Weather app has new maps that appropriately show just how scorching hot it’s been in the New York area these last few days. And we still have to test more things like Safari mobile extensions and ID and keys support in Wallet. For now, this has been an intriguing taste of what to expect in the software update. Despite a few snags, it looks like iPhone users will have plenty to look forward to later this year.

It looks like Parler’s App Store exile will continue. Bloombergreports that Apple recently rejected the app’s bid to get back onto iPhones, citing “highly objectionable content.”

Apple had originally kicked Parler out of the App Store in January, shortly after the riots at the U.S Capitol. Apple said at the time that the app needed to improve its content moderation and make a bigger effort to keep dangerous and hateful content off its platform. The company said the suspension would be in place “until we receive an update that is compliant with the App Store Review Guidelines and you have demonstrated your ability to effectively moderate and filter the dangerous and harmful content on your service.”

According to Bloomberg, Apple rejected Parler's latest bid to rejoin the App Store late last month. Apple reportedly told Parler that the latest iteration of its policies were not “sufficient to comply with App Store Review guidelines.”

At issue is not just Parler’s policies, but the fact that the app is still filled with the kind of “highly objectionable content” Apple wanted it to address. ““n fact, simple searches reveal highly objectionable content, including easily identified offensive uses of derogatory terms regarding race, religion and sexual orientation, as well as Nazi symbols,” Apple told Parler.

Parler didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The “free speech” app is still trying to find a path forward after being kicked out of Apple and Google’s app stores and being cut off from Amazon Web Services. Parler’s website is now back up and running, but its future remains uncertain. CEO John Matze was fired in February, and Bloomberg now reports seven other staffers, including all its iOS developers, were also let go.