Author: TechBrunch

Fortnite Maker Epic Games and Spotify are testing Apple's new app store policy by submitting apps for reviews that were previously unauthorized. On Friday, the companies submitted new versions of their respective apps to Apple's app review. For epic games, that means Fortnite will return to the App Store. Apple dismissed the game in 2020 and terminated its Epic account after disputing the App Store rules by adding support for direct payments in Fortnite before filing antitrust laws against Apple. Meanwhile, Spotify wants to allow users to purchase individual audiobooks directly, allowing premium subscribers to purchase “top-up” time for audiobook…

Joint international law enforcement measures have shut down two services accused of providing botnets of hacked internet-connected devices, including routers, to cybercriminals. US prosecutors also charged four people who were accused of hacking devices and running botnets. On Wednesday, the AnyProxy and 5Socks websites were replaced by a notice that said they had been seized by the FBI as part of a law enforcement operation called “Operation Moonlander.” The notice said the law enforcement action was carried out by the FBI, the Dutch National Police (Politics), the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Oklahoma, and the U.S. Department…

The tech layoff wave is still kicking in 2025. Last year saw more than 150,000 job cuts across 549 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. So far this year, more than 22,000 workers have been the victim of reductions across the tech industry, with a staggering 16,084 cuts taking place in February alone. We’re tracking layoffs in the tech industry in 2025 so you can see the trajectory of the cutbacks and understand the impact on innovation across all types of companies. As businesses continue to embrace AI and automation, this tracker serves as a reminder of the human…

Updated at 7:50am Pacific: About an hour after this article was published, the notification started working again. Your mileage may vary. The original story is as follows: On Thursday night, many users of X, a social network owned by billionaire Elon Musk, stopped updating. Many users report that yesterday's notifications stopped working. This means that new posts are not warned by people who follow X. This reporter has also experienced problems. My X Timeline has not been updated for 15 hours from around 6pm on May 8th. It seems to be a server-side bug. Affected users say their timeline has…

The Florida bill, which required social media companies to provide encrypted backdoors to allow police to access user accounts and private messages, could not be handed over to the law. The use of social media under the minor bill was “indefinitely postponed” and “withdrawed from consideration” in the Florida House earlier this week. While Florida Senate lawmakers have already voted to advance the law, the bill requires it to pass both legislative rooms before it becomes law. The bill would have required social media companies to provide a mechanism to decrypt end-to-end encryption when law enforcement obtains a subpoena. The…

Josh Rafaelli, who has deep roots as a Silicon Valley investor and supports many Elonmsk companies, is suing his former employer, a massive trillion dollar Aum Brookfield Asset Management, reports The New York Times. Many of Raffaelli's complaints relate to how Brookfield covered pandemic-related property losses, claiming that the company fired him after filing a whistleblower complaint with the SEC. His lawsuit filed allegations of fraud and bribery, but Brookfield vehemently denies fraud, the Times said. In February, Brookfield quietly closed a venture capital unit run by Raffaelli, and involved some of its assets in another unit, Bloomberg reported at…

In April, South Korean telephone company giant SK Telecom (SKT) was hit by a cyber attack that led to theft of personal data on roughly 23 million customers. During a National Assembly hearing in Seoul on Thursday, SKT CEO Young-Sang Ryu said that around 250,000 users have switched to another communications provider following the data breaches. He said he expects the number to reach more than ten times the current amount if the company waives its cancellation fee. The company could lose up to $5 billion (about $7 trillion) over the next three years if it decides not to charge…

App Intelligence Provider More than $10 billion — Apple's US App Store raking last year, according to a new analysis from App Intelligence Provider AppFigures. The company estimates show that US app store revenues more than doubled between 2020 and 2024. In 2020, Apple's App Store committee share was approximately $4.766 billion, up over $10.1 billion by 2024. Based on AppFigures data, US App Store developers used Apple's payment system to generate $33.68 billion in revenue from apps and games in 2024, bringing back $23.57 billion after Apple's cuts. Image credits: AppFigures Apple typically doesn't make the App Store revenue…

The Instagram thread has begun testing video ads, and Meta announced on Thursday. The test makes the thread look like a competitor X, but it is an extension of the thread's advertising initiative, which began last month when ads were opened to global advertisers. The news was presented at Meta's presentation at IAB NewFronts. There, many social media companies pitched themselves to advertisers. In the thread, Meta says that “minority” advertisers will test 19:9 or 1:1 video ad creatives. However, the company did not share any other details regarding the pricing or frequency of these ads. Image credit: Meta's Instagram…

A few months after Hacked Educational Software Maker PowerSchool paid a hacker ransom to remove a bank of stolen student data, at least one school district says it is being forced by someone who said the data has not been destroyed. PowerSchool provided K-12 software to thousands of schools to support 60 million students across North America, and was hacked in December 2024 using one stolen credential. The company said at the time it paid hackers a ransom that allegedly deleted stolen data, but repeatedly refused to disclose the amount they paid. The Toronto district school board, which now serves…