Microsoft is now allowing traditional desktop Windows applications to be distributed and sold through the Windows Store, ars technica reports. “Until now, applications built for and sold through the Windows Store in Windows 10 have been built for the Universal Windows Platform (UWP),” it notes. “This has left … the traditional desktop application built using the Win32 API, behind.”

Apple just launched the iMessage App Store, including sticker packs from Disney, Bandai Namco, and others. “In addition to the sticker packs, the iMessage App Store features full-fledged iMessage apps and games,” 9To5Mac reports. “Several of the apps that were demonstrated during the WWDC 2016 keynote are here, such as Square Cash, OpenTable, and JibJab.”

Adblock Plus just launched an ad-tech platform that will offer white-listed ads. “The Acceptable Ads Platform, currently in beta, is mainly targeted at publishers, but any website can leverage it,” Venture Beat notes. “In a nutshell, the Acceptable Ads Platform is a filtered set of ads from Google AdWords and AppNexus.”

While the early reviews are still coming in, Apple’s latest iPhones are getting pretty high marks. “Broadly speaking, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus still give you more: more speed, better camera, better screens, faster LTE, more battery life, more water-resistant,” ars technica writes. “Year-over-year, it’s a respectable update.” That said, the abrupt move to wireless audio is sure to rub many users the wrong way.

App development startup Blackstorm just raised $33.5 million from Highland Capital and other investors. Still a work in progress, Blackstorm aspires to serve as a “way to seamlessly develop applications that can thread across multiple platforms like messenger bots and, theoretically, more suped-up web browser experiences,” TechCrunch writes. “The hope is … eventually this kind of development platform and distribution will be able to spread to all sorts of emerging computing platforms.”

Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 exchange program apparently isn’t going very well. “Samsung’s exchange program for Galaxy Note 7 has been a nightmare for customers so far,” Gizmodo writes. “A week after Samsung’s ‘voluntary’ recall of the Galaxy Note 7, customers have yet to be clearly told when and how they’ll be able to replace their devices -- devices that could set cars, hotel rooms, or garages on fire.”

Google just updated its Photos app for iOS with image stabilization technology. At present, “Live Photos don’t transfer well to non-iOS devices,” Venture Beat writes. “Google is getting over that hump by letting you save Live Photos as .MOV videos onto your iOS device’s camera roll.”

Apple didn’t have consumers’ best interests in mind when designing it latest iPhone without a dedicated headphone jack. Or, at least, that’s according to The Verge. “The iPhone 7 will be bought by tens of millions of people during the next few months alone, and its lack of a headphone jack is going to make many of them consider buying Lightning or Bluetooth headphones,” it writes. As owner of Beats -- the number one Bluetooth headphone company -- “Apple profits from both.”

That Apple’s latest gadgets lack a ‘wow’ factor should be a serious concern for investors, suggests Farhad Manjoo in the The New York Times. “Apple’s aesthetics have grown stale,” he writes. As such, “Apple has squandered its once-commanding lead in hardware and software design.” Moreover, “Though the new iPhones include several new features … they look pretty much the same as the old ones,” while, “The new Apple Watch does too.”

AT&T -- which owns DiretTV -- has decided to exempt DirecTV streaming video from data caps on its mobile Web service. “AT&T … today pushed an update to the DirecTV iPhone app to implement the data cap exemption,” ars technical reports. “Data cap exemptions -- also known as zero-rating -- are controversial and are being reviewed by the Federal Communications Commission.”