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  • FTC and 17 States Sue Amazon For Alleged Antitrust Violations

    FTC and 17 States Sue Amazon For Alleged Antitrust Violations

    The Federal Trade Commission has launched a widely expected lawsuit against Amazon over alleged antitrust violations.

    The FTC has been investigating Amazon’s business practices and preparing a case against the tech giant for months. The FTC makes clear that it is not suing Amazon become of its size, but because of alleged “exclusionary conduct” aimed at stifling competition from existing or potential rivals.

    “Our complaint lays out how Amazon has used a set of punitive and coercive tactics to unlawfully maintain its monopolies,” said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. “The complaint sets forth detailed allegations noting how Amazon is now exploiting its monopoly power to enrich itself while raising prices and degrading service for the tens of millions of American families who shop on its platform and the hundreds of thousands of businesses that rely on Amazon to reach them. Today’s lawsuit seeks to hold Amazon to account for these monopolistic practices and restore the lost promise of free and fair competition.”

    The FTC took special note of Amazon’s practice of punishing sellers who try to offer lower prices through other outlets, as well as the company’s efforts to force sellers into gaining “Prime” status, ensuring Amazon is able to charge them significant fees for fulfillment services. The agency also took issue with Amazon’s practice of pushing its own products, preferring advertised products over genuine results, and adding more fees to sellers, with many of them paying Amazon as much as 50% of what they earn.

    “We’re bringing this case because Amazon’s illegal conduct has stifled competition across a huge swath of the online economy. Amazon is a monopolist that uses its power to hike prices on American shoppers and charge sky-high fees on hundreds of thousands of online sellers,” said John Newman, Deputy Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition. “Seldom in the history of U.S. antitrust law has one case had the potential to do so much good for so many people.”

    The FTC was joined in its lawsuit by the attorneys general of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.

  • JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon Working on First Republic Rescue Plan

    JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon Working on First Republic Rescue Plan

    JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is reportedly leading the charge to save First Republic Bank and restore confidence in the bank.

    First Republic is facing its worst crisis in 15 years on the heels of three other banks collapsing. Silicon Valley Bank collapsed in early March, and Signature Bank followed shortly after. Meanwhile, Credit Suisse’s freewheeling ways finally caught up with it, leading to its sale to rival UBS.

    According to The Wall Street Journal, Dimon is leading a coalition of banks that are trying to keep First Republic from following SVB and Signature. Dimon helped orchestrate eleven banks in depositing $30 billion into First Republic in an effort to restore confidence.

    The assisting banks have yet to rule out converting the deposit into a straight cash infusion if necessary.

    Either way, the lengths Dimon and his fellow bankers are going to demonstrate the fragility of the current economic situation.

  • Oracle Releases Java 20

    Oracle Releases Java 20

    Oracle has released Java 20, the latest Feature Release on the company’s six-month update cycle.

    Java 20 is not a a long-term support (LTS) release, so it will only provide updates until version 21 comes out in six months. Nonetheless, this version provides a number of bug fixes and improvements.

    “Instead of making tens of thousands of fixes and delivering close to one hundred JEPs (JDK Enhancement Proposals) every few years, as we did with yesteryear Major Releases, enhancements are delivered in leaner Feature Releases on a more manageable, predictable, six-month schedule,” writes Sharat Chander Director, Java SE Product Management. “The changes range from significant new features to small enhancements to routine maintenance, bug fixes, and documentation improvements. Each change is represented in a single commit for a single issue in the JDK Bug System.

    “Of the 21,604 JIRA issues marked as fixed in Java 11 through Java 20 at the time of their GA, 15,420 were completed by people working for Oracle while 6,184 were contributed by individual developers and developers working for other organizations.”

    Java 20 also includes a number of significant new features and improvements, including:

    • (D)TLS Key Exchange Named Groups
    • Add GarbageCollectorMXBean for Remark and Cleanup Pause Time in G1
    • Unicode 15.0 Support
    • Improved Control of G1 Concurrent Refinement Threads
    • New JFR Event: jdk.InitialSecurityProperty
    • New JFR Event: jdk.SecurityProviderService
    • …and much more

    For more information, check out Oracle’s full release announcement.

  • Amazon Is Shutting DPReview.com

    Amazon Is Shutting DPReview.com

    Amazon is shutting down popular camera review site DPReview.com, ending a 25-year run.

    DPReview.com established itself as the destination for in-depth reviews of cameras and various photography equipment. Amazon ultimately acquired the company in 2007, roughly nine years after its launch.

