Apple's iMessage will avoid regulation requiring interoperability with other messaging platforms under the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), following the conclusion of an investigation by the regulator (via Bloomberg). The probe concluded that the iMessage platform and Microsoft's Bing do not hold a dominant enough position to be brought under the DMA's strict rules for services provided by big tech's so-called digital "gatekeepers," which include Apple, Meta, Google, Amazon, and TikTok, according to the EU. Apple and Microsoft said they welcomed the decision to not designate them as core platform services in separate statements following the announcement. The EU has been working on legislation under the DMA that would have required Apple to make changes to iMessage to make it…

Apple on Tuesday released the first visionOS 1.1 beta. Along with improved Personas, the update adds iMessage Contact Key Verification to the Vision Pro. iMessage Contact Key Verification is an optional security feature that allows you to manually verify who you are messaging with by comparing verification codes in person or on a phone call. The feature launched on the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac starting with iOS 17.2, iPadOS 17.2, watchOS 9.2, and macOS 14.2 last year. Image Credit: @iDeviceHelpus on X iMessage Contact Key Verification also includes "advanced protections" that can help prevent attackers from impersonating anyone in a conversation, according to Apple. These protections only apply if both parties in an iMessage conversation have turned on…

Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice President of the European Commission for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age (no joke, that’s her real title) In posts on social media platform X on Friday, the EU’s antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager said she met with Apple CEO Tim Cook and the CEOs of Alphabet and Qualcomm to discuss regulation and competition policy compliance. 2 main points from my meeting w/ @tim_cook @apple compliance w/ #DMA, e.g. @Apple’s obligation to allow the distribution of #apps outside the @AppStore ongoing @EU_Competition cases e.g. @AppleMusic pic.twitter.com/G2gP51IW8L — Margrethe Vestager (@vestager) January 12, 2024 Reuters: ‎ Last week, Vestager’s communications adviser said she would speak to chief executives of Apple, Alphabet, Broadcom, and Nvidia in the United…

Apple is disputing EU tech rules labeling five of its App Stores as a single core platform service subject to onerous regulation, saying that EU regulators are misinterpreting and misapplying new Digital Markets Act (DMA) legislation that took effect last May in the European bloc. Reuters: ‎ The company also disputed the characterisation of its operating system iOS as an important gateway for business users to reach end users and the interoperability obligation that goes with that label. The European Commission made “material factual errors, in concluding that the applicant’s five App Stores are a single core platform service,” Apple said in its plea to the Luxembourg-based General Court, Europe’s second-highest. The company in its argument to the EU competition…

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are intensifying their investigations into Apple's alleged anti-competitive practices following the recent blocking of the iMessage for Android app Beeper Mini, the New York Times reports. Following calls from a bipartisan group of senators for a DOJ investigation into the matter, Beeper founder Eric Migicovsky reportedly met with DOJ antitrust lawyers on Tuesday, December 12. The DOJ is currently embroiled in a four-year-long investigation into Apple's alleged anticompetitive conduct. The New York Times also suggested that the FTC is involved, pointing to a blog post published yesterday by the commission warning that it will evaluate "privacy and security" justifications for refusing to interoperate with other companies' technology:In the…

As we shared this morning, the team behind the Beeper Mini iMessage for Android app has announced a plan that will let Android customers use a jailbroken iPhone to register a phone number with iMessage in order to get the Beeper Mini service working. Just days after Beeper Mini launched on December 5, Apple objected to the way it was using iMessage servers with "fake credentials," and blocked the mechanism the app was using. Since then, Beeper Mini has tried to get the app back online using several increasingly complicated methods, but Apple has continually shut it down. Beeper Mini's latest effort requires either a Mac or an old ‌iPhone‌ that is able to be jailbroken, and Android users who…