Newsletter subscription platform Substack will begin taking advantage of an option on the U.S. App Store that allows users to make purchases outside of Apple’s in-app purchasing system. This functionality is permitted by a change to the App Store’s rules in May, as a result of Epic Games’ antitrust lawsuit against the tech giant.
Since then, a number of top apps have moved to offer in-app purchase links that point to their own websites, including Spotify, Patreon, and the Amazon Kindle app, among others.
In Substack’s case, support for external payments will benefit both the company, which no longer has to pay the App Store a commission on those web sales, and consumers, who will have access to reduced pricing. Meanwhile, Substack creators will be able to offer their readers the option of whether they want the convenience of Apple’s in-app payments system (IAP) or the web payment option, which is now accessible without having to leave the app.
Image Credits:Substack
Substack explains it will automatically adjust its customers’ iOS app price higher to account for Apple’s fees, allowing creators to take home the same amount of money as a web subscription. However, Substack writers can disable this feature if they choose. (Substack will continue to take its own 10% fee based on the web subscription price, as before.)
The company said it’s also offering its writers migration tools to help them move their subscribers off Apple’s payments system and onto its web-based system.
Currently, more than 30,000 publications on the platform have in-app purchases enabled; Substack says early tests of the expanded set of payment options have driven a boost in paid sign-ups. It did not, however, share specific numbers related to this.
Image Credits:Substack
The public launch of the external payments option will only impact new Substack subscriptions. Substack writers don’t have to take any action unless they want to lower the prices for those using Apple’s payments system.
Per Apple’s App Store rules, fully opting out of offering IAP is not allowed.
While the changes impact the Substack app in the U.S., the company says it’s still evaluating if it makes sense to switch to the more complex rules Apple offers in the EU and U.K. for developers who want to forgo IAP.
Don’t doomscroll more depressing news, use that phone to lift your mood instead. The best mobile games will bring a little joy to your day, whether you’re killing time on the commute or chilling on the couch. And these games are all addictive slices of gaming pleasure that we have been gorging on for years.
As smartphone screens and processing power have grown, the lines between mobile gaming and just gaming have blurred, and you can find tons of great mobile games that have been ported or adapted from other systems (Minecraft, Call of Duty, Fortnite, Roblox, Stardew Valley, Grand Theft Auto, and the list goes on). But all of these titles are best enjoyed on other platforms. Our picks here are games that work especially well on your phone.
Power up with unlimited access to WIRED.Get best-in-class reporting that’s too important to ignore for just $2.50 $1 per month for 1 year. Includes unlimited digital access and exclusive subscriber-only content. Subscribe Today.
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov today defended recent changes to his platform, amid concerns his arrest in France has made the messaging app more compliant with legal requests to share user data with the authorities.
Durov attempted to minimize the significance of changes made to the app since he was arrested in August and charged with complicity in a range of crimes, including spreading sexual images of children. He was forbidden from leaving France for six months and must appear at a police station twice a week.
In his post, the 39-year-old indirectly addressed speculation that Telegram may strengthen its notoriously light-touch content moderation as a result of his arrest. “Our core principles haven’t changed,” Durov stressed, in a post on the platform. “We’ve always strived to comply with relevant local laws—as long as they didn’t go against our values of freedom and privacy.”
He attributed a recent uptick in the number of EU legal requests received and considered valid by the app over the last several months to European authorities beginning to use the correct Telegram email address.
Yet since Durov’s arrest, Telegram has introduced a series of subtle changes. In late August, the company’s FAQ page read: “To this day, we have disclosed 0 bytes of user data to third parties, including governments.” Now the phrase “user data” has been replaced with “user messages.” Telegram did not reply to WIRED’s request for comment asking what exactly this change means.
Then, early in September, Telegram quietly made it possible for users to report illegal content in private and group chats for moderators to review. Later that same month, Durov also announced Telegram had changed its terms of service to prevent the app’s abuse by criminals and would share user locations in response to legal requests. “We’ve made it clear that the IP addresses and phone numbers of those who violate our rules can be disclosed to relevant authorities,” he said at the time.
Today, Durov framed those changes as a technicality. “Since 2018, Telegram has been able to disclose IP addresses/phone numbers of criminals to authorities,” he explained. Although last week he said that privacy policies in different countries had been “unified,” he insisted that “in reality, little has changed.”
What has changed, however, is Durov’s tone. For years, Telegram cultivated an image as a proudly anti-authority platform that was politically neutral, while governments and digital rights groups bemoaned how difficult it was to contact its moderators.
Now, there are signs Durov is adopting a more conciliatory attitude toward the authorities. That has prompted panic among some of the app’s less savory users, including German extremists and Russian military bloggers, who have expressed concern that the CEO’s arrest may be an attempt to access their data. Durov’s message today carried yet another warning to them. “We do not allow criminals to abuse our platform or evade justice,” he said.
Mark Zuckerberg announced today that Meta, his social-media-turned-metaverse-turned-artificial intelligence conglomerate, will upgrade its AI assistants to give them a range of celebrity voices, including those of Dame Judi Dench and John Cena. The more important upgrade for Meta’s long-term ambitions, though, is the new ability of its models to see users’ photos and other visual information.
Meta today also announced Llama 3.2, the first version of its free AI models to have visual abilities, broadening their usefulness and relevance for robotics, virtual reality, and so-called AI agents. Some versions of Llama 3.2 are also the first to be optimized to run on mobile devices. This could help developers create AI-powered apps that run on a smartphone and tap into its camera or watch the screen in order to use apps on your behalf.
“This is our first open source, multimodal model, and it’s going to enable a lot of interesting applications that require visual understanding,” Zuckerberg said on stage at Connect, a Meta event held in California today.
Given Meta’s enormous reach with Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, the assistant upgrade could give many people their first taste of a new generation of more vocal and visually capable AI helpers. Meta said today that more than 180 million people already use Meta AI, as the company’s AI assistant is called, every week.
Meta has lately given its AI a more prominent billing in its apps—for example, making it part of the search bar in Instagram and Messenger. The new celebrity voice options available to users will also include Awkwafina, Keegan Michael Key, and Kristen Bell.
Meta previously gave celebrity personas to text-based assistants, but these characters failed to gain much traction. In July the company launched a tool called AI Studio that lets users create chatbots with any persona they choose. Meta says the new voices will be made available to users in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand over the next month. The Meta AI image capabilities will be rolled out in the US, but the company did not say when the features might appear in other markets.
The new version of Meta AI will also be able to provide feedback on and information about users’ photos; for example, if you’re unsure what bird you’ve snapped a picture of, it can tell you the species. And it will be able to help edit images by, for instance, adding new backgrounds or details on demand. Google released a similar tool for its Pixel smartphones and for Google Photos in April.
Powering Meta AI’s new capabilities is an upgraded version of Llama, Meta’s premier large language model. The free model announced today may also have a broad impact, given how widely the Llama family has been adopted by developers and startups already.
In contrast to OpenAI’s models, Llama can be downloaded and run locally without charge—although there are some restrictions on large-scale commercial use. Llama can also more easily be fine-tuned, or modified with additional training, for specific tasks.
The first time I used SocialAI, I was sure the app was performance art. That was the only logical explanation for why I would willingly sign up to have AI bots named Blaze Fury and Trollington Nefarious, well, troll me.
