Friday, March 28, 2025

An appeals court agrees with India's antitrust regulator that Google's app store billing policy was unfair and restrictive but cuts the fine from $110M to $25M (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
An appeals court agrees with India's antitrust regulator that Google's app store billing policy was unfair and restrictive but cuts the fine from $110M to $25M  —  An appeals court Friday agreed with India's antitrust regulator that Google's app store billing policy was unfair and restrictive for developers …



The UK's Financial Conduct Authority says it intends to begin authorizing new crypto firms in 2026 after it designs a more stringent regulatory regime (Camomile Shumba/CoinDesk)

Camomile Shumba / CoinDesk:
The UK's Financial Conduct Authority says it intends to begin authorizing new crypto firms in 2026 after it designs a more stringent regulatory regime  —  The FCA's intention is to create new rules for a more stringent regulatory regime, its director of payments said.  —  What to know:



Court documents: India criticizes Elon Musk's X for wrongly labeling an official website, used to notify tech firms of harmful content, as a "censorship portal" (Reuters)

Reuters:
Court documents: India criticizes Elon Musk's X for wrongly labeling an official website, used to notify tech firms of harmful content, as a “censorship portal”  —  India has criticised Elon Musk's X for wrongly labelling as a “censorship portal” an official website …



Monday, March 24, 2025

Apple says the AirPods Max will get 24-bit, 48 kHz lossless audio, including Personalized Spatial Audio, and ultra‑low latency in April via a software update (Chris Welch/The Verge)

Chris Welch / The Verge:
Apple says the AirPods Max will get 24-bit, 48 kHz lossless audio, including Personalized Spatial Audio, and ultra‑low latency in April via a software update  —  A new firmware update coming in April will also include ultra low-latency for the $549 headphones.



A survey of 730 software engineers: 75% have tried AI, 35.6% are AI optimists and 38.4% pessimists, freelance coders use AI more, 50% pay for AI tools, and more (Wired)

Wired:
A survey of 730 software engineers: 75% have tried AI, 35.6% are AI optimists and 38.4% pessimists, freelance coders use AI more, 50% pay for AI tools, and more  —  We surveyed 730 coders and developers about how (and how often) they use AI chatbots on the job.  The results amazed and disturbed us.



Google confirms a "technical issue" on Google Maps "that caused the deletion of Timeline data for some people", but says those with backups can restore the data (Hadlee Simons/Android Authority)

Hadlee Simons / Android Authority:
Google confirms a “technical issue” on Google Maps “that caused the deletion of Timeline data for some people”, but says those with backups can restore the data  —  Update: Google has confirmed the issue, and it indeed advises affected users to restore their data via a previous backup.



Sunday, March 23, 2025

Browser Use, whose open-source tool converts website elements into a "text-like" format that AI agents can better understand, raised a $17M seed led by Felicis (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Browser Use, whose open-source tool converts website elements into a “text-like” format that AI agents can better understand, raised a $17M seed led by Felicis  —  We may not have an agreed-upon definition of AI “agent” yet, but a multitude of startups want to create “agentic” tools to automate various tasks online.



Sources: Apple plans to build its own AI models for Visual Intelligence and add cameras to the Watch; the redesigned plastic Apple Watch SE faces serious issues (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple plans to build its own AI models for Visual Intelligence and add cameras to the Watch; the redesigned plastic Apple Watch SE faces serious issues  —  Apple is exploring the idea of adding cameras and visual intelligence features to its smartwatch, thrusting the company into the AI wearables market.



Elon Musk's ties to President Trump can complicate Starlink's global rollout; Morgan Stanley estimates Starlink could make $16.3B in revenue in 2025, up 74% YoY (Financial Times)

Financial Times:
Elon Musk's ties to President Trump can complicate Starlink's global rollout; Morgan Stanley estimates Starlink could make $16.3B in revenue in 2025, up 74% YoY  —  Satellite internet service is expanding fast but some politicians worry whether the SpaceX owner is a reliable partner



An appeals court agrees with India's antitrust regulator that Google's app store billing policy was unfair and restrictive but cuts the fine from $110M to $25M (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg : An appeals court agrees with India's antitrust regulator that Google's app store billing policy was unfair and restri...