google-site-verification=cXrcMGa94PjI5BEhkIFIyc9eZiIwZzNJc4mTXSXtGRM Apple’s iPhone is not a monopoly like Windows was a monopoly - 360WISE MEDIA
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Apple’s iPhone is not a monopoly like Windows was a monopoly

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The U.S. Department of Justice and attorneys general from 16 states and the District of Columbia sued Apple this morning in federal court for violating antitrust laws. The lawsuit alleged that the corporate has a monopoly within the premium smartphone market and uses a number of illegal tactics to perpetuate this monopoly.

Leaving aside the main points of this tactic and its legality (should you’re interested, you possibly can read all the lawsuit here) the case has many similarities to the Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft from the Nineteen Nineties, which I wrote about on the web site Microsoft Tips from 2000 to 2010. Even Attorney General Merrick Garland noted these similarities, saying: “The landmark Microsoft case found the monopolist liable under antitrust laws for using its market power to undermine technologies that would make it easier for users to choose a different computer operating system.” Today’s grievance alleges that Apple used lots of the same tactics that Microsoft used.

However, there is one fundamental difference between these cases: Microsoft had a clear monopoly within the relevant marketplace for PC operating systems. Apple’s monopoly position is not so clear.

Having a monopoly is not illegal, Garland noted at her news conference. However, it is illegal to make use of certain tactics to perpetuate or maintain this monopoly – but to prove this, it have to be proven that the defendant has sufficient market power to exclude competitors from the market.

Microsoft Windows had well over 90% of the relevant market share for notebook computer operating systems. In fact, it was so dominant within the pre-smartphone era Goldman Sachs estimates In 2000, Microsoft operating systems were reportedly installed on 97% of all computing devices.

Although the actual end result of the Microsoft antitrust case might be described as a mixed victory for the Justice Department, with lots of the penalties – including dissolving Microsoft into two corporations – being thrown out on appeal, the factual findings on this case clearly established that Microsoft had monopoly power. This paved the way in which for a series of personal lawsuits, which Microsoft has mostly ended.

Looking purely numerically, Apple’s market share is much lower.

In its lawsuit, the Justice Department argues that Apple has greater than 70% of the U.S. smartphone market, if revenue is counted. This is different than measuring by units shipped – based on statistics from the last quarter of 2023, Apple’s share is closer to 64% counterpoint research, well ahead of second-place Samsung with 18%. But the Justice Department argues that there are other indicators that support the iPhone’s dominance, corresponding to the undeniable fact that most young users select iPhones over Samsung phones running Google’s Android operating system. Households with higher demographics are also keen to decide on the iPhone.

The government also argues that the United States is an appropriate market, amongst other things, because most consumers buy smartphones through carriers and since potential latest market entrants must comply with U.S. telecommunications regulations, amongst other things. This argument is essential because Apple’s market share worldwide is much lower (only 23%, with Samsung second with 16%). In first place is the “Other” item, which mainly includes low-cost Android phones. It is clearly still a fragmented global market, which actually changes the competitive dynamics – developers have a significant incentive to create applications for Android, for instance. Contrast this with Microsoft’s market dominance, which was global – there was almost no real alternative on the time.

A key section within the Justice Department case begins on page 66, titled “Apple Has Monopoly Power in the Smartphone and Performance Smartphone Market.” The argument comes all the way down to barriers to entry.

First, the Justice Department argues that the majority people have already got a smartphone and are purchasing a latest one, and since most of those users have already got an iPhone, they usually tend to select one other iPhone. The Justice Department says Apple has introduced many artificial barriers to vary, corresponding to the difference between blue and green messaging bubbles for iPhone and Android phone users and allegedly limiting the functionality of third-party cross-platform video apps, somewhat than directing people to FaceTime. which only works on Apple products. If users change, they’ll incur costs and difficulties corresponding to learning a latest interface, purchasing latest applications, transferring data, etc.

Second, the DOJ cites a whole list of technical barriers to entry, corresponding to ordering expensive components, designing sophisticated hardware and software, securing distribution agreements, etc. There is also a variety of circumstantial evidence, corresponding to Apple’s huge and sustained profit margins on iPhone sales.

These arguments may prove convincing to the judge presiding over the case. However, on the subject of barriers to entry, Apple could argue that product differentiation and integration is not the identical as foreclosing competitors. A totally integrated platform with built-in apps for specific features corresponding to web browsing and video conferencing is easy and convenient, and customers select and proceed to decide on it because they like it, not because they’d like to modify to Android and are blocked by artificial barriers.