Even the app’s creator, Michael Sayman, admits that the premise of SocialAI may confuse people. His announcement this week of the app read a little like a generative AI joke: “A private social network where you receive millions of AI-generated comments offering feedback, advice, and reflections.”
But, no, SocialAI is real, if “real” applies to an online universe in which every single person you interact with is a bot.
There’s only one real human in the SocialAI equation. That person is you. The new iOS app is designed to let you post text like you would on Twitter or Threads. An ellipsis appears almost as soon as you do so, indicating that another person is loading up with ammunition, getting ready to fire back. Then, instantaneously, several comments appear, cascading below your post, each and every one of them written by an AI character. In the new new version of the app, just rolled out today, these AIs also talk to each other.
When you first sign up, you’re prompted to choose these AI character archetypes: Do you want to hear from Fans? Trolls? Skeptics? Odd-balls? Doomers? Visionaries? Nerds? Drama Queens? Liberals? Conservatives? Welcome to SocialAI, where Trollita Kafka, Vera D. Nothing, Sunshine Sparkle, Progressive Parker, Derek Dissent, and Professor Debaterson are here to prop you up or tell you why you’re wrong.
Screenshot of the instructions for setting up the Social AI app.
Is SocialAI appalling, an echo chamber taken to its logical extreme? Only if you ignore the truth of modern social media: Our feeds are already filled with bots, tuned by algorithms, and monetized with AI-driven ad systems. As real humans we do the feeding: freely supplying social apps fresh content, baiting trolls, buying stuff. In exchange, we’re amused, and occasionally feel a connection with friends and fans.
OnlyFans Ltd. paid owner Leonid Radvinsky $472 million in dividends last fiscal year, bringing his takings from the site to more than $1 billion in three years.
Radvinsky made $338 million in 2022 and $284 million the year before that, according to UK financial filings. The 42-year-old US citizen is the sole owner of OnlyFans’ holding company, Fenix International Ltd.
The London-based company, which skyrocketed in popularity during Covid-19 lockdowns and has a reputation for hosting pornographic and adult content forbidden on most other social networks, has been building up its stable of comedians, chefs, personal trainers and other types of creators to widen its user base.
OnlyFans posted a profit of about $485.5 million in the year ending Nov. 30 2023, up 20% from the previous year, Fenix International said in a report published on Friday.
“We have cemented our place as a leading digital entertainment company and a UK tech success story,” Chief Executive Officer Keily Blair said in the statement. “We have done this by continuing to provide opportunities for our diverse creator community to monetize their content and grow their global fan base.”
Revenue also rose about 20% from a year earlier to $1.3 billion, according to the report. The platform’s total number of creators rose 29% to 4.1 million and users rose 28% to 305 million.
Recommended reading: In our new special issue, a Wall Street legend gets a radical makeover, a tale of crypto iniquity, misbehaving poultry royalty, and more. Read the stories.
There might be affiliate links on this page, which means we get a small commission of anything you buy. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Please do your own research before making any online purchase.
Are you searching for the right language-learning tool?
These days, more people are using apps and software to learn a new language. Babbel and Duolingo are currently two of the most well-known platforms. Both provide accessible and affordable courses. But which platform is better?
It depends on your needs.
Like any product or service, both apps have strengths and weaknesses. We will be discussing the differences between each one in this article. We’ll provide an in-depth review of Babbel vs. Duolingo to help you decide which app is right for you and your learning style.
So, let’s dive in…
Babbel Overview
Babbel is a premium online language-learning app and e-learning platform that was launched in 2007, with headquarters in Berlin, Germany
It is a subscription-based service that is more affordable than other paid language-learning platforms. You can choose to subscribe monthly, quarterly (every three months), bi-annual (every six months), or annually.
Lessons are delivered in quiz format (fill in the blanks, multiple choice; flashcards, and oral response)
The platform is ideal for serious learners who are in the beginner to intermediate level
Babbel’s subscription rates are as follows (at time of writing):
1 month (charged monthly) – $12.95
Quarterly (charged every 3 months) – $26.85 (or $8.95/month)
Semi-annually (charged every six months) – $44.70 (or $7.45/month)
Annually (charged every 12 months) – $83.40 (or $6.95/month)
All of that sounds pretty great, but what are the things that make Babbel stand out from the other language learning programs? Let’s take a look.
Pros of Babbel App
Lessons are helpful in real-life interactions
Rather than just teaching single words to learners without putting them in context or teaching learners how to put all the words together, Babbel helps perfect your grammar skills and offers lessons that users can practice right away in real conversations.
Audio tracks are clear, with accents like those used by native speakers
Babbel offers opportunities to practice pronouncing words from the very beginning. Rather than having robotic voices speak to you in the language you are learning, you can learn to truly understand a language and sound fluent and natural in it if you can learn the correct accent and pronunciation of the words right away so others can understand you.
When using Babbel, you can hear a variety of authentic native speakers using the words in their everyday language so you can pick up on the enunciations.
Lessons follow a coherent pattern, building up on what has been previously taught
You will constantly be using what you have learned in future lessons, so you won’t forget any material you learn early on. Also, the app can analyze your strengths and weaknesses as you go, so it won’t repeat the things you have already mastered over and over again.
This comprehensive format allows you to use the words you have learned in the proper context and practice with them in future lessons.
Explains grammar rules and cultural context of word usage, e.g.,pronouns (formal and informal)
Babbel breaks down complex grammatical concepts using tips in your native language. It includes pop-ups alongside each lesson to help you understand the content and context of the words.
The tips and tricks can also be accessed separately on a different page for convenience. Because our brains are wired to analyze new languages as we learn them, Babbel’s tips help you comprehend concepts that may be difficult to grasp in immersion programs.
Cons Babbel App
A limited number of language courses are offered
Some popular foreign languages Babbel does not offer include Mandarin, Japanese, Arabic, and Korean. If these are some of the languages you may be interested in, Babbel might not be the right choice.
Before signing up, check to make sure that Babbel offers your language of choice. Additionally, less popular languages that Babbel does offer (like Swedish) have less content than more popular languages like French and Spanish. Less popular languages will have a collection of very effective beginner courses, but their range of intermediate material is almost non-existent.
You need to pay for each language course
One subscription does not give you access to all of the information Babbel offers, so if you want to learn two languages, you must pay for two subscriptions. This makes it difficult to “try out” a language to see if you like it before committing to learning at least a little bit.
It is not ideal for higher intermediate or advanced learners
Although Babbel does focus on lessons that will provide you with real-life skills, it does not dive too deep into the explanations or give many examples of sentences. This means that if you already know the basics of your language of choice, Babbel will not help you focus on everyday interactions as much as possible.
With Babbel, you aren’t required to develop your own phrases or sentences in the language you’re learning. There is a recall component, as it offers users quizzes, but you generally choose from a multiple-choice selection of answers or fill in the blank.
This would be equivalent to knowing most of the words in the English language but having no idea how actually to put them together,
Duolingo Overview
Duolingo is a language-learning platform that aims to serve practically everyone who needs or wants to learn a foreign language. It was publicly launched in 2012 and has headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Duolingo uses a gamified format for its language courses. As the learner completes a lesson level, he or she can earn points and “lingots” (the Duolingo currency) that can be used to purchase power-ups in the app’s online store.
