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EU antitrust regulators seeking more info on Apple Pay

The European Commission announced on Wednesday that EU antitrust investigators are searching for additional details on Apple’s smartphone payment system, Apple Pay. This is an indication that the regulator is trying to plug any gaps in its allegations against the iPhone manufacturer.

A year ago, the EU antitrust authority alleged Apple conspired to make it hard for its competitors to establish competing solutions for Apple devices by limiting their access to its tap-and-go Near-Field Communication (NFC) technology, which is utilized for mobile wallets.

Also Read: Apple launches ‘buy now, pay later’ service in the US

“We can confirm the sending of requests for information,” a commission spokesperson said while declining to provide details.

Apple opted not to respond.

Apple has already mentioned the popularity of PayPal within its iOS smartphone OS as an alternative for users, along with rival MobilePay from Denmark, Swish from Sweden, as well as Payconiq from Belgium.

complainant Vipps and a mobile payment app from Norway claimed that NFC options are inefficient and uncompetitive.

It is rare for the commission to ask competitors and retailers for material now, three months afterward, Apple justified itself in an inquiry on February 14.

Following such hearings, the regulator normally makes its decision. If proven guilty of breaking antitrust regulations, the agency has the power to penalize Apple a maximum of ten percent of the company’s worldwide revenue.

Apple also debuted the “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) scheme in the United States in March, posing an imminent danger to the fintech industry, which is currently dominated by companies like Affirm Holdings as well as the Swedish payment provider Klarna.

With its “buy now, pay later” support, Apple is attempting to enter the loan industry. As a result, the corporation has established guidelines regarding how it will accept transactions. If you’ve been a loyal client in the past, this is one important consideration.

The Apple Pay Later service, which was introduced a year ago but is still under testing, will assess consumers based on their purchasing patterns in addition to which Apple products they now own.

Also Read: What is Apple’s rapid security response?

The service, which enables users to make purchases and spread-out payments over time, will also check to see if users have applied for an Apple Card credit card or any additional cards, they have associated with their Apple Pay account.

According to the firm, Apple Pay Later will enable customers to split expenditures into four installments spaced out over six weeks without any interest or fees. It will first be made available to a small number of users to bring it out to everyone in the upcoming months.

Suhani Jain

I am a student pursuing my bachelor’s in information technology. I have a interest in writing so, I am working a freelance content writer because I enjoy writing. I also write poetries. I believe in the quote by anne frank “paper has more patience than person

Crypto exchange Bittrex files for bankruptcy after SEC complaint

Three weeks after being charged with running an unauthorized securities exchange by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), cryptocurrency trading platform Bittrex Inc applied for bankruptcy exemption on Monday.

Bittrex which is based in Seattle stopped operating in the United States on April 30 while stating that Bittrex Global, which services clients outside of the United States, would not be impacted by the bankruptcy case. The non-American operations of the business are headquartered in Liechtenstein.

Based on a bankruptcy filing submitted in a Wilmington, Delaware court, Bittrex’s financial assets, and debts were in the range of 500 million USD to 1 billion USD.

Also Read: Qualcomm to acquire Israeli auto-chip maker Autotalks

According to Bittrex, U.S. users who hadn’t withdrawn money before April 30 still have crypto assets in their possession.

The assets in question are safe & secure, according to Bittrex, which also stated that it planned to seek the bankruptcy court seeking a brief reopening of account holders so that the cryptocurrency may be returned to customers.

Over the past twelve months, several businesses in the cryptocurrency sector have filed for bankruptcy. These failures were caused by a decline in asset prices, increased regulatory attention, and, in the scenario of the once-famous exchange FTX, criminal allegations.

the SEC filed a lawsuit against Bittrex, On April 17, saying that, William Shihara, its previous chief executive officer, had urged cryptocurrency asset issuers looking to list their tokens on the exchange’s website to take down any public declarations that would prompt regulators to look into the token sales as securities.

