Thoughts Unboxed

The inevitable has happened. Apple has finally come under serious scrutiny from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) after the latter has sued the company for illegal monopoly over the smartphone market. The lawsuit is filed by the Justice Department alongside 16 other state and district attorney generals. The lawsuit alleges Apple has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act by monopolizing or attempting to monopolize the smartphone market. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, accuses Apple of maintaining a monopoly over smartphones through contractual restrictions on developers and withholding critical access points. Apple's actions hinder the development of apps, products, and services that could reduce reliance on iPhone, promote interoperability, and lower costs. The company leverages its monopoly power to extract more money from consumers, developers, and various other entities. The Justice Departm

Much to my envy, a site I had long hoped to set up was established this week. I often wondered why there was no "Killed by Microsoft" counterpart to Google's "Killed by Google," and the wait is finally over. Launched by Victor Frye, the Microsoft Graveyard is an open-source compilation showcasing discontinued Microsoft-made software and hardware. It's worth noting that the site has no affiliations with Microsoft itself. According to the developer, the website is a "passion project" born out of a fondness for many of these products that met an untimely end. Among them are some of the recent casualties including WordPad , Visual Studio for Mac , Cortana , Windows Phone alongside some late distant memories like ASP.Net Web Matrix, Microsoft Bob, Windows Vista and Zune. The Microsoft Graveyard encourages contributions as it's an open-source project hosted on GitHub . You are welcome to add missing items, correct typos, suggest improveme

Microsoft's Katie Savage - The Program Manager DevDiv Community - have announced the release of a new foundational C# certification in collaboration with freeCodeCamp - a charity based organization that creates free learning resources for Math, Computer Science and Programming. Speaking about the significance of the certification, she said:   Our Foundational C# Certification provides just that — a testament to the time and effort you’ve invested in mastering this versatile language. While no certification can guarantee a job, adding this to your portfolio demonstrates your commitment to continuous growth and your proficiency in C#. Partnering with the esteemed freeCodeCamp, our certification is not just a badge, but a mark of quality education. It’s comprehensive, globally accessible, and free. This ensures that learners everywhere can benefit from a robust C# training on Microsoft Learn.   The Foundational C# Certification is available completely free of cost worldwide. To fac

Short-term attention spans are getting more common and it is infiltrating our day to day activities. Someone could be a hero one day followed by becoming a villain the next day. Soon after the takeover by Elon Musk, X( formerly Twitter) caught itself into a myriad of controversies and is fighting some of them to this day. Those controversies sparked a concerted efforts towards finding an alternative to micro-blogging platform. Most of it was based on the controversial figure that Elon Musk is and to the new policies he had been introducing to the platform since then. Instagram's Threads tried to take advantage of one such moment to give a knock-out punch to perhaps the only other viable competitor to Meta in the social media space - X (formerly Twitter). And its success topped the charts initially again, showing the immense level of short-term attention span of the society in general. Meta itself has been perceived as a Villa

Atari once was among the competing gaming consoles. But that part is now a history. However, seems like the group currently holding the rights to Atari brand has something up its sleeves. The official X account from the group that holds the rights to the Atari Video Game brand has shared a teaser video that looks like a classic Atari Console. The unveil will happen on Tuesday, August 22nd.  Incoming… 👀 pic.twitter.com/IrjDsejlvI — Atari (@atari) August 21, 2023   Analysis Going by the teaser video, seems like we may be getting a retro Atari Console. There are some speculations Atari may be announcing a DLC pack for the recently released 50-games pack for XBox, PlayStation and Switch. It may also be about the new Rollercoaster Tycoons title considering Atari secured a 10-year IP deal for the game. However, Atari may pull the biggest surprise of the year by announcing a completely new gaming console to enter the Gaming Console Arena. We won't have to

If you've installed AdBlocker to skip those pesky YouTube ads, brace yourself for some unfortunate news! YouTube has been intensifying its battle against AdBlockers, and recently, reports have emerged from Reddit users about an intrusive popup notification. This pop-up warns users that their access to videos will be blocked if they persist in using adblockers. Within this warning, viewers are presented with three options: 1. Disable Adblocker 2. Add YouTube to the whitelist 3. Subscribe to YouTube Premium for an ad-free experience     Adding a sense of urgency, a countdown timer is displayed at the top right corner of the popup, indicating the time left for users to make their decision. Users have reported it being 30-60 seconds long. This development marks the next phase in YouTube's strategy to steer consumers towards either paying for a premium experience or enduring a suboptimal ad-laden journey. This new popup progression follows a prior phase in which users were informed

Holiday season is typically a busy season for shoppers, but right now, it's a busy season for the corporate lawyers across the technology industry. We have seen a ton of high-profile lawsuits over the past few months and now, Apple has been dragged into one as well. Daniel Ackerman, Editor-in-Chief of Gizmodo and author of "The Tetris Effect," has initiated legal proceedings against Apple and other parties associated with the Tetris Movie. Ackerman alleges that the movie has unlawfully appropriated elements from his work, "The Tetris Effect." Published in 2016, Ackerman's "The Tetris Effect" seamlessly intertwines historical events with his personal research. The lawsuit contends that the movie improperly borrows from his work, particularly framing the game's release within the context of a "Cold War spy thriller." According to the lawsuit: The movie entitled "Tetris" demonstrated the confiscation of Dan

