It seems like nearly every week the UK or EU are investigating Apple Inc. 251,04 +2,91 +1,17% and/or Google Inc. 189,70 -0,45 -0,24% Android for being ‘anti-competitive’. Earlier this year, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) was looking into further investigating Google and Apple’s dominance in the mobile phone market “Many UK businesses and web developers tell us they feel that they are being held back by restrictions set by Apple and Google,” said the CMA’s interim chief executive, Sarah Cardell in a statement. “We plan to investigate whether the concerns we have heard are justified and, if so,…
Apple
In the US the major wireless carries started slowly rolling out 5G networks to parts of select cities in 2019. By the December 2021, they expected to fully activate their 5G networks, but delays ensued due to concerns about possible interface with certain instruments on commercial aircraft. With all the advertising the big three (AT&T, T-Mobile & Verizon) US wireless carriers have been pushing out about 5G it is hard to realized there are still other parts of the world that are not using 5G as much. The adoption of the fifth generation (5G) mobile network in regions like North…
Apple Exec have confirmed the future iPhones (likely the iPhone 15 due out in Fall 2023) will have USB-C charging port. So far only the EU has mandated for new mobile devices with 1000 watts or less power consumption produced on/after December 2024 must have USB-C charging port. Brazil and India are considering similar rules and in June 2022 several Democratic US Senators sent an open letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo pushing the US to follow the EU’s steps. Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior Vice President of marketing, confirmed on Tuesday that the company will comply with EU’s ruling, but stopped…
Today is Sunday, October 23rd: time for the weekly roundup of the good, the bad and the ugly tech news of the week! The Good ‘Car feature’ subscriptions are not that common in the US (except for Tesla’s Full Self Driving) and are the practice of having to pay a monthly subscription fee in order to use a feature that is already installed in the car. In the UK and Korea, BMW is selling autos with heated seats installed, however in order to use this feature consumers must pay BMW a monthly subscription (even though they have already paid for…
Google Inc. 189,70 -0,45 -0,24% has been fined yet again for ‘anti-competitive practices’ with its Android mobile OS. This time around it is India which is their largest market by user base. The commission has slapped Google with a small $162 million fine. I say small as Google’s MONTHLY revenue works out to be around $21.5 Billion. The Competition Commission of India found the following in their investigations: Google has perpetuated its dominant position in the online search market resulting in denial of market access for competing search apps in contravention of Section 4(2)(c) of the Act. Google has leveraged…
Apple Inc. 251,04 +2,91 +1,17% iPhone 14 came out this fall with a starting MSRP of $799 USD. Recently an unopened first generation (2007) 8 GB iPhone went up for auction. The starting bid was $2500 USD and sold for a little over $33K USD. The very first iPhone came with a 3.5-inch screen, a 2-megapixel camera, and a web browser. When the late Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs first introduced it 15 years ago, he called it a combination of “an iPod, a phone, and an internet communicator” all in one. “This factory sealed, first-release example is in exceptional…
Today is Sunday, October 16th: time for the weekly roundup of the good, the bad and the ugly tech news of the week! The Good The iPhone 15 will be the first to have a USB-C charging port. The next generation iPhone 15 due out in the fall of 2023 will have USB-C charging port. Apple is also transitioning to USB-C charging by the end of 2024 for other devices such as wireless earbuds. This is ahead of European Parliament’s ruling requiring mobile devices with a power delivery of 100 watts or less must use USB-C charging by the end…
Apple Inc. 251,04 +2,91 +1,17% has already had to pay a $2.3 million fine to the Brazilin Government in September as a result of their ‘environmental’ practices with the iPhone 12. Specifically Apple choosing not to include a charging brick with the iPhone 12. Now, it appears Apple is going to have to pay even more fines and provide free chargers to all Brazilin customers who recently purchased an iPhone 12 or 13. Apple keeps on losing court battles in Brazil over its decision to stop shipping iPhones with a charger. The São Paulo state court has ruled against the tech…
Apple Inc. 251,04 +2,91 +1,17% iPhone 15 slated for a Fall 2023 release will have USB-C charging port. Even before the recent EU ruling it seems Apple could read the writing on the wall. They knew at some point they were going to have pull the ripcord and switch to USB-C instead of their current Thunderbolt charging ports. Given the EU’s requirement for USB-C charging ports for devices using 100 watts or less was not going into effect until the end of 2024 Apple would have needed to make the switch by the iPhone 16 (Fall 2024). In May, Bloomberg’s Mark…
Google Inc. 189,70 -0,45 -0,24% Chrome is the most popular browser amongst non-mobile users. With that being said so far in 2022 there have been a lot of vulnerabilities (303 to be exact). Yes, that is a lot. However, given Chrome is the most popular browser it is only natural hackers/scammers are going to go out of their way to find exploits to maximize their profits. This is the same reason Microsoft Corporation 454,46 +2,87 +0,64% Window’s has always been the primary target for OS exploits because of the larger user base. When the World Wide Web took off in…