Epic Games filed lawsuits against Apple and Google last year, claiming their anti-competitive practices prevented companies like Epic from offering their own in-app stores or payment systems, among other things. Now new details are emerging as part of that lawsuit that shines more light on some of Google’s alleged steps to try to crush competition.
Apple’s iPhone and iPad operating systems are often referred to as walled gardens, since the only official way to install apps is through the App Store. But Google allows users to sideload third-party apps, and the company has long pointed to that as an indication that Android isn’t as locked down as iOS/iPadOS. But recently unredacted documents suggest Google took active steps to prevent game developers and phone makers from offering rival app stores.
Here’s a roundup of recent tech news from around the web.
- The Epic v. Google lawsuit finally makes sense [The Verge]
Unredacted documents in the Epic v Google lawsuit allege that Google tried to block alternative app stores for Android phones from becoming the norm by paying game makers to keep titles in the Play Store and phone makers not to pre-install alt app stores. - UNISOC’s Smartphone Application Processor Shipments Doubled in H1 2021 [Counterpoint]
Shipments of smartphones with Unisoc processors are up 122% year-over-year, showing impressive growth, particularly in China. But with an 8.4% market share, Unisoc still trails MediaTek and Qualcomm, and Apple. - Moto Tab G20 Spotted on Google Play Console Listing [MySmartPrice]
Motorola Tab G20 spotted on the Google Play Console, with budget specs including a 1280 x 800px display, MTK Helio P22T processor and 3GB RAM. It could be a rebranded Lenovo Tab M8 (Lenovo owns Motorola). - Surprise: There’s an Asus Chromebook Detachable CZ1 for classrooms [About Chromebooks]
Asus Chromebook Detachable CZ1 is a rugged 2-in1 with 1920 x 1200px display, pen support, detachable keyboard, a MediaTek MT8183 processor, 4GB of RAM, up to 128GB of storage, and USB 2.0 Type-C and 3.5mm audio jacks. Designed for classrooms & coming soon. - Enhancing Inking on the Web [Microsoft]
Microsoft’s new API for inking on the web reduces latency by 240% when using a digital pens with Chromium-based web browsers (including Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge)
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I don’t get this. If latency is reduced by 100%, it would reach 0 latency. How do you get 240%? By reading minds?
The Microsoft article does say it’s a 240% improvement, not a 240% reduction. Could mean that (old lag-new lag)/new lag =2.4 or something like that.