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Apple Removes WhatsApp and Threads from Chinese App Store Following Government Directive

Apple Removes WhatsApp and Threads from Chinese App Store Following Government Directive

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In a significant development, Apple has removed popular messaging apps WhatsApp and Threads from its App Store in China in compliance with a recent government order. The move reflects ongoing tensions between Chinese authorities and global technology companies over control and data privacy.

Government Demands and Compliance

Apple Removes WhatsApp and Threads from Chinese App Store Following Government Directive

Image Source: en.sangritimes.com

The Chinese government’s request to remove these apps is part of broader efforts to regulate Internet use and maintain strict control over digital information flows within the country. Although the specific reasons for the ban have not been publicly disclosed, it is understood that concerns over data security and content management are at the heart of the decision.

Apple’s compliance with the government order highlights the delicate balance that international companies must maintain when operating in China. The tech giant has previously faced criticism for complying with government demands that conflict with its stated commitment to privacy and free expression.

Impact on Users and Market

The removal of WhatsApp and Threads from the App Store will have a direct impact on millions of users in China who rely on these platforms to communicate with peers both domestically and internationally. WhatsApp, known for its end-to-end encryption, and Threads, a new app developed by Instagram, have been popular among users seeking secure ways of communicating.

The decision to ban these apps will also have a significant impact on China’s broader technology market. This highlights the challenges foreign companies face in China’s regulatory environment, which increasingly favors domestic companies and platforms.

Response from Apple and App Developers

Apple has not released an extensive comment on the issue but confirmed that it removed the apps from its Chinese App Store in compliance with local laws. Meanwhile, representatives from Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp and Threads, expressed concern over the development, emphasizing the importance of open and secure communications platforms.

Broader Implications for Tech and Privacy

The incident is part of a larger narrative about the tension between national security concerns and individual privacy rights. China’s approach to Internet governance, which is characterized by heavy censorship and surveillance, contrasts sharply with Western norms, where freedom of expression and user privacy are more rigorously protected.

Also Read: A Quick and Easy Guide to Setting Up Your Apple Vision Pro with a Mac

Looking Forward

The removal of WhatsApp and Threads is likely to spark further discussion on global governance and the role of major technology firms in advocating for user rights while complying with local regulations. As digital communications become increasingly essential, the balance between government surveillance and personal privacy remains an important issue for users and companies around the world.

In conclusion, Apple’s decision to remove these apps at the behest of the Chinese government is a reminder of the complex interplay between global businesses, national policies, and user rights in the digital age. Thus, it sets a precedent that will undoubtedly influence the future operations of tech companies in China and possibly other countries with strict regulatory frameworks.

Google’s Epic Legal Defeat Threatens $200 Billion App Store Industry

Google’s Epic Legal Defeat Threatens $200 Billion App Store Industry

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The Fortnite developer Epic Games Inc.’s court victory over Google may upend Apple Inc.’s and Google’s app store duopoly, which controls how billions of users utilise their mobile phones and brings in approximately 200 billion dollars annually.

A jury from San Francisco rendered the verdict on Monday, dealing with a hit to the two businesses’ app business strategy, which involves charging software developers who usually have few other alternatives charges of as much as 30%. In New York on Tuesday morning, Google’s stocks dropped less than one percent, trading at $132.62.

After years of protesting the practice, Epic was able to persuade a federal court jury that Google, a division of Alphabet Inc., had behaved unjustly as a monopoly.

The lawsuit is probably going to hasten the relaxation of the app store policies, which are already under attack from politicians and regulators throughout the globe.

Google’s Epic Legal Defeat Threatens $200 Billion App Store Industry

Image Source: irishtimes.com

Even if Apple defeated Epic in an incident that was comparable in 2021, just one judge rendered the decision. The Google lawsuit allowed real users to voice their opinions on a global scale of smartphone apps, as seen by the jury’s unanimous decision to side with Epic. After less than four hours of discussion, they concluded that Google had damaged Epic, participated in anti-competitive behaviour, and unlawfully imposed its payment scheme on developers.

The Apple and Google experiments differed significantly in other ways as well. In the present scenario, Epic emphasised lesser compensation arrangements Google had with major game creators, such as Activision Blizzard Inc. and Nintendo Co.

