sometimes you choose the tech news and sometimes the tech news barges into your
room and throws you into an unmarked SUV and today was the second one for me
Apple finally addressed the question of what its compliance with the eu's
digital markets act rules will look like and the answer is malicious I was hoping
it would be delicious but we close I mean it sounds good at first Apple
announced that iOS will support third-party app stores they call them
marketplaces as well as third party payment systems and browser engines
other than webkit so you can actually use a browser that isn't just Safari
covered in chrome spray paint but then you realize these delicious treats are
only coming to the EU because they're actually really dangerous and you're not
sure you want them anymore anyways because you think you saw Apple spit on
them before handing them out alternative app marketplaces must be authorized by
Apple and all the apps that they host must be notorized
a perfectly dystopian sounding appal ISM for reviewed by Bots and humans prepare
to be notorized while many are repeating
claims that iOS will support side loading installing Standalone app
packages outside of any app store like you can do on Android Windows Linux and
macOS it won't support that and it only gets Wilder in order for developers to
distribute their apps on alternative app marketplaces or even use third-party
payment processes they need to accept the new business terms this is the new
business now get used to it that includes paying a lower 10% cut of the
App Store revenue or 177% for digital goods and services plus an extra 3% to
use Apple's own payment system which will also spare users from the popup
warning them that they may be about to hand over their savings to a Nigerian
prince if they don't use the right one but the new terms also include Apple's
own version of unity's scandalous per
install fee from last year once an app Hits 1 million installs its devs will
have to pay a core technology fee or CTF
of50 for every new user who installs it
annually as in the app can be reinstalled by the same user for no
charge for 12 months for some devs this could see apple taking something like a
60% cut of their app Revenue now if you think crossing your fingers and hoping
that your app doesn't get too popular sounds kind of stressful developers can
always stick with the current business terms and swear off the cool new stuff
they could also Target iPad OS where
first installs won't trigger the CTF apparently developers of app
marketplaces however will have to pay the CTF every time the Marketplace app
is installed including the first million they'll also have to get a letter of
credit from an a-rated financial institution of a million EUR altogether
the deal doesn't sound too too good and in their explainers apple is making it
clear that's by Design the company explained that it's only making the new
features available in the EU because they're actually super dangerous and in
the EU they can take that weird we're soft and vulnerable I mean the app
store's harsh protections blocked $2 billion worth of fraudulent transactions
in 2022 the same amount that Google
blocked in the same year on the far less restrictive Play Store but there's way
more Android phones in the world and they're way harder to use for babies the
argument is confusing but Apple did announce one thing that appears to be
just straight up good news game streaming platforms like NVIDIA's
GeForce now and Xbox cloud gaming can now submit a single iOS app with the
capability to stream their entire library of games which is again how
things already worked on other operating systems but not on the minimalist Fisher
Price of phone os's your minimalist baby
will love it Apple previously wanted NVIDIA and Microsoft to create an app
store listing for every individual game in their streaming cataloges a request
the two Tech Giants responded to
with interestingly GeForce now was the
only way to play fortnite on iOS since epic games removed it in 2020 when it
started its whole App Store mud fight with apple but now that iOS will support
thirdparty app stores epic games plans to finally launch the epic game store
and fortnite on iPhone even though epic boss Tim Sweeney thinks the new rules
are quote hot garbage whether they actually go through with that launch
also depends on whether Apple authorizes their upcoming app Marketplace which I
have a feeling is somewhat unlikely as long as Sweeney keeps characterizing
Apple's announcements as a quote horror show Tim Cook expects some level of
decorum here I do not suffer impudence
from WI Jing verman
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TechLink and use code TechLink for 20%
off and free shipping Okay I uh I think all the Apple news has left by now I we
we can we can do the quick P oh God there's there's one more in the corner
it's standing there the whole time what you know that's kind of creepy right I'm
still here users of beeper Cloud the service that lets you route iMessages to
your Android phone through your Mac computer reported earlier this week that
Apple was blocking them from using iMessage even on their Macs which were
flagged for spam because while Apple values the user experience above all
their other core tenant is nauy children must be
punished after the New York Times reported on the issue and reached out to
Apple Apple did not respond to the New York Times but suddenly started
unbanning these users for now beeper has disabled beeper Cloud functionality
anyways while they apparently try to find yet another workaround I don't know
if Apple's compliance with the dma is any indication you might just have to
get your mom and iPhone I just thousands of users reported that Microsoft teams
was down today including many users from our own office tragically blocking us
from posting in the companywide short joke group chat that is our com system
like a kebler out I swear we're a real
company down detector reported nearly 15 ,000 outages as of noon Pacific Time
Microsoft gave a vague statement on Twitter acknowledging the problem and
blaming it on a nonspecific networking issue rats got into the pipes notably
this outage comes less than a week after Microsoft disclosed an attack from a
Russian sponsored hacker and underrated My Little Pony character midnight
blizzard they shelved him in the first season he was just not it's a it's a boy
Florida's House of Representatives had has passed a bill that if passed by the
Senate and then signed by the governor will ban children under 16 from social
media platforms that track users activity and use that information to
provide targeted content a primary concern is social media's potentially
addictive nature with one state representative comparing it to a kind of
digital fenel the bill has excluded platforms mainly used for messaging
non-user generated entertainment and professional networks so if you're for
in Florida maybe now's the time to become a LinkedIn influencer it's it's
going to be the hot new thing business Google has released a research paper and
a demo video for lumere something they're calling a space-time diffusion
model which sounds like a teleporter that turns users into a fine Mist but is
actually an impressive text to video and imageo video generation tool the output
is surprisingly realistic and smooth compared to past attempts at AI video
generation and just look at these animals with the correct number of eyes
and limbs wow and these raccoons reading
hovering books try it out be your guest
Lumiere even has the ability to take the style from a reference image and
incorporate it in a new video as well as alter existing footage like this
horrifying woman flower homunculus the future is bright and meta's reality Labs
has created a way of allowing VR users as well as virtual characters and
experiences to appear to manipulate
realworld objects they demonstrated this concept in a video where a thankfully
fake hidious monkey peanut monster thing grabs a very real drink cart and throws
it down the stairs before escaping Justice by taking the elevator the user
in that scenario was moving real slow they could have gotone it now in reality
the VR program creates a virtual double of the object and simultaneously erases
the original from sight it's super cool though it's feels like maybe they should
be working on other things like how to get the quest 3's pass through mode to
work on a plane or even when you just decide to stand up or go downstairs The
Vision Pro can do it meta Honestly though check the video out for yourself
just be prepared for the nude minions streaking through the frame at 3 minutes
and 45 seconds I just if you're not into that maybe avoid and don't break your
streak ha come back on Monday for more Tech nudes
no news they're not nudes no