It currently offers 88 language courses, with almost a dozen under development (or in the “hatching” stage); 33 of the courses are available for English speakers
As the most popular free online learning platform, Duolingo has over 100 million users. Its Spanish course (the most popular) has over 22 million learners.
Duolingo is practically for everyone who wants a basic introduction to a foreign language. To access its services, you need only a smartphone or computer and an internet connection.
All Duolingo courses are free.
Recently, a premium service called Duolingo Plus was launched. For $9.99 a month, the subscriber can have ad-free access and download the lessons for offline access.
Let’s look at some specific reasons people may choose Duolingo over other options to learn a new language.
Pros of Duolingo App
All courses are free
This puts less pressure on you to learn a language in a specific amount because you aren’t charged month-to-month. Also, if you start learning a language and find that you don’t like it, you won’t lose anything.
Over 80 language choices (and counting), including fun ones like High Valyrian andKlingon.
Duolingo uses users’ opinions and contributions when adding new languages to its library. It uses crowdsourcing to keep its app up to date and consider users’ opinions so it can continuously improve its lesson plans. Duolingo is constantly improving and adding languages that other apps don’t offer lessons on.
Allows tracking of your study time.
When you use this app, you can see the number of points you have received so far, the streak of days you have used the app, and how much of the course you have completed by clicking the “course progress” button on your sidebar.
Whether you are using Duolingo PC or on the app, your home page will give you information regarding where you are in your learning and how many lessons you have completed. As you advance by completing the lessons, you can track your progress with shiny achievement notifications.
Gamified lesson serves as a motivation for learners who are into a gaming format.
The learning process of Duolingo is very similar to that of playing games. You are given three hearts at the beginning of each exercise, each of which stands for a mistake you can make.
The exercises consist of translations to and from the language you’re learning, listening to words and then writing them down, matching exercises, and speaking exercises. If you make two or more mistakes (or lose two or more hearts), you should restart the exercise from the beginning.
Allows you to take different language lessons for free simultaneously.
Because Duolingo is free, you can study multiple languages simultaneously at no additional cost. You can even learn various languages simultaneously and save your progress as you switch between them.
So far, Duolingo probably sounds pretty ideal. However, let’s look at some of the downsides that may make you reconsider.
Cons of Duolingo App
It is ideal for beginner learners who want a quick introduction to a language.
Duolingo’s lessons have a strong focus on the direct translation of words and phrases, which makes learning quick and simple but not very immersive. This means that learners are not often put into real-life scenarios and forced to start thinking using the language they’re learning. If you are an intermediate speaker, you will have passed these critical cornerstones of using the language.
Tests you on words not covered/introduced in the lesson.
The progress tests quiz you on the entire Duolingo course you are taking, whether you have covered that specific material or not. The idea behind this is to help you gauge your progress, so a score of 5/5 indicates that you completely understand the course. Taking these quizzes when you have just started lets you have a benchmark on which you can base your progress.
Does not have in-depth explanations of grammar rules nor the cultural contexts ofpronoun usage.
This means that learners have to fill in the gaps themselves. You can pick grammar rules up by example while using the app, but having a grammar text that helps you look up grammar rules when you are unsure may be more helpful.
This is another downside that makes this app a bit simpler than others, which can prevent learners from gaining a deep understanding of the language they are learning.
Accompanying audio for full sentences sounds robotic, unnatural, and something thatyou wouldn’t use in real-life conversations.
This doesn’t help you with pronunciation or feeling like you can relate to the person talking. It also prevents you from having a “real-life” conversation with the app because the robotic nature of the voice may be difficult to understand. Some may find it difficult to learn another language without hearing a fluid and fluent speaker teaching it.
Which is Better: Babbel or Duolingo?
What is the verdict for Babbel vs Duolingo?
Although both learning platforms provide a basic introduction to a foreign language, Duolingo has a certain appeal because of its gamified style, which motivates learners to stick to the lessons.
Nevertheless, Babbel takes time to provide in-depth explanations of a foreign language’s different aspects, grammar rules, and cultural contexts of phrases and sentences, allowing for a better understanding of the learning material.
Co-Parenting comes with a host of challenges whether the parents get along or not. Navigating all the necessary information for kids from child support to custody dates to expenses can be overwhelming. The whole process becomes even more frustrating when communicating with the other parent causes friction.
The best co-parenting apps help make the experience easier to navigate for both parents and children. “Apps have provided a welcome vehicle to assist parents transitioning from warring gladiators to co-parenting collaborators,” family law attorney Vicki L. Shemin, JD, tells PS.
Adjusting to a new normal after divorce can take some getting used to but Shemin explains that “apps can rescue parents from co-parenting uncertainty and dread by providing a single platform for managing all aspects of their co-parenting responsibilities.” She shared that while “some may have a cost, they are a lot less expensive than working through attorneys!”
Using a dedicated app to track all co-parenting tasks will take a collaborative effort between both parents. Each parent needs to agree on an app to use and put the effort into using it appropriately. This can be a challenge all its own, but if you’re struggling with the other parent, you can get the use of a co-parenting app court-ordered.
To help you navigate co-parenting with power and ease, PS rounded up the best co-parenting apps that are all court-approved.
Experts Featured in This Article
Vicki L. Shemin, JD, LICSW, ACSW is a family law attorney, mediator, and parenting coordinator.
7 Best Co-Parenting Apps
Best Overall: OurFamilyWizard
Price: $13–$25 per month
Despite its high cost, OurFamilyWizard stands out as the best co-parenting app for families. In her experience, Shemin shared, “Having been in existence for the past 20 years, OurFamilyWizard is probably the most recognized and popular of the co-parenting apps.”
The app features a shared calendar, secure messaging, expense tracking, and document storage, all aimed at reducing conflict and improving cooperation. The robust reporting features also provide an accurate record of interactions, which can be helpful in legal situations.
OurFamilyWizard’s standout feature is a tone meter, which helps parents communicate more effectively and reduce conflict. The tone meter acts like an emotional spell-checker, analyzing the tone of a message before it’s sent and flagging potentially negative or emotionally charged language.
Best Free Option: Cozi
Price: Free
Without any cost, Cozi offers an all-in-one solution for family organization. Its user-friendly interface includes a shared calendar, to-do lists, grocery lists, and a family journal, making it easy for parents to coordinate schedules, manage tasks, and keep everyone on the same page.
While not specifically designed for co-parenting, Cozi’s versatile features and ability to sync across multiple devices make it an excellent tool for parents who want to stay organized and communicate effectively without the expense of a paid app.
Best For Communication: TalkingParents
Price: Free, with upgrades ranging between $10–$25 per month
TalkingParents provides a secure and reliable platform that ensures every message, call, and video chat is recorded and cannot be edited or deleted. This creates a clear, unalterable record of all interactions, which can be critical in legal disputes or custody cases.
Calls made inside the app also don’t disclose phone numbers to either party. This feature is particularly valuable in cases where either parent doesn’t wish to communicate outside the app, wants to maintain a level of privacy, or simply set a boundary.
The app’s user-friendly interface, along with features like shared calendars, file storage, and payment tracking, helps parents stay organized and maintain clear, consistent communication.TalkingParents has a free version with features that are limited to messaging and calendars. To access full communication features such as phone and video calls, upgrading to the premium version is required.
