Twitter, now known as X, has seen Elon Musk panhandling for platform users to pay $8 toward X Premium (formerly known as Twitter Blue). Now, government documents reveal that some of Congress’ best and brightest fell for the scheme by spending taxpayer dollars on the subscription service that ultimately does nothing.
The European Union has confirmed the first six tech “gatekeepers” that will need to abide by strict new rules under the bloc’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). The names of these companies should be pretty familiar: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft. The European Commission (EC), which is the EU’s executive branch, noted that after assessing whether certain companies met thresholds related to revenue, valuation and user numbers, Samsung hasn’t been designated as a gatekeeper as yet.
The EC stipulates that digital platforms can be designated as gatekeepers “if they provide an important gateway between businesses and consumers in relation to core platform services.” The gatekeepers now have until March 2024 to make sure their applicable services comply with the DMA regulations. Between the six companies, the EC has designated 22 core platform services that the law applies to:
Alphabet: Google ads, Google Search, Android, YouTube, Chrome, Google Maps, Google Play and Google Shopping
Amazon: Amazon Marketplace and Amazon ads
Apple: iOS, App Store and Safari
ByteDance: TikTok
Meta: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, Meta Marketplace and Meta ads
Microsoft: LinkedIn and Windows
The DMA stipulates that gatekeepers can’t favor their own services over rivals’ offerings and can’t keep users locked into their own ecosystems. They have to let third-party entities interoperate with their services in certain situations too.
Microsoft and Apple have argued that, despite meeting the thresholds the EC laid out, Bing, Edge, Microsoft Advertising and iMessage don’t qualify as gateways and shouldn’t have to comply with the DMA. The EC has opened a market investigation in each case to review the companies’ claims.
Meanwhile, the EC notes that iPadOS doesn’t meet the thresholds, but it has opened a market investigation to determine whether it should be designated as a core platform service. Gmail, Outlook.com and Samsung Internet Browser did meet the thresholds, but their respective owners (Alphabet, Microsoft and Samsung) successfully convinced the EC that none of these services qualify as gateways for core platform services.
The rules are likely to have a major impact on Apple in particular. The company has tried to keep a firewall around the iOS ecosystem despite jailbreakers’ efforts to sideload apps onto iPhones over the years. Reports previously indicated that Apple is set to allow third-party app stores and sideloading in iOS 17 — we could find out more about that next week when the company holds its fall iPhone event. Microsoft (specifically Xbox) and Epic Games are among the companies that are preparing their own mobile app stores for when the wall around the iOS garden crumbles.
Apple has also so far rebuffed Google’s (slightly embarrassing) efforts to convince it to support the RCS messaging standard. The former very much understands the value of iMessage and blue text bubbles. However, if the EC designates iMessage as a gateway, Apple could be forced to play nicely with RCS and other messaging services.
To that end, Apple told Reuters that it’s concerned about the privacy and security risks that may emerge as a result of DMA compliance. “Our focus will be on how we mitigate these impacts and continue to deliver the very best products and services to our European customers,” the company said.
If a gatekeeper fails to abide by the DMA rules, there may be serious consequences. The EC can fine an infringing gatekeeper as much as 10 percent of its global turnover. That can rise to 20 percent if the gatekeeper continues to break the rules. The EC has also given itself the power to force a gatekeeper to sell a business and to block it from buying related services in cases of systematic DMA violations.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/eu-confirms-the-six-tech-giants-subject-to-its-strict-new-competition-laws-161917822.html?src=rss
Williams spent most of his career in Tampa Bay and had an accident while working another job there.
Now that Mutant Mayhem has kickstarted the latest take on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the young heroes in a half shell are ready to start adventures of their own—and they’re going to soon in Tales of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. But first, they’re going to flex their newfound heroic status in a video game.
YouTube is launching an in-app platform for bite-sized games, adding to the ways you can interact with content on the popular video service. Sadly, this is no full-fledged cloud-gaming experience — think of it more like Miniclip living inside the social video site.
This is an experimental offering and, as such, only available to select participants or beta testers. How to know if you’ve been chosen? Open up YouTube and look for a “Playables” tab alongside content on the home feed. For the lucky few, games work on both the desktop website and mobile devices.
There’s no list of published titles at this time, but 9to5Google reports that there’s a game called Stack Bounce available that involves a ball smashing through rings via well-timed clicks. If the title sounds familiar, that’s because Stack Bounce was already offered on Google’s GameSnacks service.
Also, moving a 3D ball around is a far cry from the kinds of games Google Stadia was offering when it shuttered, though the company notes that the system will save game progress, which is accessible via the “History” tab. In other words, more complicated experiences could be forthcoming, as there isn’t much progress to save when moving a bouncing ball through rings. For now, though, it’s a repository for minigames.
YouTube isn’t the only video-streaming service dipping its toes into cloud gaming. Netflix has made a pretty significant push into the space in the last couple of years, most recently expanding services to select smart TVs and personal computers. Even TikTok is experimenting with simple in-app games, in addition to live trivia contests with cash prizes. Google’s Stadia cloud streaming service went belly up back in January.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/youtube-is-testing-bitesize-games-on-desktop-and-mobile-163742756.html?src=rss
“Thought Trump’s Big Lie was a problem? DeSantis’ is even scarier,” the editorial board titled its piece about the Florida governor.
Constructed by German LEGOManiacs Christoph, Tobias, Hendrik, René, and Markus, this 500,000-piece minifig scale build of the Star Wars Galactic Senate is a real marvel. Just look at all those Senator pods, there must be a million of them! Okay, at least a few hundred.
The entire build measures 13′ wide and 6.5′ tall, and the video follows the construction of the base structure and supporting wall, Palpatine’s tower, all the senate pods (which were all built by LEGO fans during an event in Germany), and finally, the finished product. Now, to convince my wife this would look perfect in the bedroom with our bed in the middle.
Assuming the average price per piece in LEGO sets of $0.17, this would be an $85,000 set. Well, LEGO, what are you waiting for? I’ll start saving right now! And by the time humanity has actually developed hyperdrives and speeder bikes, I may just have enough for a 6% down payment.
Yesterday two men were charged for the August 1st Gen Con theft where nearly $300,000 worth of product was stolen from Pastimes, during vendor load in before the convention occurred. Andrew “Pearson” Giuame and Thomas “TJ” Dunbar were officially charged with a Class 5 Felony for their alleged involvement in the theft…
Apple is trying to give those who purchase the $3,500 Vision Pro headset as much bang for their buck as possible, even if that means dragging all the apps from its other app ecosystems over to its first mixed reality headset. The company said on Tuesday that the brand-spanking-new Vision Pro App Store will run…
India’s Chandrayaan-3 lander was spotted on the Moon just a few days after touching down on its cratered surface near the lunar south pole.
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