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Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has ruled that Apple violated her own ruling back in 2021 on the lawsuit Epic Games filed against Apple a year before. Now, it's ordering (PDF) Apple to stop collecting commissions on purchases that weren't paid through the App Store effective immediately. In 2021, Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Apple did not hold an App Store monopoly. However, she also said that the company must allow developers to direct users to other payment systems that would let them bypass the 30 percent commission fee it collects from App Store purchases. In a legal filing by Epic Games last year, it accused Apple of non-compliance, since it still took a 27 percent cut for purchases made outside the App Store and even showed users pop-up screens warning them that paying outside its own store may not be secure. For members of the iOS Small Business Program, it took a smaller 12 percent commission. But the judge explained in her new ruling that Apple wasn't supposed to collect any fee at all. "Apple sought to maintain a revenue stream worth billions in direct defiance of this courts injunction," she said. In addition to prohibiting Apple from collecting fees for external purchases, she also barred the company from showing users "scare screens" discouraging them from using third-party payment systems. She prohibited Apple from creating rules that would prevent developers from presenting customers with buttons and links for external payments, as well. Apple said it will pursue an appeal, but that it will comply with the court's orders. "We strongly disagree with the decision. We will comply with the court's order and we will appeal," an Apple spokesperson told The New York Times. In her ruling, Rogers said that the documents Apple submitted last year showed that App Store lead Phil Schiller advocated for the company to stop collecting fees on web links during a 2023 meeting. But Apple's former Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri convinced Tim Cook otherwise. Cook also asked his people to revise the scare screen for web links "to reference the fact that Apples privacy and security standards do not apply to purchases made on the web. Apple knew exactly what it was doing and "at every turn chose the most anticompetitive option," Gonzalez Rogers wrote. Further the company's Vice-President of Finance, Alex Roman, allegedly lied under oath to hide the truth. Thus, the judge has asked the US attorney for the Northern District of California to investigate Apple and Roman for criminal contempt. In a tweet, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney announced that it will bring back Fortnite for iOS in the US next week. He also promised to return Fortnite to the App Store worldwide and to drop any lawsuit covering the issue if Apple applies a commission-free tax-free payment framework everywhere. We will return Fortnite to the US iOS App Store next week.Epic puts forth a peace proposal: If Apple extends the court's friction-free, Apple-tax-free framework worldwide, we'll return Fortnite to the App Store worldwide and drop current and future litigation on the topic. https://t.co/bIRTePm0Tv Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) April 30, 2025 This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/court-orders-apple-to-stop-collecting-fees-for-purchases-made-outside-the-app-store-110036376.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
Fusing healthcare and residential architecture, traditional herbal medicine brand Saishunkan Pharmaceutical has unveiled Positive Age House, a home designed to enhance the body's self-healing capabilities. Developed in collaboration with building company Lib Work, the concept stems from Saishunkan's observation that Japanese people spend approximately two-thirds of their lives at home, making living environments crucial determinants of health outcomes.Rather than relying on technology, Saishunkan has applied its expertise in traditional medicine to create living spaces that stimulate the body's innate recovery mechanisms. Key features include a circadian lighting system that adjusts color temperature throughout the day to maintain biological rhythms, textured 'ripple flooring' that stimulates foot pressure points, and deliberate floor height differences that compel residents to exercise their joints as they move from one space to the next.WHY A HEALING HOME?Healthspan over lifespanPeople increasingly care less about just living longer and more about living well for longer physically, mentally and emotionally.Post-pandemic revaluation of the homeAfter forced time indoors, people realize their immediate surroundings deeply impact their mental and physical well-being.Shift from passive to proactive healthHealth isn't just about medicine or hospitals; it's about everyday lifestyle choices, like movement, light exposure, diet, and now, one's home.More nature, less techWhile technology brands push smart homes, the Positive Age House represents a counter trend of returning to nature, focusing on sunlight, airflow, wooden floors, circadian lighting and natural materials. (Related: the ultrarich are unplugging from smart homes.)
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Marketing and Advertising
One day after Meta rolled out its standalone AI app, Mark Zuckerberg has shared more about how the company plans to eventually monetize its generative AI assistant. During the companys first quarter earnings call, Zuckerberg said Meta AI could one day show ads and product recommendations. He also hinted at plans for a subscription component for those who want a more premium version of the assistant. "I think that there will be a large opportunity to show product recommendations or ads, as well as a premium service for people who want to unlock more compute for additional functionality or intelligence, Zuckerberg said. He added that for now the company is more focused on growing Meta AIs usage. (He announced yesterday that Meta Ai had reached almost 1 billion monthly users.) I expect that we're going to be largely focused on scaling and deepening engagement for at least the next year before we'll really be ready to start building out the business here, he said. Zuckerbergs comments just one day after Meta introduced its standalone AI app underscores how important the assistant is to the company. The Facebook founder has repeatedly said he wants Meta AI to be the most used AI assistant in the world, and he said on Wednesdays call that a standalone app would be particularly important for attracting US users. Metas strategy for monetizing the assistant in many ways mirrors its approach to Threads, which only just began expanding its early experiments with ads this month long after it reached hundreds of millions of users. Speaking of Threads, Zuckerberg also shared some new milestones for Threads, saying that text-based app now has 350 million monthly active users and that time spent on the platform has increased 35 percent over the last six months thanks to improvements to the companys recommendations systems. Later in the call, Metas CFO Susan Li shared that the company has also been testing its Llama model to power Threads recommendations and that the addition of the large language model has led to a 4 percent increase in time spent. It remains early here, but a big focus this year will be on exploring how we can deploy this for other content types, including photos and videos, she said.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-is-a-mulling-ads-and-a-premium-version-of-its-ai-assistant-mark-zuckerberg-says-225202560.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
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