Best For Audio and Video Calls: AppClose
Price: Free
For a free option for secure communication, AppClose offers high-quality communication features that allow parents to stay connected without needing to share personal phone numbers. The app’s built-in calling system ensures that all interactions are logged and stored, providing an unalterable record of communication that can be referenced if needed.
The recording feature is particularly beneficial for maintaining privacy and reducing conflict, as all calls are documented within the app’s secure environment. With its easy-to-use interface and focus on privacy and accountability, the app also offers secure messaging, shared calendars, expense tracking, and document storage, all within a private, encrypted environment.
Best For Security: Fayr
Price: $10 per month
Fayr prioritizes the protection of data through advanced security measures and encryption protocols. Every interaction, including messages, expenses, and location tracking, is securely stored and cannot be altered, ensuring a reliable and tamper-proof record that can be used in legal situations. The app’s focus on privacy means that all personal information is safeguarded against unauthorized access.
A key feature of Fayr is the ability to drop a geo pin on a particular location. For parents who need to meet up for custody exchanges or other purposes, Shemin shared that this offers indisputable evidence that either party was there when they were supposed to be. This feature is useful for those in situations where inaccurate claims are made during meetings.
Best For Live Support: coParenter
Price: $9–$20 per month
For parents prone to conflict, the CoParenter app features on-demand access to professional mediators and parenting experts who can assist with resolving conflicts and making decisions in real time. This unique feature sets it apart from other co-parenting apps, as it provides immediate help from trained professionals to navigate challenging situations, reducing the need for costly legal intervention.
With CoParenter, parents can receive guidance on everything from custody arrangements to communication strategies, ensuring that they have the support they need to co-parent effectively and peacefully at any moment. The app also offers guided parenting plans, secure messaging, expense tracking, location check-ins, and document storage designed to facilitate effective and peaceful co-parenting.
Best For Time Management: Custody X Change
Price: $7–$31 per month
Creating a parenting plan is one of the most important starting points of successful co-parenting. Custody X Change offers highly customizable tools that allow parents to create detailed, court-ready plans tailored to their needs. The app provides a variety of templates and suggestions to help parents outline custody schedules, holiday arrangements, and special provisions with precision. Its drag-and-drop calendar feature makes scheduling easy, while built-in calculators ensure that time is divided accurately.
The app can also generate professional-quality documents that meet legal standards, making it an invaluable resource for parents who want to create clear, enforceable parenting plans without the need for extensive legal assistance.
Kate Fann is an established SEO content writer with 10 years of freelance writing experience. She focuses on creating engaging SEO content for lifestyle brands, covering home, technology, and entertainment.
Durov could spend 20 years in jail if convictedCredit: Corbis – Getty
4
The 39-year-old was arrested on the outskirts of ParisCredit: East2West
4
The billionaire is the founder and CEO of messaging app TelegramCredit: Alamy
The Telegram founder, 39, had a search warrant above his head issued by French officials for offences allegedly related to the app.
The Franco-Russian tech mogul had arrived straight from Azerbaijan, according to a wanted persons file on him.
The warrant for Durov was activated the moment he stepped foot on French soil on Saturday.
The probe is purportedly concerned insufficient moderation, with Durov being accused of neglecting to take action to prevent unlawful use of Telegram.
Authorities claim that Telegram’s lack of moderation, collaboration with law enforcement, and the instruments it provides (disposable numbers, and cryptocurrency) make it an accomplice in drug trafficking, paedophilia, and fraud.
In a statement, the company said: “Telegram abides by EU laws, including the Digital Services Act — its moderation is within industry standards.
“Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe.
“It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.
What’s Ukraine’s next move? How Zelensky may be plotting daring new operation to ‘encircle’ Vlad’s troops
“We’re awaiting a prompt resolution of this situation. Telegram is with you all.”
Following his arrest, the founder and CEO of Telegram could now face 20 years in jail for his “failure to stop terrorism” on the app if he’s convicted in court.
TF1 reported that the billionaire could be charged with a multitude of offences, including terrorism, narcotics, complicity, fraud, money laundering, receiving stolen goods, and pedocriminal content.
It comes due to of apparent failures to employ enough moderators to stop terrorism , drug trafficking and money laundering to fester online.
A source close to the case said: “He allowed an incalculable number of offences and crimes to be committed, for which he did nothing to moderate or cooperate.”
4
The Franco-Russian tech mogul had arrived straight from Azerbaijan when he was detainedCredit: AP:Associated Press
What is Telegram?
TELEGRAM is a cloud-based instant messaging app that was launched in 2013 by Pavel Durov and his brother Nikolai Durov.
Telegram became widely known for its strong emphasis on privacy and security, offering end-to-end encrypted messaging, channels for broadcasting to large audiences, and features including self-destructing messages.
Telegram’s commitment to privacy has made it popular with users around the world, but it has also attracted criticism from governments, which claim that the app is used by criminals and terrorists to communicate without detection.
The backlash against image and video synthesis is not solely focused on creative app developers. Hardware manufacturer Wacom and game publisher Wizards of the Coast have faced criticism and issued apologies after using AI-generated content in their marketing materials. Toys “R” Us also faced a negative reaction after debuting an AI-generated commercial. Companies are still grappling with balancing the potential benefits of generative AI with the ethical concerns it raises.
Artists and Critics React
So far, Procreate’s anti-AI announcement has been met with a largely positive reaction in replies to its social media post. In a widely liked comment, artist Freya Holmér wrote on X, “This is very appreciated, thank you.”
Some of the more outspoken opponents of image synthesis also replied favorably to Procreate’s move. Karla Ortiz, who is a plaintiff in a lawsuit against AI image-generator companies, replied to Procreate’s video on X, “Whatever you need at any time, know I’m here!! Artists support each other, and also support those who allow us to continue doing what we do! So thank you for all you all do and so excited to see what the team does next!”
Artist R. J. Palmer, who stoked the first major wave of AI art backlash with a viral tweet in 2022, also replied to Cuda’s video statement, saying, “Now thats the way to send a message. Now if only you guys could get a full power competitor to [Photoshop] on desktop with plugin support. Until someone can build a real competitor to high level [Photoshop] use, I’m stuck with it.”
A few pro-AI users also replied to the X post, including AI-augmented artist Claire Silver, who uses generative AI as an accessibility tool. She wrote on X, “Most of my early work is made with a combination of AI and Procreate. 7 years ago, before text to image was really even a thing. I loved Procreate because it used tech to boost accessibility. Like AI, it augmented trad skill to allow more people to create. No rules, only tools.”
Since AI image synthesis continues to be a highly charged subject among some artists, reaffirming support for human-centric creativity could be an effective differentiated marketing move for Procreate, which currently plays underdog to creativity app giant Adobe. While some may prefer to use AI tools, in an (ideally healthy) app ecosystem with personal choice in illustration apps, people can follow their conscience.
Procreate’s anti-AI stance is slightly risky, because it might also polarize part of its user base—and if the company changes its mind about including generative AI in the future, it will have to walk back its pledge. But for now, Procreate is confident in its decision: “In this technological rush, this might make us an exception or seem at risk of being left behind,” Procreate wrote. “But we see this road less traveled as the more exciting and fruitful one for our community.”
iA Writer has dark mode and shortcut integration for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. Plus it’s just plain pretty. Given the high price though, you have to be pretty dedicated to the idea of a distraction-free working environment to spring for iA Writer.
