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At the end of last year, Apple announced iMessage Contact Key Verification, a tool the company said would allow those who face “extraordinary digital threats” to safeguard their conversations from malicious actors. At the time, the company promised the safety feature would arrive sometime in 2023. Now, a little more than two weeks before the start of WWDC 2023, it looks like iMessage Contact Key Verification could arrive with the release of iOS 16.6.

As first reported by MacRumors, Apple began rolling out the first iOS 16.6 beta on Friday, and among the features the release appears to add is iMessage Contact Key Verification. A new option within the Settings app indicates Apple is working on the tool, but, for the time being, enabling Contact Key Verification doesn’t appear to activate the feature. MacRumors speculates that could be because the company has yet to fully implement iMessage Contact Key Verification.

Once it arrives, iMessage Contact Key Verification will, provided everyone in an iMessage conversation has the feature enabled, send an automatic alert when Apple detects someone has added a rogue device to an account. The company envisions the feature protecting activists, government officials and journalists from state-sponsored hackers. It’s one of the last features Apple is expected to add to iOS 16 before the company shifts its full attention to iOS 17.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/imessage-contact-key-verification-could-arrive-with-ios-166-194345936.html?src=rss 

For the first time, Apple has published an App Store transparency report. You can read the full two-page document on the company’s website. It reveals several interesting tidbits about the App Store, including the fact that, as of 2022, there were 1,783,232 apps on the storefront.

In the document, first spotted by 9to5Mac (via The Verge), Apple also reveals that it reviewed 6,101,913 submissions last year (submissions can include updates to existing apps, not just new releases). Of those, it rejected 1,679,694. Surprisingly, the majority of submissions, more than 1 million, didn’t make it to the App Store for failing to comply with Apple’s performance guidelines. The company also rejected 441,972 submissions on legal grounds.

Apple also removed 186,195 apps removed from the App Store in 2022. Last year, the company fielded 1,474 takedown requests, with the vast majority (1,435, to be exact) coming from mainland China. In a distant second was India, with 14 requests. Over that same time frame, Apple says it fielded 5,484 appeals involving apps removed from the App Store in China. Following successful appeals, it also restored 169 apps to the Chinese App Store. Last year, iPhone, iPad and Mac users downloaded an average of 747,873,877 apps every week, which would be an even more impressive number if they didn’t also redownload an average of 1,539,274,266 apps every week.

Apple agreed to begin publishing App Store transparency reports as part of a settlement the company came to with App Store developers in 2021. At the time, the company said the reports would “share meaningful statistics about the app review process, including the number of apps rejected for different reasons, the number of customer and developer accounts deactivated, objective data regarding search queries and results, and the number of apps removed from the App Store.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-rejected-1679694-app-store-submissions-in-2022-174946080.html?src=rss 

With Memorial Day around the corner, Ooni is holding a sale. If you’re not familiar with the company, they make some of our favorite pizza ovens. Until the end of May 29th, you can save up to 30 percent off on some of Ooni’s most popular models, including the Fyra 12, Koda 12, Koda 16 and Karu 16. If you’re in the market for your first pizza oven, the Fyra 12 is a solid, affordable choice. With a 30 percent discount, the Fyra 12 costs about $244 at the moment, making it significantly less expensive than some other models you can find online and in stores. What’s more, the Fyra 12, at 22 pounds, is one of the lighter models Engadget has tested. It’s also one of the easier pizza ovens to master, thanks to the fact you fuel it with wood pellets instead of chunks.

For a more versatile option, consider the more expensive Karu 16. Thanks to a 20 percent discount, it’s priced at $639.20 currently, down from $799. The Karu 16 is Engadget’s top pick. It’s a multi-fuel model, meaning you can use wood, charcoal or gas to heat the oven. The size of the Karu 16 also means it can accommodate 16-inch pizzas and even cast iron pans and cookware, making it useful not just for cooking light and airy Neapolitan-style pizzas.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ooni-pizza-ovens-are-up-to-30-percent-off-for-memorial-day-154947473.html?src=rss