Technology - Google News |
| Slack Files EU Antitrust Complaint Against Microsoft - The Wall Street Journal Posted: 22 Jul 2020 06:04 AM PDT  Slack Technologies alleges that Microsoft forces companies to install Teams, blocks its removal and makes certain types of interoperability impossible.Photo: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg News MSFT 0.88% Business-messaging app Slack has filed an antitrust complaint against Microsoft Corp. MSFT 0.88% in the European Union, adding a big name to a series of tech firms under scrutiny on both sides of the Atlantic for allegedly abusing their dominance, and echoing the Windows-maker's competition battles more than a decade ago. The complaint, filed Wednesday to the European Commission, the EU's top competition regulator, accuses Microsoft of trying to snuff out competition in its push into workplace collaboration tools by tying its Teams software to its widely used Office productivity suite. Slack Technologies Inc., WORK -2.64% which supplies its messaging app as well as a hub for other business-collaboration apps, alleges that Microsoft forces companies to install Teams, blocks its removal and makes certain types of interoperability impossible. The company is asking the EU to force Microsoft to sell Teams as a stand-alone product, rather than bundling it with Office. A spokeswoman for Microsoft didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokeswoman for the European Commission said the regulator has received Slack's complaint against Microsoft and "will assess it under our standard procedures." In the past such complaints have at times—but not always—led to formal investigations. Wednesday's complaint is the latest of several complaints and open investigations in the EU and U.S. accusing large technology companies of abusing their alleged dominance. Frequently at issue is the question of whether companies that operate big internet platforms for other companies, including Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Amazon.com Inc., have abused that power to give a preference for their own products. The EU last month opened formal probes into Apple's alleged abuse of the dominance of its App Store, including one that was based on a 2019 complaint from Spotify Technology SA . At the same time, scrutiny of large tech companies is heating up in the U.S. The Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission and Congress are all investigating large technology companies over potential antitrust matters. Microsoft has aggressively pushed Teams, with some rivals saying it has used sharp-elbowed tactics such as bundling its software to do so, The Wall Street Journal reported last month. The market for workplace collaboration software like Slack and Teams has become particularly hard-fought during the coronavirus pandemic, which has forced tens of millions of people to work from home. Other companies fighting for the market include Google, Facebook and Zoom Video Communications Inc. Slack says it has been discussing its gripes about Microsoft with regulators in the U.S. and elsewhere for some time. Its decision to file a complaint first in the EU rather than the U.S., where both it and Microsoft are based, stems in part from the EU's aggressive pursuit of antitrust cases against U.S. companies. Another factor the company cited: The EU has found that distribution of a product to a dominant offering can violate competition law—a precedent established in part by a case involving Microsoft. While Microsoft has lately been less of a focus of competition investigations than other tech companies, it was once firmly in the crosshairs of both the U.S. and EU. In the 1990s, the U.S. government sued Microsoft on antitrust grounds for allegedly using the dominance of Windows to stifle competition in the burgeoning browser market. The two sides ultimately settled. Similar bundling complaints arose in the EU in the 2000s, regarding Microsoft's bundling of its in-house media player with the Windows operating system. The EU fined Microsoft a total of €2.2 billion ($2.5 billion) in the EU between 2004 and 2013. In addition, it was forced to release a special version of Windows without its media player, though few copies ever sold. Write to Sam Schechner at sam.schechner@wsj.com Copyright ©2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Samsung's $1,450 Galaxy Z Flip 5G will land in the US on August 7th - Engadget Posted: 22 Jul 2020 06:42 AM PDT Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip is the best foldable we've tested so far this year, and it's a little odd to see that sentiment in writing -- it feels like we published that review a lifetime ago, not five months back. What's more peculiar is just how quickly Samsung cooked up a new version of its charming foldable flip phone. The company officially announced the Galaxy Z Flip 5G this morning, and as its name suggests, the device packs the next-generation network support the original missed out on. The first Galaxy Z Flip used Qualcomm's Snapdragon 855 Plus chipset, a sliver of computing silicon that was about a year old when Samsung squeezed it into its second foldable. We didn't have any issues with how the chipset's octa-core processor ran, but it was a generation older than what we got in the Galaxy S20 series and couldn't play nice with 5G networks -- not exactly a great look for a $1,380 phone. The new, $1,450 Z Flip 5G remedies that by using the Snapdragon 865 Plus chipset instead, making this new model at least marginally faster than the S20s we got earlier this year. (We'll let you know how much faster when we can; this will be one of the first 865+ phones to hit the US.) Samsung hasn't confirmed if it will continue to sell the original Z Flip alongside the 5G model, but we'll update this story once we know for sure either way. We do know, however, that AT&T and T-Mobile will be selling the phone starting on August 7th, alongside Amazon and Best Buy.com. For now at least, that means Samsung is focused on getting the Z Flip 5G into the hands of customers connecting to more widely available sub-6 5G networks, rather than the hyper-local mmWave deployments carriers like Verizon initially focused on. It's worth noting though that the Snapdragon 865+ actually plays nice with both kinds of 5G networks, so it seems the only things stopping a new Z Flip from showing up on Verizon store shelves are some handshakes and signed agreements.  Apart from all that, the rest of the Z Flip formula hasn't changed much. There's still a tiny, 1.1-inch LCD screen on top of the phone -- or on its back, depending on how you look at it -- and its dual battery capacity is still locked at 3,300mAh. That's not to say Samsung just swapped chipsets and called it a day, though. The biggest physical difference between the original versions and these new models are their colors: The Z Flip 5G comes in Mystic Gray and the same Mystic Bronze we've seen in all those Galaxy Note 20 leaks. And these new Z Flips pack updated software features, like a new Multi-window panel that makes it easier to launch two apps on top of each other, and the ability to run YouTube in Flex Mode. (Presumably, these tweaks will land on the older Z Flip via software update soon enough.) As usual, a bevy of pre-launch leaks means the Z Flip 5G's existence wasn't much of a secret. What's more surprising is Samsung's timing: It seems unusual for the company to be talking about its foldable plans right now, with Unpacked set to unfold in a web browser near you in just a few weeks. On the other hand, though, today's announcement may have just made Samsung's Unpacked agenda more obvious. Tae-moon Roh, president and head of Samsung's mobile communications business, wrote in a recent blog post that the company plans to announce "five new power devices" during the streamed event. The current list of leaks either confirms or strongly suggests that some Galaxy Notes, a Galaxy Watch, some bean-shaped earbuds and a new Galaxy Tab to take on the iPad Pro will be among the devices Samsung reveals on August 5th -- now that the Z Flip 5G is official, it may be that Samsung's last big Unpacked reveal will be the next-generation Galaxy Fold. Or not. There might not be a "last big reveal" if one of those five slots is technically occupied by something like a Galaxy Note 20 Ultra instead, but we're hopeful that Samsung isn't done talking about new foldables just yet.
|
| You are subscribed to email updates from Technology - Latest - Google News. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
This post have 0 komentar
EmoticonEmoticon