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Apple agreed to halve its App Store fee for Amazon so the company would bring its Prime Video app to iOS and Apple TV, emails reveal (.pdf).

Apple exec Eddy Cue and Amazon boss Jeff Bezos personally negotiated the deal in 2016, it was revealed during Wednesday’s antitrust hearing looking into tech giants’ business practices. They agreed that Apple would get a 15% revenue cut from day one for customers who signed up through the app. Apple normally gets a 30% cut for the first year of an app’s subscription. It then claims a 15% commission for subsequent years.

Popular secure messaging app Telegram filed a formal antitrust complaint with the European Union over App Store practices, the Financial Times reports.

In a complaint addressed to EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager, Telegram’s creators argue that Apple must “allow users to have the opportunity of downloading software outside of the App Store.”

Apple’s 30% commission on certain apps is one of the main areas Apple CEO Tim Cook was grilled on during Wednesday’s U.S. House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee hearing.

However, according to internal emails revealed as part of the inquiry, Apple previously considered increasing its cut from 30% to 40% in some cases.

Apple CEO Tim Cook mostly avoided questioning during Wednesday’s historic congressional antitrust hearing on the business practices of Big Tech.

Cook took only a handful of questions from the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee. Lawmakers directed most of their questioning — which capped a year-long investigation into antitrust issues — at Cook’s fellow CEOs from Facebook, Google and Amazon.

When Apple reports its fiscal third-quarter earnings Thursday, the world will learn how the company is doing in the middle of a global pandemic.

Analysts predict a drop in revenue. But Apple itself previously said it’s seeing an increase in Mac and iPad sales. And investors have pushed the stock up almost 30% this year.

The Attorney General of Arizona is reportedly looking into Apple’s practice of slowing down the performance of older iPhones to preserve battery life.

Apple admitted it was doing this back in 2017, and gave users control of if and when it happens. But the investigation by the Arizona AG goes on.

Google on Wednesday committed to a free iOS app that lets iPhone users automatically back up photos, videos, contacts and calendar events. This goes into the 15GB of free storage offered by this company.

This will compete with a service offered by Apple to do the same.

Apple CEO Tim Cook defended App Store business practices and said his company treats all software developers equally as he faced questioning Wednesday in front of the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee.

Cook said it’s in Apple’s best interest to treat devs fairly. The company wants the best and brightest to write iOS apps, he said, because killer software proves essential for a company engaged in a “street fight for market share in the smartphone business.”

Anyone wanting a serious dose of nostalgia should install a just-released emulator of a classic Apple desktop computer running Mac OS 8, first released in 1997. There’s even a bunch of games and productivity applications from the same era.

Spotify’s Q2 earnings showed largely positive growth, although the streaming music giant suffered a 21% decline in ad revenue and a 48% rise in operating costs due to deals like its $100 million licensing deal for The Joe Rogan Experience.

Total monthly active users on the platform grew to 299 million, while paid subscribers increased to 138 million. Apple Music, which does not operate a free listening tier (outside of Beats 1 radio), last reported 60 million paid subscribers in June 2019 when it had passed 60 million.

A new deal means that movie fans won’t be waiting as long to see Universal Pictures movies pop up for sale on iTunes and other digital platforms after their theatrical debut.

According to a Wall Street Journal article, an agreement between theater chain AMC Entertainment and Universal means that the theatrical exclusivity window will be cut from 75 days to just 17 days. This means certain titles will be available after just 2.5 weeks after they first arrived in theaters.

Get ready for some high plains drifting because Mario Kart Tour is headed west. To the Wild West, more precisely!

Having travelled all over the world in previous updates, the mobile-focused version of Mario Kart is now going back in time to frontier country with its latest update. And it’s brought some appropriately themed characters along for the ride over yonder.

Apple CEO Tim Cook will argue that his company does not dominate any market in which it does business when he appears before the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee Wednesday, according to his opening statement released ahead of time (.pdf).