The cryptocurrency assets on Bittrex’s website weren’t securities or investment agreements, according to Bittrex, which has refuted the SEC’s accusations.

Although the SEC’s action is continuing, Bittrex has previously consented to pay the U.S. Treasury an amount equal to $29 million in penalties for apparent breaches of the country-specific regulations and the money laundering prevention law.

The Bureau of Foreign Asset Control under the Treasury Department was cited as Bittrex’s biggest unsecured creditor in its plea, owing the organization more than 24 million, USD.

Also Read: Google Rolls Out Passkeys to (Eventually) Kill Passwords

The majority of Bittrex’s other biggest creditors were cryptocurrency exchange users. Without mentioning them by name, Bittrex highlighted 16 users who have at least one million dollars in their respective accounts. As per the petition, the biggest existing Bittrex client account has assets at 14.6 million USD.

“The market downturn triggered by multiple failures in the crypto ecosystem became an outright collapse by the end of the year. These events have caused us to reset our strategy,” Bittrex co-founder Richie Lai told employees in an internal email leaked on Twitter.
Source: forkast.news

Suhani Jain

Qualcomm to acquire Israeli auto-chip maker Autotalks

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Suhani Jain

In an attempt to grow its automotive-related business, Qualcomm Inc announced on Monday that it would be acquiring Israel’s Autotalks Ltd, a manufacturer of chips utilized for crash-prevention technology in automobiles.

The business claimed Autotalk’s technology would be integrated into its aided and automated driving solution, known as Snapdragon Digital Chassis, although declined to disclose the financial details of the agreement.

With more and more automakers outfitting their vehicles with driver-assistance mechanisms, Qualcomm reported in September of last year that the company’s automotive business” pipeline,” or possible future orders, increased by over ten billion dollars to 30 billion USD following its third-quarter earnings were released at the end of July.

Also Read: Nvidia short sellers lose $5 billion as shares rise more than 90%

The firm, which attributes the increase to its Snapdragon Digital Chassis product, is competing to gain that market share with Mobileye Global of Intel & Nvidia Corporation.

In the second quarter that concluded on March 26, earnings from the automotive business of Qualcomm increased 20 percent to 447 million USD.

In order to increase safety on the roadways, Autotalks manufactures specialized chips for use in V2X technology for communication for human-driven and autonomous vehicles.

“We have been investing in V2X research, development, and deployment since 2017 and believe that as the automotive market matures, a standalone V2X safety architecture will be needed for enhanced road user safety, as well as smart transportation systems,” said Nakul Duggal, senior vice president & GM, automotive, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
Source: qualcomm.com

Licensing company, QTL, as well as the great bulk of the patent portfolio, are both parts of Qualcomm Incorporated. The engineering, R&D, and nearly all of the products and services businesses, which include the QCT semiconductor business, are all run by Qualcomm Technologies which is a Qualcomm Incorporated division, along with its other subsidiaries.

Also Read: IBM to pause hiring in the plan to replace 7,800 jobs with AI

Products with the Snapdragon and Qualcomm brands are made by Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. or one of its affiliates. It Incorporated grants licenses for Qualcomm’s trademarked technologies.

With the help of Qualcomm, the entire globe may be smartly connected. With the help of their single technological roadmap, they can effectively expand the mobile revolution’s founding technologies, such as improved connectivity, efficiency, low-power computing, on-device ability, and others, to the upcoming next generation of smart devices with connectivity throughout industries.

Suhani Jain

Nvidia short sellers lose $5 billion as shares rise more than 90%

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Suhani Jain

As reported by financial data company S3 Partners, short sellers of Nvidia Corporation have suffered losses of 5.09 billion USD to date in the current year since the stock has increased by more than 90 percent.

According to the company’s Wednesday report, the stock is the top losing equity short that has occurred in 2023, which is followed by Apple & Tesla.