    “Dpreview.com is by far the most authoritative source anywhere for straight talk about new digital cameras,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and then-CEO of Amazon said at the time. “We at Amazon.com have been their fans for a long time, and we extend a big welcome to the dpreview.com team.”

    Unfortunately for photography enthusiasts and professionals, Amazon is now shutting the site down, per an announcement on DPReview.com:

    Dear readers,

    After nearly 25 years of operation, DPReview will be closing in the near future. This difficult decision is part of the annual operating plan review that our parent company shared earlier this year.

    The site will remain active until April 10, and the editorial team is still working on reviews and looking forward to delivering some of our best-ever content.

    Everyone on our staff was a reader and fan of DPReview before working here, and we’re grateful for the communities that formed around the site.

    Thank you for your support over the years, and we hope you’ll join us in the coming weeks as we celebrate this journey.

    Sincerely,

    Scott Everett General Manager – DPReview.com

  • Get Ready for Another Nvidia GPU Crunch

    Get Ready for Another Nvidia GPU Crunch

    Gamers may enjoy a ready supply of Nvidia GPUs, but that may soon change as the AI market heats up.

    During the pandemic and crypto heyday, Nvidia’s GPUs were in short supply. The sudden uptick in demand for personal computers and crypto mining rigs combined to drive the price of Nvidia’s GPUs through the roof and make it almost impossible to actually buy one.

    Those days may return faster than anyone — except Nvidia, of course — may like. At the GTC 2023 Keynote yesterday, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang made it clear that Nvidia is all-in on AI.

    “We are at the iPhone moment of AI,” Huang said during his keynote, in which he touted the number of companies rolling out Nvidia’s AI systems. The list of companies includes Atos, AWS, Cirrascale, CoreWeave, Dell, Gigabyte, HPE, Lambda, Lenovo, Oracle, QCT, and Supermicro.

    As TechRadar’s John Loeffler points out, the increased demand for Nvidia’s chips in the AI market could eventually force the company to choose between the consumer gaming market and the more profitable commercial market. This could lead to a significant reduction in available GPUs, or it could lead to Nvidia pulling out of the market altogether.

  • Google Releases Bard AI to the Public

    Google Releases Bard AI to the Public

    Google is moving to the next stage of its AI development, releasing it to the public to try out, although using it will require joining a waitlist.

    Bard AI is Google’s attempt to take on Microsoft’s Bing AI, which is based on OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Unfortunately for Google, its initial launch of Bard did not go well, with the AI giving a wrong answer during its public reveal. The flub cost Alphabet $100 billion in stock value.

    Since its botched reveal, Google has been working night and day to improve Bard, with CEO Sundar Pichai asking Googlers to volunteer their time to help improve it.

    It seems Google believes Bard is finally ready for the public, providing a waitlist for people to sign up for access:

    Meet Bard: your creative and helpful collaborator, here to supercharge your imagination, boost your productivity, and bring your ideas to life.

    Bard is an experiment and may give inaccurate or inappropriate responses. You can help make Bard better by leaving feedback. Join the waitlist and try it for yourself.

    You can sign up here.

  • Microsoft Is Taking a ‘Principled Approach’ to Changing Default Apps

    Microsoft Is Taking a ‘Principled Approach’ to Changing Default Apps

    Microsoft is going to make it much easier for users to change their default apps, adopting a “principled approach.”

    Microsoft’s latest versions of Windows have disappointed and angered users by making it unnecessarily difficult to change the default web browser and other apps. In fact, when Windows 11 first dropped, changing the default browser required changing the default handler for each and every file type web browsers normally handle.

    While Microsoft eventually changed its stance and made it easier to change the default web browser, the company is taking it a step further.

    “Today we’re reaffirming our long-standing approach to put people in control of their Windows PC experience and to empower developers to take advantage of our open platform,” write Tali Roth & Aaron Grady.

    “We want to ensure that people are in control of what gets pinned to their Desktop, their Start menu and their Taskbar as well as to be able to control their default applications such as their default browser through consistent, clear and trustworthy Windows provided system dialogs and settings.”

    The company is adding a new option in the Settings app that will allow users to set their preferred apps.

    Microsoft App Preference Settings – Credit Microsoft

    “For defaults, we will soon introduce a new Settings deep link URI for applications to take their users directly to the appropriate location in Settings for the user to change their defaults,” Roth and Grady add. “This is an extension to our existing ms-settings: URI scheme. Learn more about ms-settings: URI schemes.”

    It’s nice to see Microsoft listening to user feedback and making it easier for people to use the apps of their choice.