While Cook will say that “scrutiny is reasonable and appropriate,” he will assert that Apple refuses to make “concession on the facts” by agreeing that it is a monopoly. If anything, Cook will argue that Apple is no gatekeeper, but, through the App Store, has actually opened the gate to developers.

When Apple CEO Tim Cook takes questions from Congress on Wednesday, he’ll surely get an earful of software developers’ complaints about how the App Store operates. Chief among the criticisms will likely be the fact that Apple charges a percentage of revenue earned from in-app sales.

There’s not a bit of justification for any of these highly publicized complaints. They come from companies that want to have their cake and eat it, too.

Apple TV+ earned 19 Emmy Awards nominations, including several for The Morning Show, a star-studded drama that was a highlight of the streaming service’s launch last autumn.

That’s not bad for the first year of eligibility for Apple TV+. However, Netflix totally dominated the 72nd annual Emmy Awards nominations, which were revealed Tuesday by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The world’s biggest streamer took home an astonishing 160 Emmy noms. HBO limited series Watchmen scored the most nominations of any single series with 26.

As part of its Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, Apple on Tuesday shared a guide for teachers and parents on how to discuss race and equity in the classroom.

Your beloved Apple Watch deserves more than to be slapped on top of its included charging cable every night. Treat yours to an actual charging stand without breaking the bank and give it a better place to rest.

Here are seven stellar options, handpicked by Cult of Mac, for $30 or less.

The just-released Plugable USB-C Multiport Adapter offers the same video and USB ports as an Apple adapter, but at a much lower price.

Both products include HDMI, USB-C, and USB-A ports, and can be used with a MacBook or iPad Pro. But the Plugable version is better suited for those on a tight budget.

Airbnb and ClassPass are the two latest companies to clash with Apple over the tech giant’s demands for a percentage of in-app sales.

According to the The New York Times, the two companies — reeling from the effects of COVID-19 on their businesses — are upset that Apple demands a 30% cut of sales for their sale of online experiences.

Lawmakers reportedly will quiz Apple on its “copy-acquire-kill” strategy during Wednesday’s congressional antitrust hearing.

According to the Washington Post, this will be one of the areas that Apple will be scrutinized on to see if it has engaged in anti-competitive behavior. “Copy-acquire-kill” refers to buying companies to acquire their innovative features, before killing them to stop other platforms from having access to them.

As Apple’s services division grows in importance, the company’s newest services — Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple News+ and Apple Card — are failing to bring in significant revenue, according to a new report.

Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman writes that, while services likely will increase yet again when Apple announces its Q3 earnings this week, most of these gains will come from older services like the App Store.

Kosovo’s foreign minister Meliza Haradinaj recently wrote to Tim Cook to ask Apple to make changes to Apple Maps to reflect a disputed border with Serbia.

Haradinaj’s letter notes that: “The Apple Maps service does not show the Republic or Kosovo in its internationally recognized borders. Instead, the Republic of Kosovo is shown as part of Serbia. This is direct contradiction of the political and legal realities. It is felt as a hurt by our citizens who suffered immense loss in our independence struggle. It is also perceived as an insult to our State.”

There might be more streaming services than ever, but Netflix seems like it’s continuing to maintain momentum in the age of Disney+, HBO+, and others.

According to a new report by Sensor Tower, Netflix was the second-most downloaded iOS app in the App Store. The number one streaming video app? YouTube, of course.

The iPad mini has a 7.9-inch screen surrounded by bezels. Big ones. So a concept artist drew up some images that show how much smaller this tablet could be with an edge-to-edge display. The result is a device that’s nearly 20% smaller.

But Apple might be going in the opposite direction: making a mini with a larger screen.

Apple TV+ and Oprah Winfrey on Monday announced a new series to explore racism and other relevant topics. The goal of the The Oprah Conversation is to offer perspective on a range of topics shaping our world, and reveal gripping stories of human connection.

The topical show is coming in hot, too. The first episode, titled “How to Be an Antiracist,” airs Thursday, July 30.