Now, Apple has agreed to let Facebook Pay process all paid online event purchases. This means Facebook can absorb the cost, and Apple won’t get a cut. But this agreement only lasts until December 31st.
“Apple has agreed to provide a brief, three-month respite after which struggling businesses will have to, yet again, pay Apple the full 30 percent App Store tax,” a Facebook spokesperson said. Facebook will not collect fees until August 2021.
The other big catch is that Facebook Gaming creators are left out of the deal. They’ll still have to hand over 30 percent of earnings that come through the iOS app.
“Apple’s decision to not collect its 30 percent tax on paid online events comes with a catch: gaming creators are excluded from using Facebook Pay in paid online events on iOS,” said Vivek Sharma, VP of Facebook Gaming. “We unfortunately had to make this concession to get the temporary reprieve for other businesses.”
These battles over App Store fees are becoming more common. Sometimes they go better than others. Epic is now embroiled in a nasty legal battle with Apple, but Basecamp found a way to skirt Apple’s rules to get its Hey email app approved. Just yesterday, Epic, Spotify and others announced The Coalition for App Fairness, an alliance formed to pressure Apple and Google to change their app store rules.
“This is an emergency response,” Guardian journalist and founder of The Citizens Carole Cadwalladr told NBC News. “We know there are going to be a series of incidents leading up to the election and beyond in which Facebook is crucial. This is a real-time response from an authoritative group of experts to counter the spin Facebook is putting out.”
The Real Facebook Oversight Board comprises 25 or so experts from the fields of academia, civil rights, politics and journalism. Among them are the company’s former head of election integrity operations for political ads Yael Eisenstat and early investor Roger McNamee. Other members include UK Member of Parliament Damian Collins, NAACP president Derrick Johnson and Marietje Schaake, a politician and the international policy director at Stanford University’s Cyber Policy Center.
Facebook announced plans to form its own Oversight Board in 2018 and revealed the first batch of members in May. Some experts have suggested the board’s mandate is far too limited, as a large part of its work will center on content moderation appeals.
Facebook will abide by that panel’s decisions but the company can ignore the Real Facebook Oversight Board’s suggestions entirely. It voiced concerns over that group to the investment firm Omidyar Network, which has provided funding to The Citizens. Facebook spokesman Jeffrey Gelman told NBC News the company tried to convince investors that “we are ultimately working toward the same goal.”
OnePlus is gearing up to launch its next flagship in October, so it’s no surprise that prices for the existing generation are starting to fall. The OnePlus 8 is currently $100 off on Amazon and the company’s own website, with the 128GB model now going for $599 instead of $699. The 256GB configuration is now $699 instead of $799, and this appears to be the only model available on Amazon at the moment.
The OnePlus 8 Pro, which is one of our favorite Android phones this year, is similarly discounted, though only the 256GB option is available on Amazon and the company’s website. For the original $900 starting price, the OnePlus 8 Pro offers a 6.78-inch Quad HD+ AMOLED screen with a hole punch cutout for its selfie camera. The display refreshes at a speedy 120Hz for smooth scrolling and animations at that higher resolution, compared to Samsung’s version on the S20 Ultra and Note 20s, which only support 120Hz at 1080p.
Even though I’ve used several Android handsets over the years, I’ve always stuck with an iPhone. For one thing, I’m so invested in the ecosystem at this point (I’ve purchased many apps, several of which are iOS-only) that switching to another platform would be too painful.
But the main reason that I still have an iPhone, despite the many advantages of Android, is simply force of habit. Its interface, design language and keyboard feel so much like second nature that I can’t get used to anything else. This is a huge reason why Android’s widgets and home screens simply don’t appeal to me: I just never saw the need for them. Even now, after I’ve installed iOS 14, I haven’t bothered adding a widget or cleaning up my home screen, because I just like it the way it is. I suspect many other iOS users feel the same.
Chesnot via Getty Images
For me, the main benefit that Android has over iOS has never been its design or its interface or anything like that. The main advantages with Android, in my view, are the features. Specifically, its compatibility with Google’s apps and services. That’s because, as much as I like iOS, Google is the world in which I live. I use Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Maps, Google Photos and Chrome literally every day. I find Google services easier and more pleasant to use, and I like that it all syncs together. The fact that Android comes with Gmail, Chrome and all the usual Google services by default, working seamlessly with a single sign-on, is great.
