Meta announced on Wednesday that users aged 10 to 12 will soon be able to interact with others in VR if they have their parents’ approval to do so. Up until now, children were not able to chat or interact with other users on Quest.In an upcoming update, Meta is adding the ability for parents to individually add approved contacts that their child can chat with or call, and send or accept invites to join them in parent-approved VR experiences. By opening up its VR experiences to children, Meta is hoping youn ...

Core Viewpoint - Microsoft has reached a settlement with the Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE) to address antitrust complaints regarding its market practices in the cloud services sector [1][3]. Group 1: Settlement Details - The agreement includes a memorandum of understanding where Microsoft commits to changes that address CISPE's complaints, including the release of an enhanced version of Azure Stack HCI for European cloud providers [2]. - Features of the enhanced Azure Stack HCI will include multi-session virtual desktop infrastructure based on Windows 11, free Extended Security Updates (ESU), and pay-as-you-go licensing for SQL Server [2]. - Microsoft will also pay an undisclosed lump-sum to CISPE to cover litigation and campaigning costs, and in return, CISPE will withdraw its antitrust complaint with the European Commission [3]. Group 2: Implications and Reactions - CISPE views the settlement as a significant victory for European cloud providers, believing it will create a level playing field for them and their customers [3]. - However, critics argue that the agreement primarily benefits a small number of providers in Europe and does not address the broader global anticompetitive practices of Microsoft [4]. - The Coalition for Fair Software (CFSL) emphasizes that the settlement does not resolve the underlying issues affecting millions of cloud customers worldwide [4].

Apple has removed several VPN apps from its App Store in Russia at the request of the government’s communications watchdog, according to VPN makers. Last week, Russian news agency Interfax reported that Apple had removed 25 VPN apps from its App Store in Russia after Roskomnadzor, a government body that regulates the internet — including what Russians can access — demanded the removals.  The internet in Russia is heavily controlled and censored, so Russian online users often rely on VPNs to circumvent rest ...

Google has issued its 2024 Environmental Report, a more than 80-page document describing all of the massive company’s efforts to apply tech to environmental issues and to mitigate its own contributions. But it totally dodges the question of how much energy is AI using — perhaps because the answer is “way more than we’d care to say.”You can read the full report here (PDF), and honestly it’s got a lot of interesting stuff in it. It’s easy to forget how many plates a company as big as Google keeps spinning, an ...

Meta plans to bring more generative AI tech into games, specifically VR, AR and mixed reality games, as the company looks to reinvigorate its flagging metaverse strategy. According to a job listing, Meta is seeking to research and prototype “new consumer experiences” with new types of gameplay driven by generative AI, like games that “change every time you play them” and follow “non-deterministic” paths. In parallel, the company aims to build — or partner with third-party creators and vendors to use — gener ...

Preliminary findings by the European Commission investigating a controversial binary choice Meta has forced on regional users of its social neworks, Facebook and Instagram, since last fall does not comply with the bloc’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). Failure to abide by the ex ante market contestability regulation, which has applied on Meta and other so called “gatekeepers” since March 7, could be extremely costly for the adtech giant. Penalties for confirmed breaches can reach up to 10% of global annual turno ...

Adept, a startup developing AI-powered “agents” to complete various software-based tasks, has agreed to license its tech to Amazon and the startup’s co-founders and portions of its team have joined the ecommerce giant.Geekwire’s Taylor Soper first reported the news. According to Soper, Adept co-founder and CEO David Luan will join Amazon, along with Adept co-founders Augustus Odena, Maxwell Nye, Erich Elsen and Kelsey Szot and other Adept employees. Adept isn’t closing up shop, however. Zach Brock, head of ...

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Thursday that the company will begin to surface AI characters made by creators through Meta AI studio on Instagram. The test will begin in the U.S. The social media company’s announcement comes on the same day as a16z-backed chatbot company Character.ai is rolling out the ability for users to talk with AI avatars over a call. In a post on his broadcast channel, Zuckerberg noted that these chatbots will be clearly marked as AI to inform users.“Rolling out an early test ...

Amazon is folding its Amazon Clinic telehealth service into its primary care business One Medical, the company announced on Thursday. The company explained in today’s blog post that, to simplify Amazon’s primary care offering for customers, the service has now been rebranded to Amazon One Medical Pay-per-visit, and now offers more affordable per-visit pricing. Customers can pay $49 for a video call visit or $29 to text message a doctor.  Under the One Medical brand, Amazon is offering customers two options ...

Amazon is facing another competition lawsuit in the UK. The latest claim, which was filed Thursday, is seeking more than £2.7BN in damages — or around $3.4BN at current exchange rates — before the UK’s Competition Appeals Tribunal.The case is being brought by Andreas Stephan, a professor of competition law at the University of East Anglia and head of its Law School, on behalf of more than 200,000 UK third-party sellers on Amazon. The lawsuit argues Amazon has abused a dominant position in the supply of ma ...