Spotify attacks Apple’s 27% commission fees, Apple Vision Pro reviewed
Spotify has launched an outspoken attack on new transaction fees of up to 27% being levied by Apple in the US. On Wednesday, Apple announced it would permit app developers to sell products in places other than its own store – but only if they still paid commission. Spotify said that was “outrageous” and accused Apple of “stopping at nothing” to protect its profits. It is urging the British government to prevent similar fees being levied in the UK. Apple has been approached for comment. BBC
Meta estimates about 100,000 children using Facebook and Instagram receive online sexual harassment each day, including “pictures of adult genitalia”, according to internal company documents made public late Wednesday. The unsealed legal filing includes several allegations against the company based on information the New Mexico attorney general’s office received from presentations by Meta employees and communications between staff. The Guardian
The Walt Disney Corporation has a lot of problems right now – from poorly performing films through activist shareholder Nelson Peltz trying to oust CEO Bob Iger to the copyright on Mickey Mouse’s debut film Steamboat Willie expiring, prompting at least two slasher horror flicks with Mickey slaughtering college kids out this year. But Iger is actually really excited – about a content deal with Apple’s incredibly expensive virtual reality headset Apple Vision Pro which starts pre-orders on January 19 and hits the shelves on February 2. Telegraph
Apple has let people back into its Vision Pro augmented reality headset, with just days ahead of its launch. The headset, which costs $3,499, will open for pre-orders on Friday. It will then go on sale on 2 February, though they are expected to be in short supply. As pre-orders open, however, few people have actually been able to wear the headset that Apple is asking the world to spend $3,499 on. The company gave some demonstrations immediately after it was released – including to The Independent
It’s clear that Samsung thinks AI is crucial to driving growth for premium devices. There couldn’t have been a more obvious indication than Samsung diving straight into the Galaxy AI features as the Unpacked event kicked off yesterday. It didn’t say anything about the new Galaxy S24 series and didn’t mention anything about its upgrades until almost half an hour into the event. It wanted the maximum attention for Galaxy AI, which is what the company calls its suite of AI features. SamMobile
A year after the launch of the Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD-1), the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) is revealing the highs and lows of the mission. SSPD-1 was the first space-borne prototype from Caltech’s Space Solar Power Project (SSPP) and was designed to show that taking solar power gathered in orbit and transmitting it back to Earth was not just a concept popular with science fiction authors. The testbed stopped communications with Earth on November 11, and while a commercially viable concept is still some way off, SSPD-1 has demonstrated that it does actually work. The Register
Japan hopes it is about to join an exclusive club of just four other nations that have successfully executed a “soft” landing on the moon. Its garden shed-sized Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, isn’t the biggest, or most ambitious robotic mission to our satellite – but it’s bidding to be the most precise when it attempts landing today. Japan’s space agency, JAXA, knows it won’t be easy. Sky News