Apple has released its financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2023, ending on July 1, 2023. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $81.8 billion, down 1 percent year over year, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $1.26, up 5 percent year over year.   Let's dive into the numbers and analyze the performance of the company during this period. Revenue Overview Overall, Apple's revenues for the quarter were $81.797 billion, showing a slight decrease compared to $82.959 billion from the same period last year. This marks the third consecutive quarter with a year-on-year revenue decline for the company. Net Income Growth Despite the slight dip in revenues, Apple's net income for the quarter experienced a modest increase, reaching $19.881 billion, compared to $19.442 billion during the same period in the previous year. Revenue Breakdown by Product Categories Despite breakdown of the revenue by product categories, Apple doesn't provi

Amazon Clinic, the virtual message and video based medical consultation service from Amazon for more than 30 common health conditions has gone mainstream. The company announced the availability of the service across all 50 states and Washington DC in a blog post by Dr. Nworah Ayogu - Chief Medical Officer and General Manager of Amazon Clinic. In the post, Dr. Nworah Ayogu said: Last November, we introduced Amazon Clinic , a virtual health care marketplace that makes it easy for customers to quickly get the care they need for more than 30 common health concerns like urinary tract infections, pink eye, and erectile dysfunction.   He further said that the customers who have taken advantage of the trail service are generally satisfied with the service giving it a 96% approval rating. He also shared Amazon Clinic reviews: I woke up with pink eye and had prescription eye drops called in to my pharmacy within 15 minutes. I had the eye drops in ha

Samsung is gearing up for the second part of its highly-anticipated bi-annual Unpacked event, scheduled for July 27th at 7AM ET. The first part of this event took place back in February when Samsung unveiled its impressive S23 lineup alongside the Galaxy Book series, including the flagship Galaxy Book3 Ultra. However, the absence of the Galaxy Tab S9 series left fans eager for more. The upcoming event has been teased with the tagline "Join the Flip Side" in Samsung's marketing material, heavily hinting at the launch of the next generation of foldables, which includes the Galaxy Flip5 and Galaxy Fold5.    How to Watch the Event? The Galaxy Unpacked event will be live-streamed on Samsung's official website , as well as their YouTube account . For your convenience, we have included a direct link to the live stream in this post, so you can easily tune in and catch all the action. Here is the timings for various regions: 7:00 AM Eastern Time (ET) 4:00 AM Pacific T

According to information from undisclosed insiders, Microsoft has ceased production of the Surface Duo 2, as reported by Windows Central. Although a limited number of devices might still be available at select retailers, no new units will be manufactured. While the phone is slated to receive Android security updates until at least October 2024, prospects for further Android OS updates, specifically beyond 12L, appear highly doubtful. Windows Central's attempts to obtain comments from Microsoft regarding their intentions to update the phone to Android 13 or the subsequent Android 14 have been unsuccessful. In addition to this, Windows Central's report suggests that a "majority" of the software team for the Surface Duo 2 has been reassigned to work on the Android version of Teams Rooms. Earlier this year, online reports claimed that Microsoft had abandoned plans to make the Surface Duo 3, and had instead decided to work on a true foldable phone. However, there has been

Magenta carrier T-Mobile has recently implemented several changes to its service offerings, affecting various aspects of its accounts. One area that has been impacted is the auto-pay discount available to users. This discount provides credits for each line when users set up automatic bill payments. While the change was announced some time ago, it is now gradually rolling out to more users. Change Details Many users have begun receiving texts and emails requesting them to update their auto-pay method or risk losing their auto-pay discounts. Please refer to the attached screenshot for an example of the email notification.      New Requirements Moving forward, T-Mobile will only consider debit cards and bank accounts as valid payment methods for receiving auto-pay discounts. Any other payment method will void the auto-pay discount.  Concerns While T-Mobile claims that this change is intended to benefit customers, some speculate that it might be primarily aimed at avoid

The Reddit Saga continues to generate attention in the blogosphere, but unfortunately, not for positive reasons. In what can only be described as a devastating blow to Reddit moderators, the CEO has unleashed a formidable weapon in an attempt to quell the protest against API policies — forced eviction . In an interview with NBC News, the Reddit CEO stated his intention to implement changes that would enable users of a Reddit community to vote out the moderators, effectively weaponizing the very communities these moderators have dedicated countless hours to build and maintain.   Reddit clarified its stance in a fact sheet released on Thursday , stating that it is "not shutting down discussions or unilaterally reopening communities." The admin account u/ModCodeOfConduct also commented on the moderator removal policy, stating: If a moderator team unanimously decides to stop moderating, we will invite new, active moderators to keep t