In the second case, Apple could point to the big investments it has made during the last 15 years in constructing these supply chains and relationships with carriers and developers, and rightly ask why it ought to be penalized now for doing the mandatory work to construct a lead.

This is often the case in antitrust cases within the tech world. An innovator rises to the highest through a combination of exertions, luck, and difficult business tactics. They construct an undeniable advantage largely because of network effects. Competitors complain. Governments are intervening. A dominant player stays in business long enough that latest competitors find a technique to enter the market – much as Apple and Google did against Microsoft within the 2000s, when their smartphone operating systems made desktop computers and Windows less essential.

And then the cycle starts again.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com

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TikTok will automatically tag AI-generated content created on platforms such as DALL·E 3

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A laptop keyboard and TikTok logo displayed on a phone screen are seen in this multiple exposure illustration photo taken in Poland on March 17, 2024. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The company announced Thursday that TikTok is beginning to automatically tag AI-generated content that was created on other platforms. With this modification, if a creator posts content created using a service like OpenAI’s DALL·E 3 on TikTok, it will automatically have an “AI-generated” label attached to it, informing viewers that it was created using AI.

The social video platform does this by implementing Content Credentials, a technology developed by the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), co-founded by Microsoft and Adobe. Content credentials attach specific metadata to content, which TikTok can then use to immediately recognize and mark AI-generated content.

As a result, TikTok will begin automatically labeling AI-generated content that’s uploaded to the platform with content credentials attached. The change will go live on Thursday and will apply to all users worldwide in the approaching weeks.

While TikTok already tags content created using TikTok’s AI effects, it will now tag content created on other platforms which have implemented content credentials, such as OpenAI’s DALL·E 3 and Microsoft’s Bing Image Creator. Although Microsoft, Adobe and OpenAI already use content credentials, Google promised to handle content credentials.

Image credits: ICT Tok

While TikTok already requires creators to reveal after they post content created or enhanced using AI, the corporate told TechCrunch that it sees the brand new change as an extra technique to be sure that AI-generated content is flagged, while also considering the pressure on creators .

In the approaching months, TikTok will also begin attaching content credentials to AI-generated content created on the platform using TikTok’s AI effects. Content credentials metadata will include details about where and the way the AI-generated content was created or edited and will remain attached to the content once downloaded. Other platforms that accept content credentials will give you the option to automatically mark content as AI-generated.

So while TikTok has committed to labeling AI content on its own service, additionally it is attempting to help be sure that AI content created on TikTok can be properly labeled when published on one other platform.

“AI-generated content is an incredible way to be creative, but transparency for viewers is crucial,” Adam Presser, director of operations and trust and safety at TikTok, said in a press release. “By collaborating with others to flag content across platforms, we make it easier for creators to responsibly view AI-generated content while continuing to deter harmful or misleading AIGC, which is prohibited on TikTok.”

TikTok touts that it’s the first video-sharing platform to implement content authentication. This is value mentioning (*3*)Meta announced back in February that it plans to make use of the C2PA solution so as to add content origins.

In Thursday’s announcement, TikTok said it’s committed to combating using fraudulent AI in elections and that its policies strongly prohibit misleading AI-generated content – whether it’s flagged or unlabeled.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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Serena Williams’ Husband Spends Cinco De Mayo With Early Reddit Investor Snoop Dogg, ‘Never Forget These Days’

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Serena Williams, Snoop Dogg, Alexis Ohanian


Serena Williams’ tech entrepreneur husband Alexis Ohanian spent the Cinco De Mayo holiday with certainly one of his wife’s hometown heroes, who was certainly one of the early investors on his Reddit platform.

On Sunday, May 5, Ohanian was outside celebrating a “beautiful day” in Los Angeles with certainly one of the town’s most outstanding figures. In a photograph shared on Twitter, the Reddit co-founder praised Snoop Dogg’s early support for his billion-dollar company.

“Beautiful day in Los Angeles. I appreciate this city very much. Have to meet lots of friends” wrote Ohanian.

“Some of you might know that @SnoopDogg was certainly one of our first investors in @reddit during our spin-off and pivot. Few people wanted to speculate in us then. Snoop managed to do it. And you’ll always remember the primary day.

Launched in 2005 on Reddit serves as an internet community where people from everywhere in the world can connect and communicate about any topic. Ohanian co-founded the corporate with Steve Huffman while they were each attending the University of Virginia. The company began to grow after connecting with Aaron Swartz of Infogami, who rewrote the coding for Reddit.

