Plus: I don't know why you would want this but here's a CSS x86 emulator ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

February 25, 2026 | Read online
# Apple doing iOS age checks, Australian cyber spies open source tool and AI fake news laundering Plus: I don't know why you would want this but here's a CSS x86 emulator
Edition 2509
"Computer-dynamic-gradient" by Vijay Verma is licensed under CC0
Mentioned in today’s edition: Reddit, the App Store, ASD, Meta, Claude, Peter Williams, PayPal and Android Auto. Plus, deals on BlueAnt party speakers, Apple AirPods and Logitech wireless keyboards.
# The News
### Apple will block Australians from downloading apps until they prove their age
Apple has begun forcing users to prove their age before they can download apps restricted for adults (TechCrunch). The iPhone maker told developers that, starting yesterday, the App Store will check whether users are confirmed to be adults using "reasonable methods" before letting them download apps rated 18+ (Apple). It doesn't spell out what these "reasonable methods" are, but its API suggests this includes checking government ID, payment method and other methods.
The Sizzle: I'm surprised how little attention this has gotten. It’s a seismic move to get Apple to card people at the app store level. In practice, I doubt many people will notice because the vast majority of people already have a credit card attached to their Apple account. I've been banging the drum for the past year: our internet is now restricted by age. And we're now starting to see the consequences for not complying. Just today, Reddit was fined close to AU$30 million for inadequate age-checking (Ars Technica).
One big winner from Apple's move? Meta and the other social media platforms who have been begging regulators to force the app stores to do the age checks instead of them.
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
### Australia's cyber spy agency is giving away its anti-malware tool
This is pretty neat: Australia's cyber-spook agency, the Australian Signals Directorate, has open sourced a malware analysis tool (Cyber Daily Australia). It's called Azul and it's used to help dissect malicious code by creating a sandbox environment and providing automations for picking it apart to understand what it is and how it works. Apparently other agencies like the NSA have done similar things in the past, it's a fairly new development for these agencies to share their tools like this. While it's not supposed to replace your standard anti-malware tools, the point is to make it easier for the infosec community to diagnose and share knowledge about the nasties going around.
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
### How AI-generated fake news gets laundered into the New York Times
In the US, attacks on politicians are being laundered through AI generated "local news" websites and making their way into real news websites (Spin Class). Former Biden national security spokesperson Emily Horne was curious where a "backlash" to politicians cited in Politico and the NYT had come from. She traced it back to an AI-generated fake news website run by right-wing political actors that was cited by these more reputable publications. It's one thing for average punters to be tricked by AI slop, but it's another thing for journalists who can legitimise lies and spread it further if they get tricked.
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Leftovers
Australia:
I have some reporting in this area coming out tomorrow but the scrapped AI government advisory group spent $188k finding experts (ABC News) Labor orders comprehensive review of triple zero legislation (iTnews) Optus to cut 200 jobs after horror year (The Sydney Morning Herald, $) A follow up to yesterday's investigation re: Australian company Appen providing AI data to the US military (Crikey, $) For some families, the social media ban has made things harder. Here's why (ABC News) I had missed that NSW is trialing drones for surveilling Moree (The Strategist) Grok now in Australian Teslas (techAU) hmm iPhone 17e Quad Lock accessory listing reveals iPhone early (GadgetGuy)
Rest of World:
Meta and AMD agree to AI chips deal worth more than $100 billion (The Wall Street Journal, $) These are all just made up numbers now but cool I guess Apple will be launching a touch-screen MacBook Pro with a Dynamic Island, new interface, but not until later this year (Bloomberg, $) Update on the Anthropic-Trump admin stand-off: Anthropic given until Friday to agree to let the Department of Defense do whatever it wants with Claude, but the AI company doesn't plan on complying. And here's a take on it: Anthropic should stand its ground against the Pentagon (Bloomberg, $) Good news, though, because the Department of Defence can use Grok! Former Australian spook and L3Harris executive Peter Williams sentenced zero-day exploits Russia (CyberScoop) Payments processor Stripe wants to buy PayPal (Bloomberg, $) Android Auto users hit with 'voice commands aren't available right now' bug (9to5Google) The new version of Firefox (with a "block AI features” option) is out (LWN.net) Google sent an AI-generated push alert that included a racial slur (Engadget) Someone built an app that scans Bluetooth devices nearby to alert you if someone is using Meta's smart glasses (GitHub)
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Oh, Also
### I don't know why you would want this but here's a CSS x86 emulator
This is extremely cursed, but someone has managed to build a CSS-based, no-JavaScript x86 emulator (x86css). You can use it to write and run C programs in CSS. Why? I guess why not? Even its author acknowledges that it's not practical because "you can get way better performance by writing code in CSS directly rather than emulating an entire archaic CPU architecture."
as soon as I opened this, my room chilled
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Bargains
Electronics
BlueAnt X5i 120W Bluetooth Party Speaker With Dual Wireless Microphones - $249 at Amazon (Down from $479) AirPods Pro 2 With MagSafe Case USB-C Apple - $289 at Costco (Down from $379) Canon EOS R6 Mark III Mirrorless Camera Body Only + Bonus LP-E6P Battery - $3476 at Amazon
Computing
Logitech MX Keys S Advanced Wireless Illuminated Keyboard - Pale Gray - $127 at Centre Com (Down from $214) NZXT C1200 Gold 1200W 80+ Gold Fully Modular ATX 3.1 Power Supply - $191 at Centre Com (Down from $305) MSI MAG 274QRF QD E2 27" IPS Gaming Monitor - $389 at Umart (Down from $499) LG 34 Inch UltraGear WQHD Curved Gaming Monitor 34G600A - $449 at Costco (Down from $649 & thanks to MMC)
# The End
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