Sony sold its 25 millionth PS5 this quarter

Sony Group Corporation released its earnings report for thе fiscal quarter ending on September 30 and it reveals the company sold its 25 millionth PlayStation 5 console during the period. Sony reports 3.3 million PS5 console shipments for the July – September period and it expects to sell 18 million units in total for 2022 which would be a 56% increase compared to the 11.5 million PS5 sales for 2021. There were 45.4 million PlayStation Plus subscribers in FY Q2, which is 1.9 million fewer users than the same time last year. The Network Services sector which includes PlayStation Plus…

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New EU Law Could Force Apple to Allow Other App Stores, Sideloading, and iMessage Interoperability

New EU rules came into force today that could compel Apple to let users access third-party app stores and permit app sideloading on iPhones and iPads, among other sweeping changes designed to make the digital sector fairer and more competitive.



Under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the rules will apply to tech giants that meet its “gatekeeper” criteria and force them to open up their various services and platforms to other companies and developers.

Apple is almost certain to be classified as a “gatekeeper” due to the size of its annual turnover in the EU, its ownership and operation of platforms with a large number of active users, and its “entrenched and durable position” due to how long it has met these criteria, and will therefore be subject to the rules set out in the DMA.

The DMA could force Apple to make major changes to the way the App Store, Messages, FaceTime, and Siri work in Europe. For example, it could be forced to allow users to install third-party app stores and sideload apps, give developers the ability to closely interoperate with Apple’s own services and promote their offers outside the ‌‌App Store‌‌ and use third-party payment systems, and access data gathered by Apple.

One of the more recent additions to the DMA is the requirement to make messaging, voice-calling, and video-calling services interoperable. The interoperability rules theoretically mean that Meta apps like WhatsApp or Messenger could request to interoperate with Apple’s iMessage framework, and Apple would be forced to comply within the EU.

The DMA was proposed by the European Commission in December 2020 and agreed by the European Parliament and the Council in record-time, in March 2022. It now moves into a six-month implementation phase and will start to apply on May 2, 2023. After that, within two months and at the latest by July 3, 2023, potential gatekeepers will have to inform the Commission of their core platform services if they meet the thresholds established by the DMA.

Once the Commission has received the complete information, it will have 45 working days to make an assessment as to whether the company in question meets the thresholds and to designate them as gatekeepers. Following their designation, gatekeepers will have six months to comply with the requirements in the DMA, at the latest by March 6, 2024.

“The DMA will change the digital landscape profoundly,” said executive vice-president Margrethe Vestager in a statement accompanying a Commission press release. “With it, the EU is taking a pro-active approach to ensuring fair, transparent and contestable digital markets. A small number of large companies hold significant market power in their hands. Gatekeepers enjoying an entrenched position in digital markets will have to show that they are competing fairly. We invite all potential gatekeepers, their competitors or consumer organizations, to come and talk to us about how to best implement the DMA.”

If (or more likely, when) Apple is designated a gatekeeper, it will have to make major changes to its ‌iPhone‌ and ‌iPad‌ platforms to accommodate the requirements. In March, before the law was passed, Apple said it was “concerned that some provisions of the DMA will create unnecessary privacy and security vulnerabilities for our users.”

Apple is also facing similar legislation in the United States, with U.S. House lawmakers in June introducing antitrust bills that would result in major changes to the tech industry if passed.

This article, "New EU Law Could Force Apple to Allow Other App Stores, Sideloading, and iMessage Interoperability" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Oppo A17 arrives in Europe for €179, Orange color doesn’t make it

Oppo A17 arrived in South-East Asia earlier this year, and now the affordable smartphone is hitting Europe. The Helio G35-powered device was spotted in the Netherlands with a price tag of €179 in two colors – Blue and Black; the Orange design remains exclusive in India for now. The A17 is an entry-level smartphone with a 720p screen and a 5MP selfie shooter inside a waterdrop notch. There is a 50MP camera on the back, assisted by a 2MP depth sensor for better portrait shots. One feature that will make you rub your eye in disbelief is the micro USB port for charging the 5,000 mAh…

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Deals: iPad Air Available for $519.99 in Four Colors on Amazon ($79 Off)

Amazon today has Apple’s 2022 64GB Wi-Fi iPad Air for $519.99, down from $599.00. We first tracked this sale during Prime Early Access, and it’s an all-time low price on the new iPad Air.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Today’s sale is available in four colors of the iPad Air: Blue, Pink, Space Gray, and Starlight, although the Starlight option is facing delayed shipping estimates. The other three colors are in stock and available to ship today from Amazon.

For even more iPad deals, head to our full Best Deals guide for iPad. In that guide we track the best discounts online for iPad, iPad mini, iPad Air, and iPad Pro. You can also visit our full Deals Roundup to shop for even more Apple-related products and accessories.

Related Roundup: Apple Deals

This article, "Deals: iPad Air Available for $519.99 in Four Colors on Amazon ($79 Off)" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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October 2022 security update is now available for Galaxy S20 in the US

Over the past month or so, Samsung has rolled out the October 2022 security update to a lot of phones and tablets. Three weeks ago, the company released the security update to the international version of the Galaxy S20. Now, it is rolling out the October 2022 security update to the US version of the […]

The post October 2022 security update is now available for Galaxy S20 in the US appeared first on SamMobile.

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Detailed Motorola Moto Edge X40 specs surface thanks to TENAA certification

The Moto Edge X40 made an appearance on the Chinese TENAA certification website a couple of days ago the listing only contained a few shots and limited specs. Now TENAA has updated it to include most of the phone’s details. The handset will run on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC chipset and offer a 144Hz 6.67-inch slightly curved OLED screen. Memory options go from 8GB to 18GB while storage variants start at 128GB and go up to 512GB. Motorola XT2301-5, likely the Moto X40 (and later the Edge 40 Pro) We expect three cameras on the back – a 50MP main one, a 50MP ultrawide one and a…

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Twitter could bring back Vine, make verification a Blue-only perk

Elon Musk is now fully in control of Twitter and is making big changes. On his very first week as Twitter CEO, Musk dissolved the board of directors, consolidating power to himself, and also fired four top executives – former CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, policy executive Vijaya Gadde, and general counsel Sean Edgett. According to anonymous sources, one of those executives was escorted out of Twitter’s offices. In addition to new leadership the company is also going to undergo major changes to its operations. Musk wants to revive Vine, Twitter’s looping video app, which it closed down…

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Samsung is The World’s Best Employer in 2022 according to Forbes

Samsung earned the title of “The World’s Best Employer” from Forbes for the third year in a row. The ranking is based on a Forbes-Statista survey that interviewed more than 150,000 employees across 800 companies in the USA, the UK, Germany, and other countries. Survey participants were asked to rate their willingness to recommend their […]

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