Apple is facing one of the biggest challenges yet to how it controls and profits from the App Store. Europe prepares to complete a new competition law in the coming weeks. Failure to comply would carry penalties of up to tens of billions of dollars. The new EU legislation is set to direct Apple to allow software to be downloaded outside its App Store and limit how companies impose their own payment systems on apps.
Meta, formerly known as Facebook, will begin testing new ad placement tools this year. The tools will give advertisers control over where their ads are shown on Facebook and Instagram. The company plans to officially roll them out in early 2023. The new tools are a response to advertisers' demands for more control.
Researchers put AI normally used to search for helpful drugs into a kind of ‘bad actor’ mode to show how easily it could be abused at a biological arms control conference. The AI came up with tens of thousands of new substances, some of which are similar to VX, the most potent nerve agent ever developed.
Slack is cutting off Russian users from its platform without notice. The move is to comply with international sanctions against the country. Salesforce-owned Slack says it's exiting business in Russia. The company said it has a very small number of customers in the country and has already started exiting those relationships.
Datto is working with a financial adviser to solicit interest from potential equity firms. The company provides tools to help managed service providers run their businesses. Datto may be the target of an acquisition bid by its largest shareholder Vista Equity Partners, by another private equity firm, or by big pocked competitors such as Kaseya.
Adobe announced partnerships with Coca Cola, NASCAR, Epic Games and NVIDIA on a range of metaverse-related projects. Hundreds of brands are already using its existing 3D tools to create interactive content. Demand for tools used to create photorealistic replicas of their products grew 100% from a year ago.
Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT, the most valuable Non-Fungible Token collectible to date, launches ApeCoin. The token is native to the BAYC universe but was created by Ape CoinDAO, a decentralised autonomous organisation. 62 per cent of the total supply will go into the ecosystem fund, 14 per cent would be used for new launches.
Meta removed a video that falsely depicted Ukraine's president ordering troops to surrender. The company removed the video for breaking its rules against "manipulated media" The video is the latest alarming milestone in the parallel information war accompanying Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Netflix is cracking down on the widespread practice of password sharing. The company is prompting people who don't live in the same household to pay an extra fee for the privilege. The move comes just a few weeks after Netflix announced its latest price hike.
Robert Iger is backing a startup that celebrities and others are using to create avatars for the much-hyped metaverse, taking a board seat with Los Angeles-based Genies Inc. He is also an investor in the business, one of five fledgling tech companies he’s recently backed.
Rumors had it that the new iPad Air wouldn't get the expected A15 Bionic processor. Instead, it would get an M1 chip, the same chip found in the Mac and iPad Pro. The M1 is the real upgrade of note, and it makes the Air one of the most future-proof iPads you can buy.