Ulysses
The basic layout and feature set of Ulysses isn’t terribly different from iA Writer. There’s a sidebar for navigating and organizing your files, and a large main pane for composing. But it’s definitely more feature-rich, including tools for goal tracking and proofreading. Thanks to its simple but thoughtful organization system, you could probably even use Ulysses as a note-taking app in a pinch.
Like iA Writer it has a typewriter mode with line highlighting and text scrolling. But you have to turn on the various parts of it individually the first time. One of its bigger draws is its styles that allow you to export documents using templates customized for scripts, novels, blog posts, and more.
The knock against Ulysses is that it’s available only as a $40 annual subscription. And it’s strictly for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. If you’re a Windows user, you’re out of luck.
FocusWriter
This is perhaps the most bare-bones of the bunch, but it shouldn’t be overlooked. FocusWriter has all the basics you’d expect from a text editor, including spell check and the ability to have multiple documents open simultaneously. It also has tools for serious writers, like stat tracking and goal setting.
Unlike most of the other apps here, FocusWriter uses rich text (RTF) for formatting instead of Markdown. It probably has the most customizable interface of the bunch, though. You can meticulously choose the interface colors, fonts, and background.
One of the biggest draws will be that it’s free and open source, though right now it’s available for Windows and Linux only. While you can probably get it running on macOS if you know your way around a command line, it will take some legwork, and there’s no mobile client or file syncing.
OmmWriter
The idea of distraction-free writing is, inherently, kind of gimmicky. But OmmWriter is probably the most gimmicky of the bunch. It doesn’t just strip away the extraneous nonsense; it aims to immerse you in an environment conducive to a flow state. That includes gentle soundscapes to help you focus and even various typing sound effects to enhance the vibes.
If you want more audible feedback while typing, but don’t want to invest in a nice mechanical keyboard, this might do the job. Though, the very slight lag between your fingers hitting the keys and the sound coming out of the speakers bugged me.
Otherwise, the UI is pretty bare, with a resizable text box in the center and a few buttons to the right for changing settings. It’s the cheapest of the commercial options here at $9.93 for macOS or Windows. But you can also give it a whirl in your browser by playing with a stripped down version for free.
Scrivener
Scrivener has a dedicated following among long-form writers, and for good reason. While the app does have an excellent distraction-free mode, complete with typewriter-style scrolling, it also sports advanced organizing tools that you’re sure to appreciate if you’re working on a book or a screenplay. It’s made specifically with longer writing projects in mind.
Its project outlines make it simple to collect research or rearrange ideas until you find what clicks. When it comes time to actually write, the full screen composition mode gets rid of everything but the text box. It’s the most minimal of editors.
Tech emergency? Now you can hail a repair technician as easy as hailing a ride.
HOUSTON, August 14, 2024 (Newswire.com)
– The new HAILaGEEK app provides a platform where users can instantly find and engage nearby, background-checked technicians for various technology repair and installation services. The app covers a wide range of services, including PC repair, Mac repair, smartphone repair, virus removal, general computer support, business IT support, audio/video setups, home theater installations, smart home configurations, and support for Linux, Cisco, and Windows Server systems.
The app’s creator, HAILaGEEK LP, is a Texas Limited Partnership established in May 2019. Comprised of 17 partners, the company created and launched the HAILaGEEK App, initially serving the Houston, TX, and College Station, TX areas. The app connects consumers with available IT and electronics repair professionals for immediate on-site service, eliminating the need for appointments.
Before professionals can offer their services through the HAILaGEEK App, they undergo a comprehensive vetting process. This includes ID verification, a skill assessment, and a background check. This ensures that only qualified and trustworthy technicians are available to consumers.
HAILaGEEK operates as a gig economy app, classifying its technicians as independent contractors. This model allows technicians to choose their working hours, providing flexibility similar to other gig economy platforms. However, the gig economy business model has drawn criticism and legal challenges due to the lack of worker protections typically afforded to employees.
The HAILaGEEK App was launched on March 30, 2020, for both iPhone and Android devices. It offers real-time location tracking of available technicians, allowing users to request services and make payments through the app, akin to hailing a ride. The app also provides options for scheduling services if immediate assistance is not required.
HAILaGEEK has been reviewed and rated on various platforms, receiving positive feedback for its innovative approach to on-site tech support. The app has been featured in multiple media outlets and technology discussions, highlighting its convenience and efficiency.
The pull to go “back to basics” when it comes to reading instruction has been growing stronger and stronger among many teachers, especially those who work with our youngest learners. We know our students get excited about using technology and engaging apps, but without a solid foundation in the core principles of reading instruction, many of the newer resources can end up feeling like a lot of flash without much substance. So when we come across a new app that manages to blend these two ideas together, we get excited to talk about it. Modern kid-friendly technology meets the Science of Reading in Reading.com‘s app, which is now launching a teacher edition just in time for the back-to-school season.
Who is Reading.com for?
Reading.com
This app was designed with younger students in mind. Perfect for pre-K through grade 2, the app engages children through its interactive and engaging content, which includes phonics instruction, decodable books, and reinforcement games. With the newly launched teacher edition, the app provides all of the essential tools housed in a user-friendly dashboard. You can manage classrooms, track student progress, and deliver individualized instruction. Additionally, you can assign your entire class a particular lesson or customize lesson placement for individual students. For students, the app provides engaging graphics, targeted literacy instruction, and a multimodal learning experience. The co-play aspect of the lessons and scripted format make learning both fun for kids and less stressful for adults, making this app a win for both students and teachers.
What sets Reading.com apart from other reading apps?
Reading.com
With 99 scripted direct instruction lessons, 60 interactive and decodable books, and a collection of fun videos and games, the strong content is the first thing that truly stands out when you begin to investigate Reading.com. The research-based lessons build from phonemes and graphemes to reading comprehension in a kid-friendly way. But one of our favorite aspects of the Reading.com program is the importance it places on students using the app together with a trusted adult. Experts agree that the best reading instruction happens when young learners and their trusted adults read together. By making this an integral piece of the literacy instruction puzzle, Reading.com sets itself apart from other programs.
How are teachers using Reading.com in the classroom?
Reading.com
Since Reading.com‘s lessons are done in a co-play style with an adult guiding children through the learning, many teachers use it in small-group instruction or as part of a reading intervention lesson with individual students. It’s great for students who are struggling to make progress in their reading skills. It would be perfect for supplemental reading instruction like tutoring or after-school as well. Finally, since the lessons are scripted, Reading.com is a perfect tool to encourage parents to support their child’s learning at home. Teachers can use the app in partnership with families, making it a wonderful tool for building strong collaboration between parents and teachers as they work together with students to help them learn to read.
Ready to have fun while getting back to the basics of reading in your classroom?
Reading.com
To sign up and start using Reading.com in the classroom, follow these steps:
Visit Reading.com and click “Teacher Edition” at the top of the page.
Click “Sign up & Log in.”
Create an account by entering your email and choosing a password and a PIN for the app.
Follow the prompts to set up your classroom and add students.
Explore the dashboard to see the scope and sequence of lessons, onboarding materials, and printable activities.