That hasn’t been the case with iOS, and one can certainly understand why. Apple obviously wants you to use its own apps and services over the competition. Sure, third-party apps like Gmail and Chrome have been around for a few years now but there were always certain restrictions. The biggest hassle is that tapping on an email link in an app or in Safari would often kick me over the default Apple Mail app rather than Gmail (If you tapped on an email link in the Chrome app, it does let you go to Gmail however). Now, thanks to iOS 14, this is no longer a problem.
Of course, it’s likely that Apple isn’t allowing this in iOS 14 out of the goodness of its heart. Instead, it could be a tactical move. The company is already facing serious antitrust scrutiny as well as accusations that it holds an App Store monopoly, partially due to the 30 percent commission it charges developers (This is the basis of Epic’s recent legal battle with Apple). Perhaps, by ceding ground on default iOS apps, Apple could be heading off concerns that it holds a monopoly over that at the very least. It is not unlike when Microsoft was forced to unbundle Internet Explorer from Windows in 2009 due to European regulations.
Be that as it may, this could be a sign of greater things to come. It’s given me a glimmer of hope that other Google apps, like Calendar and Maps for example, could be given the default treatment too. Of course, there are many things that Android still does better than iOS, such as managing notifications, app permission handling, Live Transcribe, the ability to sideload apps not from an App Store, and more. But if all I get is greater access to Google’s apps and services while still keeping the phone I like, I’d be happy.
If you’re a Google Fiber customer, you were given a router to use with your service when you signed on. That might have kept folks who had a router they prefer from signing up for the service, or left some clients with redundant devices left sitting at home. Google is changing that, announcing that you’ll be able to use whatever router you want with its internet service.
This applies to new customers signing up for the 1 Gig plan, while existing users can change their settings to “Use your own router” in their account settings. According to the company, the router included with service was “chosen to deliver the best performance for your home network with your Google Fiber connection.” But people might prefer other higher spec options as new WiFi technologies begin to roll out. Google itself has been testing its 2Gbps service in two cities as it’s expected to roll out the faster system in 2021. The freedom to use your own router or the one Google provides could make the company’s Fiber service more appealing to advanced users who want to be more hands-on in setting up their home networks.
In the war of the streaming services, killer content is the best ammunition. Amazon’s original series The Boys is so popular that not only was a third season ordered before the second season even aired, but a spinoff is also in the works. Executive producers Seth Rogen and Eric Kripke confirmed the news on Twitter, and the spinoff will feature a superhero college run by giant corporation Vought International, according to Deadline.
While The Boys is based on the American comic book series of the same name, the untitled spinoff is expected to focus on the university and feature original writing. Deadline reports that like the existing show, the spinoff is likely to be R-rated and irreverent as it explores the Hunger Games-style competition between hormonal superheroes (or Supes) as they test their physical, sexual and moral boundaries. No word yet on when the new show will be ready, but Deadline said development is “being fast-tracked in light of the success of the original series’ second season which marked the most-watched global launch of an Amazon Original series ever.”
For the longest time, it was weirdly difficult to play Solid Snake’s early outings on PC. The original Metal Gear was released for the MSX2 computer and then, a few years later, MS-DOS and Commodore 64. Few people still own this kind of hardware, so your options were emulation or one of the game’s many home console releases, including the popular NES port from 1987. The first two Metal Gear Solid titles, meanwhile, were released on PC but never available through digital storefronts like Steam. Thankfully, there’s now a convenient way to buy all three on PC: GOG.com.
These aren’t remakes or remasters. The listing on GOG.com, however, states that Metal Gear Solid has “better graphics, added features, and new gameplay modes,” and includes the VR Missions expansion released in 1999. Metal Gear Solid 2, meanwhile, is the expanded Substance edition that was released for PS2, Xbox and PC. As The Verge notes, console owners might want to consider other versions, such as Metal Gear Solid remake The Twin Snakes on GameCube and either the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection (Xbox 360) or Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection (PS3), both of which contain a HD version of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.
SuperAwesome built a platform called Kids Web Services (KWS), a “parental consent management toolkit” that helps developers incorporate child-safe services, including advertising and monetization. KWS is GDPR compliant and has been certified through the KidSafe and other safe harbor programs. It’s used by over 300 companies including Nike, Disney, Hasbro and Lego, according to the company’s About page.