  • Microsoft May Launch Mobile Game Store Next Year

    Microsoft May Launch Mobile Game Store Next Year

    Microsoft may launch a mobile game store next year in one of its most ambitious attempts to take on Apple and Google.

    In an interview with Financial Times, via CNET, CEO of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer said the decision is contingent on the company’s Activision Blizzard acquisition being approved.

    “We want to be in a position to offer Xbox and content from both us and our third-party partners across any screen where somebody would want to play,” Spencer told said. “Today, we can’t do that on mobile devices but we want to build towards a world that we think will be coming where those devices are opened up.”

    Microsoft plans appear to line up with the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) that will require Apple and Google to allow third-party app stores on their platforms. Once the legislation goes into effect in March 2024, Microsoft will be able to compete on far more level ground.

  • Zippyshare File Hosting Service Is Shutting Down After 17 Years

    Zippyshare File Hosting Service Is Shutting Down After 17 Years

    Zippyshare, the popular file hosting service, is shutting down after 17 years of operation, despite 45 million monthly visits.

    Zippyshare launched in 2006 and quickly grew to be one of the most popular file hosting services, offering generous size limits for free. Unfortunately, in a world where ad blocking is increasingly popular, the project can no longer afford to stay operational.

    The project made the announcement on its blog:

    We’ve decided that we’re shutting down the project at the end of the month. Please make backups of your important files, you have about two weeks to do so. Until then, the site will run without any changes.

    The project says a “vicious cycle” of ads and ad blocking helped lead to its demise:

    All sorts of adblockers, whether built into the browser, as add-ons, or in the form of DNS services. Sure, we all use them, but they take away any control the site owner has over the site. Eventually we get to the point where a vicious cycle begins, in order to pay for the server infrastructure you are forced to place more and more ads, then users fire up more and more adblockers and we get to a point like today.

    In addition to ad blocking, the cost of electricity played a role, with prices increasing 2.5x since the site’s launch.

    In the meantime, Zippyshare will shut down at the end of March, and users are encouraged to download and backup their files immediately.

  • Amazon Laying Off 9,000 More, With AWS Hard-Hit

    Amazon Laying Off 9,000 More, With AWS Hard-Hit

    Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has announced the company plans to lay off an additional 9,000 employees, particularly in AWS, PXT, Advertising, and Twitch.

    Amazon has already laid off 18,000 employees, between reported decisions made in November and an expansion of those plans in January. CEO Andy Jassy has announced that the company plans to expand the scope of its layoffs once more, this time letting an additional 9,000 employees go:

    As we’ve just concluded the second phase of our operating plan (“OP2”) this past week, I’m writing to share that we intend to eliminate about 9,000 more positions in the next few weeks—mostly in AWS, PXT, Advertising, and Twitch. This was a difficult decision, but one that we think is best for the company long term.

    Jassy says a big part of the decision-making process involved looking at what mattered to the company’s customers and how best to meet those needs:

    As our internal businesses evaluated what customers most care about, they made re-prioritization decisions that sometimes led to role reductions, sometimes led to moving people from one initiative to another, and sometimes led to new openings where we don’t have the right skills match from our existing team members.

    It’s interesting that AWS is one of the teams being targeted with this round of layoffs, but Jassy emphasized his faith in the cloud division’s future:

    I remain very optimistic about the future and the myriad of opportunities we have, both in our largest businesses, Stores and AWS, and our newer customer experiences and businesses in which we’re investing.

  • Credit Suisse Collapses, Sells to Rival UBS

    Credit Suisse Collapses, Sells to Rival UBS

    Credit Suisse has reached an agreement to be purchased by rival UBS, ending its 167-year run as an independent institution.

    Credit Suisse developed a reputation for taking risks that many other banks wouldn’t. As The Wall Street Journal reports, the bank emerged from the 2008 crisis stronger than many rivals, a position that emboldened it to continue its freewheeling style.

    “They felt, ‘We are the winner from the financial crisis, and everyone else is hurt,’” said Andreas Venditti, a Vontobel banking analyst. “So they doubled down on these kinds of businesses and on investment-banking exposure in general.”

    Unfortunately, the bank’s reputation caught up with it, and amid the economic downturn and failing banks, investors were more rattled than expected. The bank’s stocks tanked, and it struggled to compete with other banks for deals critical to its survival.

    “Credit Suisse’s problem for decades, and I really mean decades, is terrible operational risk management,” said Mayra Rodriguez Valladares, a U.S.-based consultant bank regulation consultant. “Everyone lets them get away with it: The U.K., the U.S., the Swiss.”

    While regulators may have let Credit Suisse get away with its antics, the market didn’t.