Download the app on an Apple or Android phone or tablet and log in as a teacher to view the 99 scripted lessons, 60 interactive books, reinforcement games, and more.
Your free trial is for 30 days for three students, but you can request more time or more student licenses for your trial.
Reading.com offers a research-backed curriculum designed to make reading instruction engaging and effective. With features that allow for real-time progress tracking, personalized learning paths, and interactive content, Reading.com significantly boosts student outcomes. The Science of Reading supports Reading.com in the “back to basics” method, which emphasizes systematic, explicit instruction in the early grades. Most importantly, Reading.com provides teachers with the resources needed to foster a love of reading in young learners.
If the idea of going on a date makes you anxious, and all you’d really rather do with your evening is stay home and play video games, well, have we got the app for you. Date Like Goblins, a new dating platform that debuted on Kickstarter this week and will launch later this year, invites you to go on dates that take place entirely inside your favorite video games. You play a few rounds of Fortnite or Final Fantasy with your date, while voice-chatting and getting to know each other. It’s cute!
Date Like Goblins is one of many niche, interest-specific dating platforms. There are apps for farmers, Christians, jamband fans, rope bunnies—whatever you’re into. These smaller, more tailored communities can be seen as an antidote to fatigue that’s caused by the over-monetized and alienating experience of the big dating apps like Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge.
This week, we’re joined by WIRED staff writer Amanda Hoover to talk about Date Like Goblins and the other apps that have learned the cheat code for online romance.
Amanda recommends making butter coconut bars for your next summer potluck. Lauren recommends the recent episode of The Daily from The New York Times with Taffy Brodesser-Akner telling the story about her new book. Michael recommends Trickster: The Many Lives of Carlos Castaneda, a podcast about the wild, shadowy history of the famous author and counterculture figurehead.
You can always listen to this week’s podcast through the audio player on this page, but if you want to subscribe for free to get every episode, here’s how:
If you’re on an iPhone or iPad, open the app called Podcasts, or just tap this link. You can also download an app like Overcast or Pocket Casts, and search for Gadget Lab. If you use Android, you can find us in the Google Podcasts app just by tapping here. We’re on Spotify too. And in case you really need it, here’s the RSS feed.
Meanwhile, Match Group, which owns Tinder, Hinge, and other dating apps, has seen mixed results on its apps. Together with Bumble, which offended many with a disastrous ad campaign earlier this year (the company apologized), the big apps have lost $40 billion in market value since 2021. Bumble reported 10 percent growth in revenue year over year, and also refreshed its app, while Tinder grew 1 percent in revenue and Hinge by nearly 50 percent year over year, according to Match. But if Hinge, Bumble, and Tinder are the packed, noisy singles bars of online dating, these smaller apps are the quieter café or running club. There may be fewer people, but they’re more likely to start from a place where the singles have something in common.
The goblin dating model could provide a novel approach that appeals to more reclusive daters, says Jess Carbino, former in-house sociologist for Bumble and Tinder. “This could be an amazing resource for individuals who are more shy or reticent about meeting in person,” she says. She also wonders whether the low-lift aspect of dating in a game could make it easy to hop in and out of an interaction conveniently, and have people put off meeting in person.
Keeney notes that the early beta users of Date Like Goblins have included people who are neurodivergent, immunocompromised, or introverted, all of whom may feel more comfortable getting to know someone doing an activity rather than sitting down face-to-face for a drink or coffee. She created the app, she says, partially in response to the frustration she felt on traditional apps that her person may be hidden behind a paywall or obscured by an algorithm that can’t spot what would connect them. People can choose to try to meet singles closer to their physical location, or find people around the world, she says.
To better showcase someone’s personality, prompts on Date Like Goblins encourage more in-depth profiles than a typical quippy dating app bio. Some are quirky, for example: “Would you rather live in a world where every song ever is by Pitbull or live in a world where the only song is ‘Fireball’ by Pitbull but it’s covered by every artist ever?” (Choose wisely—the answer to that really says something about whether or not you can stand to spend the rest of your life with someone.)
Still, Carbino says she isn’t sure whether niche apps can truly disrupt the dating process; they may not tackle “the fundamental issues most daters are facing,” she says. Mostly, it’s about burnout, and struggling to make that quality match. “They hop on the apps,” she says. “They date for a while, and before the algorithms have an opportunity to learn about them, they get off the apps and feel demoralized.”
As a result, dating apps bear the brunt of criticism. But they’re doing a job once relegated to our larger social institutions and structures, Carbino says, like schools, churches, and family and friends: Get us to meet someone to fall in love with. If people failed to find love through their community, would they blame those around them the way they do the apps?
Perhaps the gaming aspect of Date Like Goblins can tap into that community feel. Already, so many people have met friends or partners playing games online, Keeney notes. She hopes her app can provide a “low pressure, easy way to connect with people” online, for those who are eagerly seeking a romantic partner or more friends. “If this is happening by accident,” she says, “imagine if we made this possible on purpose.”
When setting up my Sonos home theater system, I had a persistent problem. I was trying to add a Sonos wireless subwoofer to my network, but according to Sonos’ mobile app, the Sub was nowhere to be found. The app would throw a “Could not connect” message, or—even weirder—show me that I was trying to connect a gray box labeled “product” with a serial number that had nothing to do with anything.
“I thought the smart home was supposed to make your life easier,” my husband commented mildly, as he watched me factory-reset the Sub a few times, turn my phone on and off again, toggle Bluetooth, switch phones, and finally bang my head against a wall and cry before calling Sonos tech support.
As we all know, I am far from the only one who has problems with Sonos’ new app; the company pushed out a radical redesign in May that broke a number of key features—such as the ability to change the volume on some of its speaker systems—and angered countless longtime Sonos fans.
Today, more than two months after the contentious redesign, Sonos CEO Patrick Spence finally acknowledged the general customer disappointment in a long note posted to the company’s Instagram account. “Since launch we have had a number of issues,” he wrote in a hilarious tone of wry British understatement. Spence apologized for the frustration the update caused, and noted that fixing the broken app continues to be Sonos’ “number one priority.”
The post refers customers to the detailed list of Sonos software updates that have already been released, and lays out a road map for further improvements to the hobbled app. Here are some of the problems that Sonos promises to fix in the upcoming months:
Implementing Music Library configuration, browse, search, and play (in July and August)
Improving volume responsiveness (in August)
Improving alarm consistency and reliability (in September)
Restoring edit mode for playlists (in September and October)
That’s a short list, and maybe it’s too short. The number of improvements the company needs to make is—no point in beating around the bush here—preposterous. I am having trouble thinking of an app update fiasco large enough to compare it to this one, because in my time as a consumer tech reporter and editor, I cannot think of another software update that took away users’ ability to control the volume.
More than that, I can’t think of another update that took away users’ ability to control the volume and then did not immediately fix that. For months! I reached out to Sonos asking why Spence’s timeline for fixes is so prolonged. The company has not yet responded.
It’s worth nothing here that Sonos’ hardware remains the gold standard in the premium consumer audio world. My colleague Parker Hall refers to the Era 100 as the new smart speaker standard; the Ace wireless headphones earned an 8/10 and a WIRED Recommends badge. When I finally got my Sonos home theater system up, my jaw dropped at the richness and depth of the jungle noises in Land of Bad. (Bomb go boom!)