“Revenue sharing deals among Google, smartphone makers and game developers came to light during the trial,” Justin Patterson and other analysts at KeyBanc Capital Markets wrote in a note to clients. “We believe this was a key difference between the cases that contributed to Apple’s victory and Google’s loss.”

time.com

Also Read: Two Ways to Reset Your Forgotten Apple Watch Passcode

Google Has Come Under Fire

Additionally, Google has come under fire for entering into side agreements where it gives lesser commissions to major companies, such as Spotify Technology SA. The jury concluded on Monday that Google should neither provide developers of Android apps special terms nor mandate that they use its payment system for software that is offered for purchase through its store.

“The immediate aftereffect is we will see a shift in the marketplace where big tech companies will have to make accommodations — whether it is more access, better terms, more options for developers — to stave off legal exposure,” said Paul Swanson, a partner at Holland & Hart who specializes in technology and antitrust law.

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Apple Unveils App Store Award Winners, The Best Apps, and Games of 2023

Apple Unveils App Store Award Winners, The Best Apps, and Games of 2023

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The winners of this year’s App Store Awards include fourteen games and applications from developers worldwide whose creations promote cultural transformation and provide customers with worthwhile experiences.

"It’s inspiring to see the ways developers continue to build incredible apps and games that are redefining the world around us," said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. "This year’s winners represent the limitless potential of developers to bring their visions to life, creating apps and games with remarkable ingenuity, exceptional quality, and purpose-driven missions."

finance.yahoo.com

The winners this year demonstrate the breadth of artistic expression, technological ingenuity, and design potential found within Apple’s ecosystem as well as the App Store. AllTrails fosters community by providing thorough trail guides and opportunities for outdoor adventure to all users. Prêt-à-cosmetics promotes inclusion and individual creativity while providing skilled artists and non-professional users with an iPad® cosmetics sketchpad that is accurate to reality. The machine learning-powered tools in Photomator simplify and streamline complex editing operations. Featuring a human touch, MUBI selects outstanding independent and foreign documentaries, while SmartGym excels on Apple Watch® thanks to its extensive collection of workouts, routines, and thorough fitness tracking.

Apple Unveils App Store Award Winners, The Best Apps, and Games of 2023

Image Source: apple.com

In the game genre, Lost in Play allows players to access their delightful, childlike creativity throughout a thrilling point-and-click journey, while Honkai: Star Rail immerses gamers in a story full of nuanced characters and strategically intricate battles on the iPhone®. The beautifully designed dark fantasy realm of Lies of P and the immersive game world of Apple Arcade®’s Hello Kitty Island Adventure, each offer players the delightful objective of forming friendships.

Apps That Won Awards at the 2023 App Store

  • AllTrails, from AllTrails, Inc., which is an iPhone app, won iPhone App of the Year.
  • The Prêt-à-Makeup iPad app from Prêt-à-Template is the app of the year.
  • The UAB Pixelmator Team’s Photomator is the Mac App of the Year.
  • MUBI, developed by MUBI, Inc., is the Apple TV App of the Year.
  • The Apple Watch App of the Year is SmartGym by Mateus Abras.

Also Read: Marshall Motif II ANC Review: Noise-Canceling Earbuds That Rock Your World

Games

  • Honkai: Star Rail by COGNOSPHERE PTE LTD., is the iPhone Game of the Year.
  • Snapbreak Games’ “Lost in Play” is the iPad Game of the Year.
  • NEOWIZ’s Mac Game of the Year is Lies of P.
  • The Apple Arcade Game of the Year is Sunblink’s Hello Kitty Island Adventure.
Apple

Apple lets developers charge up to $10,000 per app

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Apple is making another move to provide greater flexibility and quell criticism of the service by altering the price strategy for the Apple App Store to allow developers to charge a wider array of amounts.

Apple
Image Source: entrepreneur.com

Apple updated the App Store pricing structure on Tuesday, making it possible for developers to charge anywhere between 29 cents and $10,000 for their apps. Additionally, new options for pricing across numerous countries and currencies will be available to developers.

