The European Union is poised to adopt new antitrust rules for the biggest tech companies that could have widespread consequences for online advertising, app stores, and interoperability of messaging apps. Imagine being able to install a third-party app store on an iPhone, for example, or use Signal to send messages to your contacts who only use WhatsApp or iMessage.

While the rules would only cover the European Union, the would require the world’s largest tech companies to make significant changes that could eventually roll out to other regions… especially since Europe tends to be the global leader in regulating tech, with other countries (or individual states in the US) often following suit. For example, California’s CCPA privacy regulations were enacted several years after the EU approved the GDPR.

In other recent tech news, days after releasing the first alpha of Asahi Linux for Macs with M1 processors, developers have enabled support for the one Apple Silicon chip that hadn’t yet been supported: the new M1 Ultra. Analysts report that Apple is planning to launch a 15 inch thin and light Mac which may or may not be called the MacBook Air 15. Android 13 looks like it has some changes that could make it a good fit for Google Nest Hub-style smart displays that also work as detachable tablets. Vivo is showing off what its new tablet will look like. New Fitbit devices are likely on the way. And while some independent developers are keeping Google’s first-gen Pixel phones useful via custom ROMs, others are working on GNU/Linux distributions for mobile phones, like Nemo Mobile, which is a community-driven continuation of projects like MeeGo, Maemo, and Moblin.

Here’s a roundup of tech news from around the web:

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  1. Anyone praising this needs to be reminded of ChatControl. The EU wants all messaging service providers to scan all messages for illegal content, including messages that you wanted to be encrypted but can’t possible be under this rule.
    The US is of course trying the same thing with the EARN IT act, although that law merely creates an executive committee that answers to no one to decide how best to make that happen, which no one really believes won’t involve mandatory backdoors.

    Reply