On Monday, Reddit experienced an outage coinciding with a protest by thousands of subreddits against the site's new API pricing terms. Reddit attributed the issues to a significant number of subreddits going private, causing expected stability problems. The blackout was resolved by 12:28 PM CT.  The problems began in the morning, affecting Reddit's desktop and mobile sites as well as its native mobile apps. Although some subreddits were accessible during the outage, Reddit.com failed to load. Downdetector recorded around 43,000 user reports of issues at the peak, but the reports have since decreased. A Twitch stream tracking the number of subreddits going private in protest was also affected but has returned to normal. Over 7,900 subreddits have gone private or read-only in response to the API pricing changes, leading apps like Apollo for Reddit to announce their shutdown by the end of the month. The new pricing structure would b

Twitter's new CEO, Linda Yaccarino , has officially entered the arena!. In her first memo titled "Building Twitter 2.0 Together," she emphasizes the need to transform Twitter into a "global town square," aligning with Elon Musk's vision for the company. Yaccarino recognizes the successful transformations led by Musk in industries such as space exploration and electric vehicles, and she highlights that Twitter's global town square also requires a similar level of transformation. Her memo emphasizes the importance of facilitating unfiltered information exchange and open dialogue on topics that matter most for driving civilization forward. Here is the complete memo: Building Twitter 2.0 Together     Hello Twitter! People keep asking me: Why Twitter? So, I’ll tell you. From space exploration to electric vehicles, Elon knew these industries needed transformation, so he did it. More recently it has become

Apple's highly anticipated WWDC event is just around the corner, and the excitement is mounting as the company unveils the finalists for the prestigious Apple Design Awards 2023. This annual event, which originally started as the Human Interface Design Excellence Award (HIDE) in 1997, aims to honor the most groundbreaking apps and games designed specifically for Apple products. The diverse range of apps and games that have made it to the finals are organized into distinct categories, highlighting their unique qualities and contributions. Let's take a closer look at each category and its respective finalists:   Inclusivity Finalists in this category provide a great experience for all by supporting people from a diversity of backgrounds, abilities, and languages.    Anne    Universe — Website Builder    Passenger Assistance    stich.    Ancient Board Game Collection    Finding Hannah   Delight and Fun Finalists in this category provide memorable, engaging, and satisfying exper

  Apple's upcoming WWDC conference in 2023 is set to bring a significant innovation to its voice assistant, Siri. Instead of the familiar "Hey Siri" command, Apple plans to simplify the activation by using just "Siri." This change aims to enhance user convenience and streamline the interaction. However, this modification comes with its challenges. Apple needs to teach Siri to understand different languages, accents, and dialects accurately. The goal is to ensure that Siri responds effectively to user commands, regardless of linguistic variations. It must be noted Apple has prohibited the use of ChatGPT and other AI assistant tools.   Alongside the trigger phrase update, Apple aims to expand Siri's compatibility with third-party apps and services. This move will enhance Siri's overall functionality and broaden its capabilities. Apple is also investing in the development of Siri's language abilities through a framework called Siri Natural Language Gene

Elizabeth Holmes, the former CEO of Theranos, officially commenced her prison sentence on May 30, 2023, marking a significant turning point in the highly publicized case that captivated the business and tech world. Holmes, who founded Theranos—a blood-testing startup once valued at nearly $10 billion—was once hailed as a visionary akin to Steve Jobs. However, she has now been found guilty of multiple counts of fraud and conspiracy in relation to her ill-fated venture. After a closely watched trial, Holmes was convicted on multiple charges and sentenced to 11 years and 3 months in prison, representing a stern reckoning for her deceptive practices. The downfall of Theranos, which initially promised groundbreaking advancements in blood testing but was ultimately built on false claims, serves as a stark reminder of the severe consequences of corporate fraud and the risks associated with unwavering trust in charismatic leaders. In addition to Holmes, Sun

In a highly anticipated move, TikTok has taken decisive action against Montana's recent law that seeks to ban its app within the state's borders. The company has filed a federal lawsuit against the state, marking a significant response to the legislation set to take effect on January 1st, 2024. The crux of TikTok's lawsuit centers around the belief that the ban infringes upon the fundamental right to free speech, constituting unconstitutional censorship. TikTok argues that the state's prohibition violates the First Amendment by unlawfully restricting core freedoms. TikTok firmly refutes the concerns expressed by Montana regarding potential data access by Chinese officials and the exposure of harmful content. The company's legal representatives dismiss the Montana law as an "extraordinary and unprecedented measure driven solely by unfounded speculation." According to a TikTok spokesperson,  We are challenging

Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) is one of the most hotly anticipated tech events of the year. Sometimes, it would correct the direction of the entire tech industry. The other times, it would convince the world they need another gadget in their lives. Not only media, fans and users look forward to this event, rivals also keep a deep tap on what would come out of Cupertino. It usually is a restless time for everyone until the Keynote is delivered. For the past few years, WWDC has been a bit muted if not outright meh. Except for Apple's in-house silicon announcement for Macs, there isn't anything major that has come out of Cupertino in almost a decade. Things may very well change this time around. The rumor mill is in full swing, especially surrounding Apple’s Mixed Reality Headset. Will Apple enter the nascent arena and create a completely new stream of revenue for Apple, or would it become one