  • Amazon May Be Working On An AI-Powered Web Browser

    Amazon May Be Working On An AI-Powered Web Browser

    Amazon may be looking to disrupt the web browser market with an AI-powered entry in what could be a major threat to established players.

    Amazon recently sent out a survey to users asking what they value in a web browser. Consumer Reports’ Nicholas De Leon tweeted about the survey:

    Gizmodo got a hold of a copy of the survey, and the questions include asking what features people value and what features would convince them to try a new web browser. AI integration is one of the feature choices.

    While the web browser market is fairly crowded, it’s dominated by Google Chrome and Apple’s Safari. Firefox brings up a distant third, with everything else fighting for scraps.

    Amazon has the brand-name recognition and integration with established services to possibly be the most disruptive entry since Google Chrome.

  • Minnesota Nuclear Plant Leaked 400,000 Gallons of Radioactive Water

    Minnesota Nuclear Plant Leaked 400,000 Gallons of Radioactive Water

    Xcel Energy’s Monticello nuclear plant leaked 400,000 gallons of radioactive water, although regulators say there’s no danger.

    According to AP News, regulators have been monitoring the Xcel’s cleanup efforts surrounding the radioactive water leak, saying the company took swift action to address the issue.

    The company evidently reported the leak of tritium-contaminated water to federal and state authorities in late November, but the public was not informed until this week.

    “We knew there was a presence of tritium in one monitoring well, however Xcel had not yet identified the source of the leak and its location,” Minnesota Pollution Control Agency spokesman Michael Rafferty said.

    “Now that we have all the information about where the leak occurred, how much was released into groundwater, and that contaminated groundwater had moved beyond the original location, we are sharing this information,” he said, adding the water remains contained on Xcel’s property and poses no immediate public health risk.

    The company says the leak poses no danger to people or the environment.

  • Lamborghini Rolling Out Hybrid Tech Across All Models in India in 2024

    Lamborghini Rolling Out Hybrid Tech Across All Models in India in 2024

    Lamborghini has announced it is rolling out hybrid tech across all models in India by the end of 2024.

    Automakers across the globe are racing to deploy hybrid vehicles as governments and companies try to address climate change. As one of the world’s largest economies and automotive centers, rolling out hybrid tech in India is an important step toward that goal.

    While it’s not a major player in the Indian market, Lamborghini is nonetheless working to hybridize its lineup before the end of next year.

    “The roadmap for us is that by the end of 2024 we are going to hybridise our entire model range. So this year we will have a first hybrid, the new V12, then in 2024 we will have the Urus hybrid and also a new V10 which is also going to be a hybrid,” Lamborghini India Head Sharad Agarwal told PTI.

  • FCC to Boost Cellular/Satellite Communication Adoption

    FCC to Boost Cellular/Satellite Communication Adoption

    T-Mobile and SpaceX’s efforts to join cellular and satellite phone service are getting a bit of help from the FCC.

    The FCC has unveiled “a new regulatory framework to facilitate innovative collaborations between satellite operators and wireless companies.” The framework will help cellular operators better tap into the growing network of satellites being used for internet service.

    T-Mobile and SpaceX announced a deal for the nation’s second-largest carrier to use SpaceX’s Starlink satellite constellation to help provide coast-to-coast coverage in the US.

    “We’ve always thought differently about what it means to keep customers connected, and that’s why we’re working with the best to deliver coverage above and beyond anything customers have ever seen before,” said Mike Sievert, CEO and president of T-Mobile, said at the time of the announcement. “More than just a groundbreaking alliance, this represents two industry-shaking innovators challenging the old ways of doing things to create something entirely new that will further connect customers and scare competitors.”

    The FCC’s proposed framework would make it easier for T-Mobile, SpaceX, and other companies to integrate their services:

    The FCC proposes allowing authorized non-geostationary orbit satellite operators to apply to access terrestrial spectrum if certain prerequisites are met, including a lease from the terrestrial licensee within a specified geographic area. A satellite operator could then serve a wireless provider’s customers should they need connectivity in remote areas, for example in the middle of the Chihuahuan Desert, Lake Michigan, the 100-Mile Wilderness, or the Uinta Mountains.

    “We are fast heading to a world where next-generation wireless networks will connect everyone and everything around us,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “They will open up possibilities for communications that we cannot even fully imagine today. But we will not be successful in our effort to make this always-on connectivity available to everyone, everywhere if we limit ourselves to using only one technology. We are going to need it all—fiber networks, licensed terrestrial wireless systems, next-generation unlicensed technology, and satellite broadband. But if we do this right, these networks will seamlessly interact in a way that is invisible to the user. We won’t need to think about what network, where, and what services are available. Connections will just work everywhere, all the time. “

  • UK Government Building a £900M Supercomputer to Create ‘BritGPT’

    UK Government Building a £900M Supercomputer to Create ‘BritGPT’

    The UK government is spending big — to the tune of £900m — to ensure it doesn’t get left being in the AI game.