Just a yr after launching, Ohanian and Huffman sold Reddit to Conde Nast for about $10 million to $20 million. As user numbers and valuations continued to grow, investment flowed in. Until 2014, when Reddit was precious with a reported $500 million, Snoop Dogg has joined a bunch of investors in a $50 million funding round on the link-sharing and discussion site.

It was the investment group’s organizer who approached Snoop due to his celebrity status and recognition on the location’s “Ask Me Anything” message boards. Snoop was also high on Reddit’s wish list of investors trying to join the corporate.

“He’s like a Reddit superstar,” Sam Altman, CEO and co-founder of Open AI, said of Snoop Dogg. “The site loves him. Snoop was high on the list. We asked him to speculate and he agreed.

The “Gin and Juice” rapper doesn’t actually discuss his early investment in Reddit, but he has previously shared how he got into the market.

“I went inside. Understand me? I didn’t wish to tell everyone, but I’m a part of Reddit too.” – Snoop Dogg he told Ohanian on GGN News in 2017.

Reddit is currently valued at $10.68 billion, with a share price of $67.67. This is a drastic jump from the $5 billion valuation in 2021.


This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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Apple’s ‘Crush’ ad is disgusting

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Apple’s ‘Crush’ ad is disgusting

You can generally depend on Apple for clever and well-produced ads, but on this case it missed the mark is the latest, which presents a tower of creative tools and analog items literally squeezed into the shape of an iPad. Many people, including myself, have had a negative and visceral response to this, and we must always discuss why.

This doesn’t just occur because we witness things being destroyed. There are countless video channels dedicated to crushing, burning, exploding and customarily destroying on a regular basis objects. Plus, everyone knows that some of these incidents occur daily at transfer stations and recycling centers. So that is not it.

And it isn’t that these items themselves are so priceless. Sure, a piano is price something. But we see them blowing up in motion movies on a regular basis and we do not feel bad. I like pianos, but that doesn’t suggest we will not do with no few old, unused pianos. Same with the remainder: it’s mostly junk that you could buy on Craigslist for a couple of bucks or on the dump without spending a dime. (Maybe not an assembly station.)

The problem is not with the movie itself, which, considering the individuals who shot and shot it, is actually thoroughly made. The problem is not the media, however the message.

We all understand the supposed point of promoting: you’ll be able to do all of it on an iPad. Great. Of course, we could also do that on the last iPad, but this one is thinner (by the best way, nobody asked for it; now the cases don’t fit on this case) and by some imaginary percentage higher.

But what all of us understand, because unlike Apple’s promoting executives, is that the world we live in is that the things that get fragmented here represent material, tangible, and real. And what is true has value. A worth that Apple clearly believes it may possibly crush into one other black mirror.

This belief is disgusting to me. And apparently for a lot of others as well.

Destruction of the piano within the music video Or MythBusters episode it is actually an act of creation. Even destroying a piano (or monitor, paint can, or drum set) for no reason is wasteful at worst!

But Apple is destroying these items – all you would like is a small device from the corporate that may do all this and more, and doesn’t need annoying things like strings, keys, buttons, brushes or mixing stations.

We are all coping with the results of the mass shift of media towards digital and all the time online technology. In some ways it’s really good! I feel technology has played an enormous role.

But from one other, equally real viewpoint, the digital transformation seems harmful and compelled – a technotopic, billionaire-approved vision of a future during which every child has a man-made intelligence best friend and may learn to play a virtual guitar on a chilly glass screen.

Does your child like music? They don’t need a harp, throw it within the trash. An iPad is enough. Do they like painting? Here’s Apple Pencil, pretty much as good as pens, watercolors, oils! Books? Don’t make us laugh! Destroy them. The paper is worthless, use one other screen. In fact, why not read in Apple Vision Pro, on even faker paper?

Apple seems to forget that it’s things in the actual world – the very things that Apple destroyed – that give value to fake versions of those things in the primary place.

A virtual guitar is not going to replace an actual guitar; it’s like considering that a book can replace the creator.

That doesn’t suggest we will not value each for various reasons. But Apple’s ad sends the message that the long run it wants won’t include paint bottles, knobs to show, sculptures, physical instruments or paper books. Of course, this is the long run he has been working on for us for years, he just didn’t put it so bluntly before.

When someone tells you who they’re, imagine them. Apple is very clear about what it is and what the long run needs to be. If this future doesn’t gross you out, you are welcome.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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