$85 billion wiped off Apple’s market value after US ruling on in-app purchasing
Shares of Apple fell 3.3% and erased nearly $85 billion from its market capitalisation on Friday after a US judge’s ruling in ‘Fortnite’ creator Epic Games’ antitrust lawsuit against Apple. The judge ruled that Apple can’t prohibit developers from providing payment links that direct users away from its in-app purchasing system. Apple’s stock suffered its biggest decline since May 4.
Despite theatrics, Amazon doesn’t identify 1 fact we omitted: SpaceX
After Amazon said that companies led by billionaire Elon Musk believe that “rules are for other people”, SpaceX replied saying, “Despite its theatrics, Amazon does not identify a single fact, figure or scintilla of data that SpaceX omitted from its application.” It added, “Another week, another objection from Amazon…yet still no sign of progress on Amazon’s own long-rumoured satellite system.”
Virgin Galactic’s test flight with Italian Air Force gets delayed
Virgin Galactic has announced that its next test flight “Unity 23” with the Italian Air Force has been delayed. A potential manufacturing defect in a component of the flight control actuation system, which is supplied by a third party, caused the delay. The company also attributed the delay to the pending resolution of a probe by the US FAA.
WhatsApp announces end-to-end encryption for chat backups
WhatsApp said it would extend encryption on the messaging service for backups of chats shared on the platform when they are stored on Apple and Google’s cloud services. It will be released as an optional feature in the coming weeks. WhatsApp users will have to create a password or use a 64-digit encryption key to access the backup.
Set of 101 ‘Bored Ape’ NTFs sells for $24.4 million
A set of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) from the “Bored Ape Yacht Club”, representing images of cartoon apes, was sold for $24.4 million at Sotheby’s. The lot contained 101 anthropomorphic apes with the option to generate six new “mutant” ones. Separately, a lot of “Bored Ape Kennel Club” NFTs, a set of dogs marketed as pets for the apes, fetched $1,835,000.
Epic Games to shut down video chat app Houseparty in October
Epic Games has announced that it will be shutting down its social video chat app Houseparty in October. “Houseparty will be removed from app stores immediately, and the app will continue to function for existing users until it’s shut down in October,” the company wrote in a blog post. Epic Games bought Houseparty in 2019 for a reported $35 million.
