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Apple CEO Tim Cook in Austin, Texas, on November 20, 2019.


Epic's CEO sent Apple a 2 a.m. declaration of war over 'Fortnite':
'Epic will no longer adhere to Apple's payment processing restrictions'.

* New documents show that the bitter legal battle between Apple and the developer behind "Fortnite" was set up hours before the fight went public, with an email that declared war.

* In a new legal filing, Apple revealed that Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney sent a 2 a.m. email on August 13 to Apple CEO Tim Cook and other execs.

* "I'm writing to tell you that Epic will no longer adhere to Apple's payment processing restrictions," Sweeney said. "We choose to follow this path in the firm belief that history and law are on our side."

* Hours after the email was sent, Epic updated the wildly popular game "Fortnite" on Apple and Android smartphones that allowed players to bypass the companies' digital payment systems.

* In response, Apple and Google pulled "Fortnite" from their digital storefronts and cited the update as a terms-of-service violation — which caused Epic to sue both companies.


Apple and "Fortnite" maker Epic Games are in the opening stages of a heated legal battle, which started with "Fortnite" being pulled from Apple's iPhone and iPad App Store last week.

In the latest legal filing, Apple revealed a email sent by Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney at 2 a.m. PT on August 13, 2020, to Apple CEO Tim Cook and several other Apple executives. Sweeney in the email laid out Epic's plan to cut Apple out of payments in "Fortnite" on iPhone and iPad.

"I'm writing to tell you that Epic will no longer adhere to Apple's payment processing restrictions," Sweeney wrote. "Today, Epic is launching Epic direct payments in 'Fortnite' on iOS, offering customers the choice of paying in-app through Epic direct payments or through Apple payments, and passing on the savings of Epic direct payments to customers in the form of lower prices."

This was not Sweeney's first email to Apple executives about the App Store's treatment of "Fortnite." The court records show that on June 30 Sweeney requested Apple allow a "competing Epic Games Store app" to be available on the App Store so "consumers would have an opportunity to pay less for digital products and developers would earn more from their sales."

Apple declined, which then led to Epic's move to circumvent Apple's App Store a month and a half later. Sweeney said he knew this would violate the App Store's agreement with Epic Games, according to the letter, but proceeded regardless because of "the firm belief that history and law are on our side."

Following the update to "Fortnite" that included the ability to pay Epic directly, Apple removed the game from the store and nixed Epic's developer contract. Instead of buying in-game virtual money ("V-bucks") through Apple or Google, players could buy it directly from Epic — at a discount, no less.

Apple and Google said the update was a terms-of-service violation for any developer with an app on the App Store or Google Play.

Future updates to the game aren't allowed, and there is no way to download it unless you've previously downloaded it to your Apple account. When the game's next major content update arrives on August 27, "Fortnite" players on iPhone and iPad will be left behind.

After Epic filed a lawsuit against Apple last week, the company followed up by filing for a temporary restraining order against Apple to keep the company from "removing, de-listing, refusing to list or otherwise making unavailable the app 'Fortnite,' including any update thereof."

For its part, Apple says the issue is Epic's to fix.

"We very much want to keep the company as part of the Apple Developer Program and their apps on the Store," a representative told Business Insider earlier this week. "The problem Epic has created for itself is one that can easily be remedied if they submit an update of their app that reverts it to comply with the guidelines they agreed to and which apply to all developers."

Read the full email exchange dating back to June 30, 2020: On their website.



Source: businessinsider.com
Website: https://bit.ly/2FX8Z3T
Date: August 21, 2020

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[Video cannot be displayed. Click on the link below to view.]
Gertrude the pig had the chip implanted two months ago.


Elon Musk has unveiled a pig called Gertrude with a coin-sized computer chip in her brain
to demonstrate his ambitious plans to create a working brain-to-machine interface.

"It's kind of like a Fitbit in your skull with tiny wires," the billionaire entrepreneur said on a webcast.

His start-up Neuralink applied to launch human trials last year.

The interface could allow people with neurological conditions to control phones or computers with their mind.

Mr Musk argues such chips could eventually be used to help cure conditions such as dementia, Parkinson's disease and spinal cord injuries.

But the long-term ambition is to usher in an age of what Mr Musk calls "superhuman cognition", in part to combat artificial intelligence so powerful he says it could destroy the human race.

* Elon Musk reveals brain-hacking plans.

Gertrude was one of three pigs in pens that took part in Friday's webcast demo. She took a while to get going, but when she ate and sniffed straw, the activity showed up on a graph tracking her neural activity. She then mostly ignored all the attention around her.

The processor in her brain sends wireless signals, indicating neural activity in her snout when looking for food.

[Cannot Display Video: Meet Elon Musk, the man who inspired Robert Downey Jr's take on Iron Man.]

Mr Musk said the original Neuralink device, revealed just over a year ago, had been simplified and made smaller.

"It actually fits quite nicely in your skull. It could be under your hair and you wouldn't know."

Founded in 2017, Neuralink has worked hard to recruit scientists, something Mr Musk was still advertising for on Twitter last month and which he said was the purpose of Friday's demo.