And yet, this feeling of frustrated disappointment is oddly familiar. My family used to be a fully Sonos household, with Play speakers extending throughout our home and out to my husband’s workshop. I ditched the Play system in 2020 because I could no longer deal with the company’s decision to split its controller software into two separate Sonos apps, one for new speakers and one for legacy speakers. Why do I need to do some mental math to remember which app controls which speaker every time I want to change the music?
Yet here I am again, held hostage by hardware, stranded by software, unable to edit my Sonos playlists until September. Maybe I’m just another foolish beautiful dreamer. At least my Roku TV still works.
In 2019, Nike got closer than ever to its dream of popularizing self-tying sneakers by releasing the Adapt BB. Using Bluetooth, the sneakers paired to the Adapt app that let users do things like tighten or loosen the shoes’ laces and control its LED lights. However, Nike has announced that it’s “retiring” the app on August 6, when it will no longer be downloadable from Apple’s App Store or the Google Play Store; nor will it be updated.
In an announcement recently spotted by The Verge, Nike’s brief explanation for discontinuing the app is that Nike “is no longer creating new versions of Adapt shoes.” The company started informing owners about the app’s retirement about four months ago.
Those who already bought the shoes can still use the app after August 6, but it’s expected that iOS or Android updates will eventually make the app unusable. Also, those who get a new device won’t be able to download Adapt after August 6.
Without the app, wearers are unable to change the color of the sneaker’s LED lights. The lights will either maintain the last color scheme selected via the app or, per Nike, “if you didn’t install the app, light will be the default color.” While owners will still be able to use on-shoe buttons to turn the shoes on or off, check its battery, adjust the lace’s tightness, and save fit settings, the ability to change lighting and control the shoes via mobile phone were big selling points of the $350 kicks.
Despite the Adapt BB being Nike’s third version of self-tying sneakers and its most widely available one yet, the sneakers look doomed to have some its most marketed features bricked. Nike still maintains other mobile apps that are directly tied to shoe functionality, like its shopping app and Run Club app for tracking running.
Disappointed Sneakerheads
Adapt BB owners have shared disappointment after learning the news. One Reddit user who claimed to own multiple pairs of the shoes called the news “hyper bullshit,” while another described it as “immensely disappointing.”
Some hope that Nike will open-source the app so that customers can maintain their shoes’ original and full functionality. But Nike hasn’t shared any plans to do so. Ars Technica asked the company about this but didn’t hear back ahead of press time.
One person going by Maverick-1776 on Reddit wrote:
These shoes were so expensive when they came out. I don’t see why it’s such a big deal to keep supporting the app. It doesn’t mean they need to dedicate a dev team. …
Hopefully the app doesn’t disappear if you already have it installed. I like using the app to see how much battery is left, or just messing around with the LEDs.”
Reddit’s Taizan said companies like Nike should “offer alternatives or put out stuff to the public domain when they do these things,” adding: “Sustainability also involves maintenance of past products, digital or not.”
“I’m Out. Fuck ’Em.”
Some may be unsurprised that Nike’s attempt at commercializing the shoes from Back to the Future Part II has run into a wall. Nike, for instance, also discontinued NikeConnect, its app for $200 NBA jerseys announced in 2017 that turned wearers into marketing gold.
Casual sneaker wearers would overlook the Adapt BB’s flashy features, but the shoe had inherent flaws that could frustrate sneaker fanatics, too. It didn’t take long, for example, for a recommended software update to break the shoes, including making them unwearable to anyone who wanted to tighten the laces. (At the time, Nike said the problem affected a small number of owners.) Nike’s tech inexperience played a role, as the company’s testing reportedly didn’t fully consider all the different phone models in use and their varying Bluetooth capabilities.
The NHS app could not only allow appointments to be made, but also let patients receive notifications about vaccine campaigns, health tests, cancer screening, and even upcoming clinical trials. “Clinical trials can use genomics to identify patients who will benefit from the latest treatments, but they struggle to recruit—not for a lack of people willing to take part, but because they can’t access basic data,” he said. He promised that Labour would clamp down on bureaucracy and allow clinical trials to recruit volunteers via the app. “During the pandemic, half a million people signed up to the vaccine trials registry,” he says. “If we can do it to defeat Covid, we can do it to cure cancer.”
At the core of Labour’s plan is patient data. Recently, the NHS has announced the launch of a federated data platform that would centralize hospital data, but would not include general practice or social care data. “The NHS has struck gold here, yet it’s leaving it in the ground,” Streeting says. “General practice data is key to unlocking better population health outcomes.”
Streeting promises that a Labour government would ensure a transparent process about what aspects of patient data would be shared and with whom, as well as the necessary safeguards to ensure patient confidentiality. As for those who oppose it on the grounds of privacy concerns, he has a simple message: “It’s a fight that a Labour government is willing to have,” he says. “While the tinfoil hat brigade takes to TikTok to urge followers to opt out of sharing their data with the NHS—the irony isn’t lost on me—the government refuses to take on their fear mongering.”
He recalled when, last January, he met the parents of a 2-year-old boy at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool. “They have been through hell,” he says. “In his short life, he has already had five operations on his heart.” When he asked them what their main frustration had been, however, the answer surprised him: technology. “Their local GP couldn’t access the notes from Alder Hey and the hospital couldn’t read the records held by their GP. It meant that on every appointment they had to repeat themselves again and again. The health service should be lessening their worry, not adding to their stress.”
This article appears in the July/August 2024 issue ofWIRED UK magazine.
Brussels has accused Microsoft of illegally abusing its dominance in the business-software market at the expense of smaller rivals, following a complaint at the height of the pandemic by US competitor Slack.
The European Commission said on Tuesday it found that Microsoft was restricting competition by selling its video-conferencing software Teams together in bundles with the company’s other popular office tools such as Office 365 and Microsoft 365 since at least 2019.
“We are concerned that Microsoft may be giving its own communication product Teams an undue advantage over competitors, by tying it to its popular productivity suites for businesses,” the EU’s competition chief Margrethe Vestager said in a statement. “If confirmed, Microsoft’s conduct would be illegal under our competition rules.” The charges announced on Tuesday are only a “preliminary view,” meaning the commission has sent a “statement of objections” to Microsoft and the company has 10 weeks once it receives all the details to respond.
The Microsoft charges arrive in the same week as the European Commission also charged Apple with breaking the European Union’s new digital markets act for failing to let app developers communicate freely with their users. Over the past decade, the EU has become the de facto Big Tech regulator, forcing US giants to alter the way they operate and issuing fines of billions of dollars.
In an attempt to placate Brussels, Microsoft started excluding Teams from some Office bundles in July of last year. However, the commission said today that those changes were insufficient and expressed concern about how easy it was to use rival conferencing software in tandem with Microsoft’s other tools, a practice known as interoperability.
“Having unbundled Teams and taken initial interoperability steps, we appreciate the additional clarity provided today,” said Brad Smith, vice chair and president of Microsoft, in a statement shared with WIRED. The company plans to work to find solutions to address the commission‘s remaining concerns, he added.
If Microsoft and the EU cannot reach an agreement, the commission has the power to levy fines of up to 10 percent of the company’s annual worldwide turnover and can impose remedies on the company.
