Kalakshar US

Apple has been pressuring ByteDance and Tencent to close loopholes in China that funnel customers to external payment systems for making in-app purchases, according to a report by Bloomberg. Anyone living in the West knows the drill here. Apple wants that 30 percent commission.

Reporting indicates this pressure campaign began in May. Apple allegedly warned Tencent that it would reject crucial WeChat updates if it didn’t eliminate the ability for users to make payments outside of Apple’s ecosystem. Tencent complied with the original request, issuing an update in July, but Apple went one step further.

WeChat is home to thousands of third-party mini-games and experiences. Apple asked Tencent to disable in-game chat between creators and players, as that’s another theoretical loophole that could funnel users to third-party payment systems. Tencent has yet to agree to this request.

Back in June, Apple reportedly did something similar with ByteDance. It threatened to withhold updates of Douyin, which is basically the Chinese version of TikTok, unless it plugged any gaps that steer users away from that much-coveted 30 percent commission. According to Bloomberg, ByteDance has yet to issue a formal response.

These are aggressive moves on the part of Apple. China is the world’s largest smartphone market, sure, but the iPhone isn’t the dominant brand throughout the country. As a matter of fact, the phone failed to crack the top five in sales last quarter and the company recently experienced a 6.5 percent decline in profits.

It’s also worth noting that both ByteDance and Tencent aren’t happy corporate warriors looking out for the little guy. These massive companies levy their own commissions on creators and likely didn’t want Apple cutting into their bottom lines.

An Apple spokesperson was unusually blunt in a statement to Bloomberg, simply saying that company guidelines dictate that the sale of all digital goods must go through its system and that the review team has the power to reject app submissions that violate that policy. Neither Tencent or ByteDance issued a comment to Bloomberg. 

China, like the rest of the world, has been cracking down on walled gardens like Apple’s App Store. Despite the country’s hesitance to continue allowing closed ecosystems controlled by a single entity, Apple CEO Tim Cook is bullish about its prospects in China. “We continue to be confident in the long-term opportunity in China,” he said during a recent earnings call. “I don’t know how every chapter of the book reads, but we’re very confident in the long term.”

Apple is facing numerous legal hurdles all over the world regarding its Hungry Hungry Hippos approach to gobbling up commission fees. The European Commission issued a ruling that dictates it must allow app developers to steer users to payment systems and offers outside of the App Store. The company also faces potential fines from the EU, to the tune of ten percent of global annual revenue. As for the US, Epic sued Apple over its developer transaction fee policy and many other companies have expressed their own concerns. It’s also worth nothing that Tencent owns a 40 percent stake in Epic Games. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-is-fighting-tencent-and-bytedance-over-in-app-payments-in-china-155949462.html?src=rss 

After a couple of months of beta testing on consoles to iron out some bugs, Valorant is now properly available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in some regions. You can dive into the free-to-play tactical shooter on the consoles if you’re in the US, Canada, Europe, Japan or Brazil. Riot plans to open up the game to console players in other regions down the line.

Riot says it optimized the gameplay for consoles, which included the addition of a new Focus shooting mode that’s a bit like hipfire, but with lower sensitivity for greater precision. There won’t be any support for crossplay between PC and consoles so as to maintain competitive integrity, but you will have access to all your purchased or earned cosmetics and there will be shared progression across all platforms. Riot also notes that there will be parity between all platforms in terms of balance changes and added agents, maps, premium content and other features.

“We believe there are millions of players that would love to play Valorant, but currently can’t, and we hope to change that with bringing Valorant to consoles,” Valorant production designer Arnar Gylfason said in a statement. “We aim to provide them the joy of the Valorant experience and all it entails: a core tactical shooter gameplay focused on mastery and player expression, a team-based competitive environment where match quality and fairness comes first, our amazing ecosystem with a unique style, high-quality cosmetics and a thriving community that values personal and competitive identity.”

This is a significant step for Riot as Valorant is its first live-service game on console — the likes of League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics remain PC-only. However, the publisher plans to bring its upcoming LoL-based fighting game 2XKO to PlayStation and Xbox as well.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/valorant-is-now-out-of-beta-on-playstation-5-and-xbox-series-xs-160016521.html?src=rss 

Our pick for the best budget Android phone is looking even better right now as the Google Pixel 8a has dropped to a new all-time-low price. You can pick up the device for $399. That’s 20 percent off the regular price, and it’s even lower than any of the deals we saw for it during Prime Day.

The Pixel 8a has the same Tensor G3 chip as the rest of the Pixel 8 lineup, which means you get access to the same AI features that its higher-end siblings have. We’re fans of the cameras, 120Hz OLED display and battery life too (it lasted 20-and-a-half hours on our video rundown test). IP67 dust and water resistance is definitely welcome as is Qi wireless charging, even if it’s not the fastest at a max capacity of 7.5 watts. Add all of that up and it’s little surprise that the Google Pixel 8a earned a score of 90 in our review.

But that’s not all, folks. The rest of the Pixel lineup is on sale too. The standard Pixel 8 with 128GB of storage is $499, which is $200 off the regular price. We gave that model a score of 90 in our review.

The Pixel 8 Pro pipped that, however, with a score of 93. That’s our pick for the best Android phone on the market right now, and you can pick up one with 128GB of storage for $699, or $300 off.

This all comes with one key caveat in that Google is set to unveil the Pixel 9 lineup later this month. Those are expected to have more fancy features (some of which will come to Pixel 8 devices eventually), a more deeply integrated Gemini AI chatbot, an upgraded chipset and a revamped camera system. If you want the latest Pixel device — which will come with an extra year of software support — it’ll be worth holding off for a couple of weeks. However, if you need a new phone of the Android variety right now, you can’t really go wrong with any of the above options.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-google-pixel-8a-drops-to-a-new-low-of-399-135125969.html?src=rss 

People are so excited for the next-gen Switch, they’re likely holding off on buying Nintendo’s current consoles and games. At least that’s what the company’s latest earnings report seems to indicate. For the quarter ending on June 30, Nintendo posted a net profit of 80.9 billion Japanese Yen, which is higher than its forecast but over 50 percent lower than its net profit for the same period last fiscal year. In addition, the company said it only sold 2.1 million Switch consoles for the quarter. That means it experienced a 46.3 percent decline on unit sales year-on-year. Even its games didn’t sell well, seeing as Nintendo posted a software sales figure that’s 41.3 percent lower than last fiscal year’s at 30.64 million units sold. 

In its report, Nintendo admits that the low sales figures for games was caused by the lack of big releases, such as the previous year’s The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. The Super Mario Bros. Movie also helped “energize” its business back then. But since hardware sales for this quarter are similar to the previous one’s, Nintendo considers its Switch sales to be stable. 

Nintendo is expected to launch its “Switch 2” console soon. It was expected to come out sometime this year, but according to reports published in the previous months, it will be released in early 2025 instead. There’s still very little known about the upcoming console, but rumors say it will have backwards compatibility, as well as 4K capabilities. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nintendo-profits-fall-55-percent-as-people-save-their-cash-for-the-switch-2-140019403.html?src=rss