Getting the human brain to communicate with machines is an ambitious goal.

The device the company is developing consists of a tiny probe containing more than 3,000 electrodes attached to flexible threads thinner than a human hair, which can monitor the activity of 1,000 brain neurons.

Ahead of the webcast, Ari Benjamin, at the University of Pennsylvania's Kording Lab, had told BBC News the real stumbling block for the technology could be the sheer complexity of the human brain.

"Once they have the recordings, Neuralink will need to decode them and will someday hit the barrier that is our lack of basic understanding of how the brain works, no matter how many neurons they record from.

"Decoding goals and movement plans is hard when you don't understand the neural code in which those things are communicated."

Mr Musk's companies SpaceX and Tesla have captured the public imagination with his attempts to drive progress in spaceflight and electric vehicles respectively.

But both also demonstrate the entrepreneur's habit of making bold declarations about projects that end up taking much longer to complete than planned.



Source: bbc.com
Website: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53956683
Date: August 29, 2020

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Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan are donating $300 million to promote safe voting in the 2020 election


Mark Zuckerberg (right) and Priscilla Chan.

* Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan are donating $300 million towards infrastructure to carry out the 2020 presidential election.

* $250 million will go towards nonprofit The Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) to fund staffing, training, and equipment in local jurisdictions.

* $50 million is going to nonprofit The Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR) to help secure voting.



Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan on Tuesday revealed they are donating $300 million to try to help people vote in the 2020 presidential election.

The news was unveiled by the groups benefiting from the donation, The Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) and The Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR).

The CTCL will receive the majority of the money ($250 million), which it says it will redistribute to local election jurisdictions to: "help ensure that they have the staffing, training, and equipment necessary so that this November every eligible voter can participate in a safe and timely way and that their vote is counted."

The CEIR will receive the remaining $50 million, which will be spent on helping local jurisdictions secure their voting data.

"Due to the unprecedented challenges COVID-19 will have on voting across the country, election officials are working around the clock to make sure that every voter has the ability to participate safely and have their vote counted," Zuckerberg and Chan said in a joint statement.

"Many counties and states are strapped financially and working to determine how to staff and fund operations that will allow for ballots to be cast and counted in a timely way. These donations will help to provide local and state officials across the country with the resources, training and infrastructure necessary to ensure that every voter who intends to cast a ballot is able to, and ultimately, to preserve the integrity of our elections," the couple added.

This donation is the latest display by Zuckerberg to indicate he cares about election integrity. Facebook launched a tool in August aimed at promoting accurate voting information, and according to an August 24 New York Times report Zuckerberg has met with Facebook deputies to discuss the possibility of implementing a "kill switch" to shut down political advertising after November 3 to head off any potential misinformation.

The company faced fierce criticism in May after Trump posted misinformation claiming mail-in votes would be fraudulent on Facebook and Twitter. Twitter added fact-checks to the post, whereas Facebook chose to leave it untouched. In July the company started adding labels to all posts about voting from officials and political candidates, including the president.

Harming election integrity has a sore point for Facebook ever since the Cambridge Analytica scandal and revelations of Russian election interference in the 2016 presidential election.



Source: businessinsider.com
Website: https://www.businessinsider.com/mark...lection-2020-9
Date: September 1, 2020

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Digital giant says it will stop users of Facebook and Instagram sharing local
and international news if new law proposed by competition watchdog is approved


img source nypost.com

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The social media platform has said it would stop users
sharing news on Facebook and Instagram if Australia’s new digital platform rules become law.

Facebook will block Australians from sharing news if a landmark plan to make digital platforms pay for news content becomes law, the digital giant has warned.

The sharing of personal content between family and friends will not be affected and neither will the sharing of news by Facebook users outside of Australia, the social network said.

The mandatory news code has been backed by all the major media companies including News Corp Australia, Nine Entertainment and Guardian Australia, as a way to offset the damage caused by the loss of advertising revenue to Facebook and Google.

“Assuming this draft code becomes law, we will reluctantly stop allowing publishers and people in Australia from sharing local and international news on Facebook and Instagram,” the managing director of Facebook Australia & New Zealand Will Easton said in a blog post on Tuesday.

“This is not our first choice – it is our last. But it is the only way to protect against an outcome that defies logic and will hurt, not help, the long-term vibrancy of Australia’s news and media sector.”

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the government would continue with the legislation and did not respond to “coercion or heavy-handed threats”.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair Rod Sims said Facebook’s threat was ill-timed and misconceived.

“The draft media bargaining code aims to ensure Australian news businesses, including independent, community and regional media, can get a seat at the table for fair negotiations with Facebook and Google,” Sims said.

“Facebook already pays some media for news content. The code simply aims to bring fairness and transparency to Facebook and Google’s relationships with Australian news media businesses.

“We note that according to the University of Canberra’s 2020 Digital News Report, 39% of Australians use Facebook for general news, and 49% use Facebook for news about COVID-19.

“As the ACCC and the Government work to finalise the draft legislation, we hope all parties will engage in constructive discussions.”