Apple noted, “These newly announced tools, which will begin rolling out today and continue throughout 2023, will create even more flexibility for developers to price their products while staying approachable to the hundreds of millions of users Apple serves worldwide. And, in turn, help developers continue to thrive on the App Store.”

Read More: Google to shut down Duplex AI for web

The company noted, “Under the updated App Store pricing system, all developers will have the ability to select from 900 price points, which is nearly 10 times the number of price points previously available for most apps. his includes 600 new price points to choose from, with an additional 100 higher price points available upon request.”

The departure from Apple’s long-standing 99-cent price limit occurs as the Silicon Valley giant defends itself against claims that it has a monopolistic hold on the App Store, which serves as the only entry point for iPhones.

The change significantly alters the App Store, which Apple introduced in 2008 with a focus on simplicity. In recent years, the platform has come under further fire from regulators and developers who claim that the company’s standards are excessively onerous.

Apple is under fire for the limitations and costs it imposes on developers, notably the 30% commission it charges for some of the apps available on the App Store.

Apple and small devs in the USA reached a settlement in a $100 million class-action suit last year, and one of the terms of the deal included raising prices. Apple also simplified the process for developers to challenge app rejections at the time, as well as adjustments to App Store search.

Political pressure is also being applied on Apple in the US and Europe to loosen its grip on the App Store, which has been criticized by companies like Spotify, Epic Games, and Twitter. A California judge dismissed Epic’s complaint that Apple was operating like a monopoly through the App Store in 2021.

The judge, however, disallowed Apple from forbidding developers from incorporating “external links or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms” in their apps.

New EU regulations that go into effect in May 2023 will compel Apple to allow third-party app stores and other payment methods on its iOS operating system. The Digital Markets Act will also forbid the iPhone from giving Apple’s own services, such as Apple Music or the Safari browser, a competitive advantage.

Apple’s new pricing flexibility does not solve the central issues of sideloading and third-party apps brought up in the last couple of antitrust lawsuits against the corporation. In response to requests for greater transparency, Apple has been adamant that sideloading iOS applications will lead to security issues, while conveniently omitting the fact that macOS supports user-loaded apps.

Unless compelled to do so by the courts or legislators, Apple is unlikely to abandon its App Store gatekeeping, as it did with its price tier adjustments.

VLC Media Player

VLC Media Player Is Banned In India, But What Is The Reason?

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The VLC Media Player, amongst the most popular digital media players, for PC and Mac, has been banned in India. It was banned on February 13 earlier this year. The VLC Media Player Website and the download link for the same have been down since then but the mobile version of the media player application is still open to download on Apple App Store and Google Play Store. The Firm says it does not know the reason for this ban.

The ban that is enforced is not an actual ban but rather a soft ban. The Indian government has blocked access to the official site of the VLC Media Player i.e., Videolan.org, where the latest version of the VLC Media Player was available to download for Mac and PC.

However, users can still download the app from several famous hosting websites and other third-party sites, but these downloads generally have a high risk of carrying malicious files that can cause a great deal of damage. So, it is preferable to download such software from sites with proper authentication or the official website.

VideoLAN President disclosed that the VLC Media Player is running on some ISPs also not for some. Commenting about on the ban, the company President said, “we got banned since a few months, and we don’t know why. We’ve asked the Indian government and we got no answer. We probably did not ask the right place though. I wish I knew how to ask properly.” “The weirdest is that some ISP are blocking it and some are not. So why is that the case? Are some ISP not listening to the government? VLC and VideoLAN are quite apolitical (we only fight against DRM and for open source) and VLC is a pure tool that can read anything,” he stated.

Source: www.indiatoday.in

The users who have installed files in the cloud storage or their local devices can still install the VLC Media Player and Also, and the people who have the app installed on their PCs or smartphone can still use it.

VLC Media Player
Image source: thehansindia.com

Highlights About This Ban

VideoLAN has officially verified this ban which nearly went unnoticed. The main reason for the ban is not disclosed yet. Some reports signify that the VLC Media Player ban is imposed because the platform was used by China-powered hacking group Cicada for cyber attacks.

It is highly possible that the VLC Media platform was banned along with the 54 Chinese applications, that the government of India banned this year in February. However, there is one thing to keep in mind, VLC is not a China-based software, but is powered and developed by a French group.

