It's only about payment
1) allow to use whatever payment they want
2) allow to practice whatever price they want on other platform
3) allow to practice whatever price they want on alternate payment system

There is no valid justification to forbid to sell the same application at a lower price on the other platform... Development time and cost may be very different between platforms...

There is nothing about making sideloading a required feature... only killing some abusive rules...

I've enough games available for some time (Beat Saber takes much on my VR time anyway)... So, it's time to think about a better PC (mine is 8yo), some correct Wifi-6 AP and switch to PC-streaming to Oculus...

Next device will probably *not* be an oculus... The principal drive was the PC-less experience anyway... And I'm mostly a Linux User.

Not exactly... shares bring you some revenues so holding may end up bringing more money than what you paid for. Country bonds also bring you some interest, paid by the country which issued it...

In stock market, part of the gains don't come from the pockets of the losers...

Since a long time, I switched to LaTeX. Clean presentation of the document.

Text editor may change... Joe when editing through SSH, Emacs when editing locally...

Back in the past, you used to get the full schematics of your TV with it... And for the TV were these schematics were not included, they were available to repairshops.

Not exact...
1) if you use unreal engine, on an application, you don't have to pay royalties on the 1st million $ earned through that application
2) if you sell several application, each has that 1 million $ exemtion
3) if you sell through EPIC store, you don't have to pay any royalties for unreal engine at all, these are included in the store cut

Please note that Unreal Engine is a big game engine (like Unity and other) and that it's normal to have licencing for using a library. Back in the past, developpers used to pay for HMI sound library and other which were used in many games.

When you look at iOS, it's not about some game library but about the app store... and unlike Apple, Epic don't lock out every other store... So comparison stops quite quickly.

Also, Apple has put lots of vendor lock-ins... If you remind well, Microsoft got sued for its use of lock-ins to his ecosystem (for example, about the SMB protocol)...

Installing an alternate store is quite easy.
1) on samsung devices, you already have the Samsung Store AND the google Store.
2) for other stores, you only have to follow a link to the APK of the store app. You'll have to unlock the side-loading (installation of not trusted applications) and it's done. I think that new versions of Android prompt you for that unlock, earlier, it was in the parameters

Having alternate stores allows you
- to chose the cheaper store
- to install programs not present in the other store (for example, Fortnite was removed from Google Store but stayed on Samsung store)

The article points that Huawei **COULD** have eavedropped on Dutch communications.

On the other hand, USA **HAD BEEN CAUGHT** eavedropping on Angela Merkel communications...

Basically, I'm trusting Huawei more than the USA on that point...

Among the detected apps, half were not present (nor were equivalents) on my computer... Which means that changing the browser is likely to produce another result...

Well, it tells from the beginning that chrome under linux may fail ;-)

Doing so would only validate de facto several of the claims made by EPIC and put Apple in lots more legal trouble...

It'd equate to prove they are monopolistic bastards who disregard the federal laws.

EPIC don't want money from Apple... EPIC wants a court decision against Apple...

They want to set up a jurisprudence which could then be used against Microsoft and Sony...

Don't forget that Fortnite revenues are 7% from Apple, more than 30% from XBos and more than 40% from PS.

EPIC don't give a fuck about Fortnite on iPhone... The major platforms for Fortnite are PS and XBox... which accounts for the vast majority of the players.

Even if Fortnite can't get back on the iPhone, it won't cost much to EPIC... (in fact, it'll cost to both Apple and EPIC as there will be people switching to Android to keep playing Fortnite on their phone)

But if they win, it'll be a solid leverage against Sony and Microsoft to get the same right to have their own shop on these platflorms...

Before, you had applications who were making money by presenting you ad for other applications.
Now, it's Apple who have a monopoly on such targetted ad... and who will make money from app writers who wants some ad about their app.

Apple added a second ad slot in it's app store and killed rivals...

Basically, it's the corporate equivalent of racket.

Abusing the difference of strength to impose restrictions and "taxes" was what the Mafia used to do...
And those busineses who didn't want to pay would get burned down...

Very few developpers have the financial capacity to litigate against Apple and they know it. Users also don't have that financial capacity... In the end, Apple with burn their business down (revoking the applications) or "digitally kill" them (revoking AppleID) and they've no way to defend themself...

It's called here "monopoly abuse"... but it's nothing else than a polite and mild way to say "Racket".

One think that makes Apple's iOS a monopoly is the lock-in of assets.

If you buy music, movies, books, ... through your iPhone, you won't be able to transfert all that ownership to a Kindle, an Android or some other (non-Apple) device...

You also have a lock-in through the hardware : iPhone chargers don't use the standard USB connector, many hardware peripherals are locked to the iPhone through that lightning port, AirPods and other can't realisticly be used using a non-Apple hardware, ...

This also extends to your iMessage contents and some other...

All these lock-ins make the Apple ecosysteme it's own environment (market)... and in that market, Apple has a strict monopoly... The argument that the people may switch to Android is moot as it's a different environment where the assets won't be available/usable.

On the other hand, last time I checked, there are no film, music or books shops on the playstation. There are no carkit, soundstation, tracking devices, headphones, ... specific to the playstation. The only assets linked are the games and the VR system (the controllers can be connected and paired to a PC and used through Steam for example, you can use the PS4 Camera on a PC). That's why you see so many people hopping from one console to the other.