Tuesday’s statement marked the company’s first comment since Google also took an aggressive approach to the looming legislation, although the search giant has stopped short of saying it would block search functions in Australia.

The director of the the Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology, Peter Lewis, said Facebook is prepared to remove trusted journalism from its site but will allow disinformation and conspiracy theories to flourish.

“As a big advertising company, Facebook would do well to realise its success is only as strong as its network of users,” Lewis said.

“Bullying their elected representatives seems a strange way to build long-term trust.

The announcement blindsided Australian media following a long silence from Facebook in Australia. Facebook chose to brief American journalists ahead of the release of the news about the ban, while ignoring Australian media.

Sources said the targeting of the US media indicated Facebook’s main concern was that the mandatory code set an “international precedent”.

Nine Entertainment, publisher of the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age, said Facebook’s “strange” response had demonstrated its use of its monopoly power “while failing to recognise the importance of reliable news content to balance the fake news that proliferates on their platform”.

“We are ready to engage and hope to come to a constructive outcome with Facebook which will work for both of us and importantly the Australian community,” a Nine spokeswoman said.

Facebook said the competition regulator “misunderstands the dynamics of the internet” and will damage the media companies it is trying to protect with the bargaining code which would see Google and Facebook sharing some of the revenue they get from advertising using news content.

“When crafting this new legislation, the commission overseeing the process ignored important facts, most critically the relationship between the news media and social media and which one benefits most from the other.”

Easton denied the ACCC’s claim that the digital giants make money from news, saying “the reverse is true” in the case of Facebook.

He said in the first five months of 2020 Facebook sent two billion clicks from Facebook’s News Feed back to Australian news websites “at no charge”, traffic that was worth an estimated $200m to Australian publishers.

In the incendiary post Facebook branded the scheme devised by the ACCC as one which allowed publishers to “charge us for as much content as they want at a price with no clear limits”. The statement had some support, including from billionaire tech mogul Mike Cannon-Brookes who said media would be the loser not Facebook.

In a separate post, the vice president of global news partnerships for Facebook, Campbell Brown, said the company’s commitment to journalism had not changed and listed the projects Facebook had launched globally.

“And we hope to once again count Australian news publishers among our partners in the future,” Brown said.

Brown said the company was “disappointed” by the outcome in Australia which did not produce regulation which helped the relationships between technology companies and news organisations but one which hindered it.

Facebook told users it was updating its terms of reference next month, apparently to include the ban on Australians sharing news. The new line in the terms is: “We also can remove or restrict access to your content, services or information if we determine that doing so is reasonably necessary to avoid or mitigate adverse legal or regulatory impacts to Facebook”.

The minister for communications Paul Fletcher said Facebook’s statement was a reminder that the tech giants had a history of making heavy-handed threats and the government remained committed to the mandatory code.

The commercial TV lobby group accused Facebook of bullying.

“What we’re seeing today is a global monopoly that will say and do anything to avoid making a fair payment for news content, Free TV Australia chief executive Bridget Fair said: “Australian Facebook users are being held to ransom as a tactic to intimidate the Australian Government into backing down on this issue.”



Source: theguardian.com
Website: https://www.theguardian.com/media/20...ULnf_fBwTERfmI
Date: September 1, 2020

[C0LLETTE]

[QUOTE=PlatinumPearl;1274088][CENTER][B]Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan are donating $300 million to promote safe voting in the 2020 election

Be nice if they donated 2-3 Billion....they can afford it and it would indicate their sincerity and commitment.

Zuckerberg donating 300 Million at his level of income is equivalent to me donating $100 at mine.

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Netflix offering free catalogue of original content to non-subscribers worldwide.

The content includes Oscar-nominated 'The Two Popes' and 'BirdBox'.

img arresteddevelopment.fandom.com/wiki/Netflix

Netflix is currently offering a free catalogue of its original content to non-subscribers worldwide in the hopes of attracting new users.

The content includes Stranger Things, Murder Mystery, Elite, Boss Baby: Back in Business, Birdbox, When They See Us, Love is Blind, The Two Popes, Our Planet and Grace and Frankie.

There is a catch, the streaming service is only offering the first episodes of the TV shows for free, after which you’ll be asked to sign-up for the service. You can watch the full-length of the movies, but there’s a 30-second skippable ad that will pop-up before it plays.

Further, the free previews are only accessible through web browsers and the Netflix Android app, and not the iOS app, unfortunately. It’s unknown why this is the case.

“Netflix is the premiere destination for all your entertainment needs. But don’t take our word for it–check out some of our favourite movies and TV shows, absolutely free,” the streaming giant notes on the catalogue page.

Netflix hasn’t stated how long this free catalogue will be available to non-subscribers, but notes that the selection may change from time to time.

It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time Netflix has offered some of its original content for free, since it made To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before free for non-subscribers in Canada and U.S. ahead of the release of the sequel earlier this year.

However, this is the first time that Netflix has released an entire catalogue for users around the world to access without signing up. You can access it here.



Source: mobilesyrup.com
Website: https://mobilesyrup.com/2020/08/31/n...n-subscribers/
Date: August 31, 2020