To use the platform, parents must provide identification and give a child permission to use the service. The tech could work with any of Epic’s games, including Fortnite, but Epic told VentureBeat that its main goal is to enable SuperAwesome’s platform for developers that use the Unreal game engine.
On top of that, the two companies plan to build a wide range of child-friendly services. “The internet was never designed for kids so we started SuperAwesome to make it as easy as possible to enable safe, privacy-driven digital experiences for children everywhere,” said SuperAwesome CEO Dylan Collins.
If you’ve spent the last few months building a perfect world inside Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you don’t want to miss the gothiest holiday of the year. That’s why Nintendo is updating the title for Fall, with new goodies for Halloween, including character options, DIY projects and even pine cones. Users will be able to grow pumpkins, witchy outfits and even body paint and eye contacts in preparation for spooky season.
One your outfit and home is suitably decorated, you can get ready for an evening of fun after 5pm on October 31st. Your neighbors will gather in the plaza to celebrate the arrival of Jack, the “czar of Halloween,” who will hand out rewards in exchange for lollipops and candy. Sadly, Nintendo has not allowed you to go on a shopping spree through Hot Topic to get a new Nightmare Before Christmas hoodie.
Amazon still has the 13-inch MacBook Pro with a 512GB SSD for $200 off right now. The sale comes from a combination of a discounted starting price and a $50 coupon that will be applied automatically at checkout. That brings the price down to $1,599, which is an all-time-low for the laptop that just came out in May. We gave the new 13-inch MacBook Pro a score of 87 for its colorful Retina display, much-improved Magic Keyboard and solid battery life.
Amazon’s latest Fire tablets are on sale right now — the Fire HD 8 is $70, the HD 8 Plus is $90 and the HD 10 is $110. These prices are only $10 more than the tablets’ all-time-lows, making it a decent opportunity to grab one if you can’t wait for when we think Amazon Prime Day will be in the future. We gave the Fire HD 8 a score of 81 thanks to its decent performance, strong battery life and new USB-C charging port (all of the new Fire tablets have this, finally). Fire tablets are not your typical Android tablets, but they are decent devices for media consumption, video-watching and book-reading in particular.
The updated base iPad that was announced only last week is $30 off at Amazon and Walmart. We’ll be giving it the full review treatment soon, but we did notice big improvements in just the first day of use. Thanks to the new A12 Bionic chipset inside, the base iPad is much faster and smoother than the previous generation and it handles multitasking more efficiently. The design may be outdated, but there will undoubtably be sacrifices when you opt for the most affordable iPad you can get.
The latest MacBook Air remains $100 cheaper at Amazon, bringing the starting price down to $899. We gave the MacBook Air a score of 87 for its sharp Retina display, excellent trackpad and improved Magic Keyboard. The latter is one of the biggest things that sets this Air apart from previous models, mostly because typing on the Magic Keyboard is more comfortable (and much less frustrating) than doing so on old butterfly keys.
Samsung may have just announced the Galaxy S20 Fan Edition this week, but it’s already available for for pre-order for $100 less at some retailers. The S20 FE was already a good buy at its normal price tag, but it’s even better at this discount. It has most of the guts found in the standard S20, including a Snapdragon 865 processor, 128GB of storage, a 4,500mAh battery and an AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. Samsung cut back by reducing the RAM to 6GB, using an FHD display panel and using polycarbonate instead of metal for the FE’s body.
Motorola dropped the price of its 5G-capable Edge handset to $500, which is a more appropriate price tag than the original $700. This one runs on a Snapdragon 765G chipset, 6GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and it also has a 4,500 mAh battery. It also has the same display panel found on the Edge Plus, which is a lovely OLED 2,340 x 1,080 screen. It was a bit too expensive originally to properly compete with the other stellar midrange options from LG, Samsung and others available now, but at $500, it’s a much better buy.
Aukey makes a number of portable battery packs, but this one that’s on sale for $30 is particularly useful because it has a kickstand that flips out and a support for your smartphone. That means you can wireless charge your handset while using it to watch a video, browse the web and more. You can get the sale price by clipping the 10-percent coupon on the product page and using code TRNKXNED at checkout.