The commission opened its investigation into Microsoft Teams following a complaint by Slack in July 2020, when there was fierce competition for the remote workers who relied on office software due to pandemic lockdowns. “This is much bigger than Slack versus Microsoft,” Jonathan Prince, then vice president of communications and policy at Slack, said at the time. “This a proxy for two very different philosophies for the future of digital ecosystems, gateways versus gatekeepers.”
On Tuesday, Sabastian Niles, president and chief legal officer of Slack’s parent company Salesforce, described the European Commission’s position as “a win for customer choice and an affirmation that Microsoft’s practices with Teams have harmed competition.”
German video conferencing company Alfaview, which filed a complaint to the commission following Slack, also welcomed the decision. The measures Microsoft has taken so far to unbundle Teams have been ineffective, Niko Fostiropoulos, CEO and founder of Alfaview, said in a statement. “Microsoft offers existing enterprise customers who opt out of Teams in the overall package only a minimal discount of €2 ($2.10),” he said. “This does not provide sufficient incentives to switch to another video conferencing service.”
It’s 10 pm on a Wednesday night and I’m standing in Blessed, a south London takeaway joint, half-listening to a fellow customer talking earnestly about Jesus. I’m nodding along, trying to pay attention as reggae reverberates around the small yellow shop front. But really, all I can really think about is: What’s in the bag?
Today’s bag is blue plastic. A smiling man passes it over the counter. Only once I extricate myself from the religious lecture and get home do I discover what’s inside: Caribbean saltfish, white rice, vegetables, and a cup of thick, brown porridge.
All week, I’ve lived off mysterious packages like this one, handed over by cafés, takeaways, and restaurants across London. Inside is food once destined for the bin. Instead, I’ve rescued it using Too Good To Go, a Danish app that is surging in popularity, selling over 120 million meals last year and expanding fast in the US. For five days, I decided to divert my weekly food budget to eat exclusively through the app, paying between £3 and £6 (about $4 to $8) for meals that range from a handful of cakes to a giant box of groceries, in an attempt to understand what a tech company can teach me about food waste in my own city.
Users who open the TGTG app are presented with a list of establishments that either have food going spare right now or expect to in the near future. Provided is a brief description of the restaurant, a price, and a time slot. Users pay through the app, but this is not a delivery service. Surprise bags—customers have only a vague idea of what’s inside before they buy—have to be collected in person.
I start my experiment at 9:30 on a Monday morning, in the glistening lobby of the Novotel Hotel, steps away from the River Thames. Of all the breakfast options available the night before, this was the most convenient—en route to my office and offering a pickup slot that means I can make my 10 am meeting. When I say I’m here for TGTG, a suited receptionist nods and gestures toward the breakfast buffet. This branch of the Novotel is a £200-a-night hotel, yet staff do not seem begrudging of the £4.50 entry fee I paid in exchange for leftover breakfast. A homeless charity tells me its clients like the app for precisely that reason; cheap food, without the stigma. A server politely hands over my white-plastic surprise bag with two polystyrene boxes inside, as if I am any other guest.
I open the boxes in my office. One is filled with mini pastries, while the other is overflowing with Full English. Two fried eggs sit atop a mountain of scrambled eggs. Four sausages jostle for space with a crowd of mushrooms. I diligently start eating—a bite of cold fried egg, a mouthful of mushrooms, all four sausages. I finish with a croissant. This is enough to make me feel intensely full, verging on sick, so I donate the croissants to the office kitchen and tip the rest into the bin. This feels like a disappointing start. I am supposed to be rescuing waste food, not throwing it away.
Over the next two days, I live like a forager in my city, molding my days around pickups. I walk and cycle to cafés, restaurants, markets, supermarkets; to familiar haunts and places I’ve never noticed. Some surprise bags last for only one meal, others can be stretched out for days. On Tuesday morning, my £3.59 surprise bag includes a small cake and a slightly stale sourdough loaf, which provides breakfast for three more days. When I go back to the same café the following week, without using the app, the loaf alone costs £6.95.
TGTG was founded in Copenhagen in 2015 by a group of Danish entrepreneurs who were irked by how much food was wasted by all-you-can-eat buffets. Their idea to repurpose that waste quickly took off, and the app’s remit expanded to include restaurants and supermarkets. A year after the company was founded, Mette Lykke was sitting on a bus when a woman showed her the app and how it worked. She was so impressed, she reached out to the company to ask if she could help. Lykke has now been CEO for six years.
“I just hate wasting resources,” she says. “It was just this win-win-win concept.” To her, the restaurants win because they get paid for food they would have otherwise thrown away; the customer wins because they get a good deal while simultaneously discovering new places; and the environment wins because, she says, food waste contributes 10 percent of our global greenhouse gas emissions. When thrown-away food rots in a landfill, it releases methane into the atmosphere—with homes and restaurants the two largest contributors.
But the app doesn’t leave me with the impression I’m saving the planet. Instead, I feel more like I’m on a daily treasure hunt for discounted food. On Wednesday, TGTG leads me to a railway arch which functions as a depot for the grocery delivery app Gorillas. Before I’ve even uttered the words “Too Good To Go,” a teenager with an overgrown fringe emerges silently from the alleys of shelving units with this evening’s bag: groceries, many still days away from expiring, that suspiciously add up to create an entire meal for two people. For £5.50, I receive fresh pasta, pesto, cream, bacon, leeks, and a bag of stir-fry vegetables, which my husband merges into a single (delicious) pasta dish. It feels too convenient to be genuine waste. Perhaps Gorillas is attempting to convert me into its own customer? When I ask its parent company, Getir, how selling food well in date helps combat food waste, the company does not reply to my email.
I am still thinking about my Gorillas experience at lunchtime on Thursday as I follow the app’s directions to the Wowshee falafel market stall, where 14 others are already queuing down the street. A few casual conversations later, I realize I am one of at least four TGTG users in the line. Seeing so many of us in one place again makes me wonder if restaurants are just using the app as a form of advertising. But Wowshee owner Ahmed El Shimi describes the marketing benefits as only a “little bonus.” For him, the app’s main draw is it helps cut down waste. “We get to sell the product that we were going to throw away anyway,” he says. “And it saves the environment at the same time.” El Shimi, who says he sells around 20 surprise bags per day, estimates using TGTG reduces the amount of food the stall wastes by around 60 percent. When I pay £5 for two portions of falafel—which lasts for lunch and dinner—the business receives £3.75 before tax, El Shimi says. “It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing.”
On Friday, my final day of the experiment, everything falls apart. I sleep badly and wake up late. The loaf from earlier in the week is rock solid. I eat several mini apple pies for breakfast, which were part of a generous £3.09 Morrisons supermarket haul the night before. Browsing the app, nothing appeals to me, and even if it did I’m too tired to face leaving the house to collect it. After four days of eating nothing but waste food, I crack and seek solace in familiar ingredients buried in my cupboard: two fried eggs on my favorite brand of seeded brown bread.
TGTG is not a solution for convenience. For me, the app is an answer for office lunch malaise. It pulled me out of my lazy routine while helping me eat well—in central London—for a £5 budget. In the queue for falafel, I met a fellow app user who told me how, before she discovered the app, she would eat the same sandwich from the same supermarket for lunch every day. For people without access to a kitchen, it offers a connection to an underworld of hot food going spare.