    With OpenAI’s ChatGPT powering Microsoft Bing, Google developing Bard, and Baidu working on Ernie, the UK government wants to make sure it’s not left behind. According to The Guardian, the UK government is investing in a supercomputer to build its own “BritGPT.”

    The supercomputer will “allow researchers to better understand climate change, power the discovery of new drugs and maximise our potential in AI.”

    The supercomputer is an exascale computer, capable of “more than one billion billion simple calculations a second, a metric known as an “’exaflops.’” There is only one other known exascale computer housed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the US.

    “We think there’s a risk that we in the UK, lose out to the large tech companies, and possibly China, and get left behind … in areas of cybersecurity, of healthcare, and so on. It is a massive arms race that has been around for some time, but the heat has certainly been turned up most recently,” said Adrian Joseph, BT’s chief data and artificial intelligence officer, speaking to the Commons science and technology committee.

    “Because AI needs computing horsepower, I today commit around £900m of funding … for an exascale supercomputer,” said the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt.

  • Rural US Hospitals Are Getting Clobbered by Ransomware

    Rural US Hospitals Are Getting Clobbered by Ransomware

    Rural US hospitals are losing the fight against ransomware due to limited resources compared to bigger organizations.

    According to Cyberscoop, witnesses testified in a recent Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee meeting that smaller hospitals are struggling to combat ransomware attacks. In most cases, while there is plenty of information available to help organizations, the issue stems from a lack of resources, including qualified cybersecurity personnel.

    “We also saw cybercriminals shift their focus to small and rural hospitals with this group lagging behind in strengthening their defenses,” said Kate Pierce, senior virtual information security officer at cybersecurity firm Fortified Health Security. “Our rural hospitals are facing unprecedented budget constraints with up to 30% or more in the red, with the public health emergency scheduled to end in May.”

    Unfortunately, the issue is only going to get worse as bad actors exploit small hospitals’ vulnerability. Some are even stepping up the pressure on smaller hospitals specifically, posting patient information — including nude examination photos — online in an effort to force hospitals to pay up.

    “In recent years, increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks in the healthcare and public health sectors posed alarming threats to people in Michigan, as well as across the country,” said Committee Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich.

  • Meta’s Blue Checkmark Verified Program Is Now Available…Sort Of

    Meta’s Blue Checkmark Verified Program Is Now Available…Sort Of

    Meta is launching its Verified program, adopting a feature that Twitter has long been known for.

    Verified badges, seen as little blue checkmarks, give users a measure of confidence that a person is who they say they are. Twitter has had the feature for years, although it has undergone some changes under Elon Musk’s leadership.

    Meta is now rolling out its own verification system, giving users the option to sign up on a waitlist to receive their Verified badge.

    Get started with the verification process. Activate your Meta Verified subscription for $14.99 USD/month (iOS/Android) or $11.99 USD/month on the web (Facebook only). It is currently available in the United States, Australia and New Zealand for people 18 years or older and is not yet available in all places or for businesses.

  • Amazon Faces NYC Lawsuit for Not Disclosing Facial Rec Use

    Amazon Faces NYC Lawsuit for Not Disclosing Facial Rec Use

    Amazon is facing a class-action lawsuit in New York City over not disclosing its use of facial recognition in its Go stores.

    NYC is the only major city in the US that requires businesses to disclose when they are using facial recognition, according to CNBC. Amazon’s Go stores achieve their cashier-less by using a plethora of cameras to link a person’s purchases with their Amazon account.

    The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Alfredo Perez, says Amazon violated NYC’s law by not clearly disclosing the use of facial recognition until just recently, when the company finally put up cameras.

    “To make this ‘Just Walk Out’ technology possible, the Amazon Go stores constantly collect and use customers’ biometric identifier information, including by scanning the palms of some customers to identify them and by applying computer vision, deep learning algorithms, and sensor fusion that measure the shape and size of each customer’s body to identify customers, track where they move in the stores, and determine what they have purchased,” the lawsuit says.

    The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project is representing Perez.

    “It means that even a global tech giant can’t ignore local privacy laws,” Albert Cahn, project director, told CNBC in a text message. “As we wait for long overdue federal privacy laws, it shows there is so much local governments can do to protect their residents.”