Google

During Google I/O 2022, Apple was indirectly referenced in a not-so-subtle jab over its lack of RCS support for iPhone users. RCS, or Rich Communication Services, is the modern upgrade to SMS texting that Apple leapfrogged with iMessage over a decade ago.

The UK antitrust body that last year decided that Apple and Google have too much power is itself set to be denied the legal powers it expected to be given.

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) expected to be granted what is known as statutory powers, but it’s today being reported that the government has shelved this plan …

We learned last month that Apple was tricked into releasing personal data to hackers, after they posed as law enforcement officials with emergency data requests. A follow-up report reveals that some of this data was used to sexually extort minors.

The latest report also sheds light on how the hackers were able to fool Apple and other tech giants, including Facebook, Google, Snap, Twitter, and Discord …

A new Japanese antitrust report into the smartphone market has raised the possibility of new legislation intended to reduce the dominance of Apple and Google. It calls for multiple app stores for each platform.

Additionally, it suggests that the preinstallation of Apple and Google’s own web browsers on smartphones means that competitor apps are disadvantaged …

Google has announced plans for blocking cross-app tracking on Android phones, following Apple’s lead on iPhones, claims a new report today.

However, there are a number of problems with the report, suggesting it may be a case of ‘The headline giveth, and the small print taketh away’ …

South Korea has stated that it is still not satisfied with Apple’s App Store plans to comply with a new antitrust law requiring developers to be able to choose third-party payment platforms.

The regulator has also expressed concern at Google’s plans, which include just a 4% reduction in the company’s app store commission if a developer uses a different payment processor …

Apple’s ecosystem is perhaps the most valuable asset the company possesses, after its brand, so eyebrows were raised when Google yesterday announced plans to replicate many of the key elements of that ecosystem.

While some Apple fans were outraged at what they saw as blatant copying of Apple features, my view is that this is good news for Android and iPhone users alike …

It’s an open secret that Google pays Apple a multibillion-dollar sum each year to be the default search engine on Apple devices. In other words, the search engine that is used when you simply type your search term into the combined address/search bar.

Neither company discloses the amount, leading to various estimates over the years. But a new class action lawsuit may reveal the actual sums …

Apple has been fined €10M ($11.3M) in Italy for what competition authorities say is the misuse of customer data. Google has been fined the same amount for the same thing.

It follows a $225M fine in the same country earlier this week for price fixing between Apple and Amazon …

The UK’s Supreme Court has thrown out a Google Safari workaround class action lawsuit in which iPhone owners could have received as much as £500 ($675) each.

The case alleged that Google breached the privacy of iPhone owners by secretly installing web cookies even after users had blocked them in Safari’s settings …

I’ve been using Google’s new flagship Pixel 6 phone for a little over a week now. It’s been quite a wild ride, if I do say so myself. Like I said in my first entry, I’ve owned a handful of Pixels and other Android devices over the years. But the Pixel 6 continues to surprise me in delightful ways that other devices running Google’s operating system haven’t. In this entry, I want to focus specifically on Material You, Google’s new design framework for allowing users to customize nearly every aspect of their Android experience.

Apple’s ad business has grown dramatically since the company’s App Tracking Transparency rules came into effect, says a new report.

The rules made it more difficult to target specific interest groups through third-party ad networks like those owned by Google and Facebook, making Apple’s own ad business far more valuable. But some suggest this is because the iPhone maker breaks its own privacy rules …

Although we tend to think of text messaging and SMS as synonyms, that’s not quite the case. SMS (short messaging service) is simply the original technical standard for text messages. In recent years, there’s been a drive to switch to RCS (rich communications services, or rich communications suite), a more sophisticated text messaging standard.

Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened, mostly due to the rivalry between Apple and Google, and that’s something Google wants to change …

An Apple Japanese antitrust investigation was closed last month, when the Cupertino company made a major concession. But just six weeks later, a new antitrust investigation has been opened in Japan, into the market dominance of iOS and Android.

The news comes on the same day that the Dutch antitrust authority found Apple’s in-app payment arrangements to be anti-competitive …

The zombie-like remains of bankrupt wearables company Jawbone is suing Apple for patent infringement. The claim relates to the noise-cancelling features used in AirPods Pro and AirPods Max models.

Jawbone was once a successful company in the wearables and audio business, with its fitness bands sold in Apple stores …

The Russian government introduced a new law specifically to outlaw this app. The law doesn’t come into force until November, but both Apple and Google have removed the app ahead of this.

Apple has been blackmailed into removing from the App Store a Russian tactical voting app, Navalny, which was designed to help voters support the opposition leader Aleksei Navalny.

Both Apple and Google have removed the app after specific company employees were threatened with “punishment” …

An Apple Watch has been on my wrist nearly every day since I took the first generation out of its box on launch day in April 2015. It quickly became an indispensable gadget, and I feel naked whenever it’s on its charger. watchOS went through a ton of changes during the first few releases, most notably with watchOS 3. Since then, it’s received a number of new apps and features but the user interface itself hasn’t quite been perfected. I’ve always attributed this to the lack of a real competitor. No one has been able to show off a better way to do things on a smartwatch. Now, nearly seven years after the Apple Watch was born, Google and Samsung have teamed up to build the first real competitive platform. Here’s what I think about it.