The obstructed VLC Media Player website shows that the website was blocked as per the order of the Ministry of Electronics and Information technology under the IT Act, 2000. This act accords with the law dealing with crimes related to cyber security and electronic commerce in India.

Since the VLC Media Player Site and Download links are down currently. New users will not be able to get it, but the ones who have already downloaded it can use it. The developer has clarified that VLC does not collect any information about the users at any point.

“VLC works perfectly without our servers: we don’t collect info, we don’t require user accounts, we don’t spy on people (telemetry). So once you have VLC, you don’t need our servers, for it to work.” VideoLAN clarified.

Source: www.indiatoday.in

The Government of India hasn’t confirmed the reason for this ban in the country. So, the media player is seeking help on Twitter to grasp the reason behind this sudden action by the Indian Government.

Epic Games vs Apple

Fortnite Developers Epic Games Drags Apple into Court; Calls Apple a Monopoly “Walled Garden”

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Apple and Epic Games attended the US court for the trial over App Store practices and regulations on Monday. Epic Games is the developer company of the famous Fortnite game, which accused Apple mainly for its high fees on App Store and Apple trying to establish its monopoly in the industry. The two companies clashed at the California federal court, and the revelations in the court have made people’s jaw drop.

Epic Games

Epic Games is a North Carolina-based video game and software developer and publisher company, best known for the development of Fornite and Unreal Engine. The company was founded by Tim Sweeney in 1991, who is also the current CEO of the company. Apart from Fortnite and Unreal Engine, Epic Games Store, Unreal series, and Gears of War series are Epic’s main products.

Why the Court Case?

Epic Games create games for both iOS and Android platforms. But recently, the company accused Apple of abuse of the power it holds over the software developers at the California federal court. According to Epic Games, Apple has an audience base of over 1 billion, and it charges up to 30% on in-app purchases and conducting App Store reviews, which is too much. Also, the company has got all the control over the apps on App Store, which gives Apple the power to deny access to apps whenever it wants.

The Epic lawyer, Katherine Forrest, stated in her first statement that Apple is trying to have its monopoly in the market and has turned into a monopoly “walled garden”, luring in developers and users to get more and more money out of them. Forrest also claimed that the tech giant currently is earning a profit of up to 78 percent from the apps. “The evidence will show unambiguously that Apple is a monopoly,” said Forrest while representing the case in the court.

Epic Games Vs Apple
Image Source: techstory.in

Karen Dunn is defending Apple in the case, and she refused to accept that Apple is trying to have a monopoly. Despite she claimed that Apple has no problems if Epic Games run its games on rival companies’ devices. Apple is just trying to sell a broad array of services and making ways in different fields. She also said that Apple has created a safe and open environment for the developers and the users for easy access to apps, and it not at all charging a high fee for providing privacy, reliability, and quality to the developers and its consumers.

Fortnite Brought in Over $9 Billion in 2019, Shows Documents

The court case has made the two companies public their important financial records of the past few years. These documents have given a glimpse of the gaming company Epic Games’ annual reports. According to these financial documents, Fortnite made more than $5 billion in its first year for Epic Games, and by 2019, it had brought in over $9 billion in total for the company in the two years. Though the number is quite high, Epic Games revealed that it only gained around $5.5 billion in profit from the two years.

These documents also showed a prediction for the year 2020. It revealed that the predicted revenue for 2020 was $3.6 billion, but according to CEO Tim Sweeney’s recent testimony, the company made around $5.1 billion from Fortnite alone. The documents also show that the company gained around $8 million in 2018 and $100 million in the next year through its other games.

Is Apple Being Monopolistic?

For many years, Apple has been charging developers a heavy fee for letting users download their app from the App Store. The company has banned downloading of apps from other sources to be used on Apple devices. So the developers are forced to pay the ‘fee’ so that they can access the huge Apple user base.

According to Tim Sweeney, Apple forces its unfavorable rules on the developers or they can’t have the access to the one billion iPhone users. Many other app developers are on Epic Games’ side and have criticized Apple for its monopolistic behavior. The debate in the court is on whether Apple should have the power to set all the rules and control the payment system or not.