According to the report, while the stock has increased approximately 30 percent in that time, Apple’s short sellers have suffered a loss of 4.47 billion USD up to this point in 2023. According to the article, Tesla’s short sellers have suffered a loss of 3.65 billion USD so far this year since the stock has increased by around 33 percent.

Also Read: Google Rolls Out Passkeys to (Eventually) Kill Passwords

For the year thus far, Nvidia’s short interest has decreased by 7.04 million shares or 18 percent. The percentage of float that is short currently stands at 1.32 percent, which is the lowliest level since October 2022.

Following a disappointing statement from Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) late on Tuesday, Nvidia stocks were down 1.1 percent in noon trading on Wednesday, along with drops in other chip manufacturers.

Shares are borrowed by investors who offer securities “short,” anticipating a decline in the stock price that will allow them to repurchase the shares at a less expensive rate, give them back to the lender as well, and earn the difference in cost.

NVIDIA Corp. creates and produces chipsets, processors, as well as associated multimedia software for computers. Tegra Processor, The Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), & All the additional components make up its functional units.

The GPU market is made up of product brands such as GRID used for visual computing customers and is based on the cloud, Tesla along with DGX for AI data scientists & big data experts, Quadro for creators, and GeForce for gaming enthusiasts.

Also Read: IBM to pause hiring in the plan to replace 7,800 jobs with AI

The Tegra Processor section incorporates a full computer into just one chip containing multi-core central processing units and graphics processing units to power supercomputing for controllers & smartphone games and entertainment gadgets in addition to robots that are autonomous, drones, and even vehicles.

The compensation based on stock cost, business infrastructure, support costs, expenditures related to the acquisition, legal settlement expenses, and various other non-recurring charges is all included in the “All Other” division.

Suhani Jain

Google Rolls Out Passkeys to (Eventually) Kill Passwords

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Sandhya Gupta

Google has rolled out a new feature called “Passkeys,” which is designed to eventually replace traditional passwords. Passkeys are a type of two-factor authentication (2FA) that allows users to sign in to their accounts using their mobile devices instead of a password.

The Passkeys feature uses a combination of biometrics, such as face or fingerprint recognition, and an on-device security key, which is a physical security token that can be used to authenticate the user’s identity. This means that even if a hacker were to obtain the user’s password, they would still need physical access to the user’s mobile device to gain access to the account.

Also Read: Google Authenticator finally syncs one-time codes in the cloud

Since the dawn of the internet (and computing in general), password-based authentication has become the norm. However, the system has severe security flaws, including the possibility that hackers may steal your password or deceive you into providing it through phishing attacks.

The passkey system relies on a separate paradigm that leverages cryptographic keys kept on devices used for account authentication in order to specifically combat phishing assaults.

Passkey standards were originally created by the FIDO Alliance, a security collaboration with several IT companies as members. Passkeys are now a reality thanks to efforts from Microsoft, Apple, and Google. Apple made its passkey option available with the launch of iOS 16, enabling users to use this feature across applications, including Apple Wallet.

In October 2022, support for Passkey was made available on Google Chrome and Android devices. Today, Gmail and Drive are also able to use the feature. Password selection is notoriously difficult for people. However, adding even a single special character or alphanumeric string won’t provide complete security against malicious users.

In contrast, passkeys are typically regarded as being more secure than alternative methods, with Google even describing them as “resistant to online attacks like phishing.”

Google will still offer two-factor authentication and passwords as additional account access methods. Through end-to-end encrypted services like iCloud Keychain and Google Password Manager, Passkeys can sync between your devices.

Also Read: Google TV now has over 800 ad-supported free channels

Another option is to create a QR code on a device that is signed into your Google account, which will identify another device where you want to log in and then set up passkeys on numerous devices using that code.

Passkeys are part of Google’s broader effort to move away from passwords and toward more secure authentication methods. The company has also developed other 2FA options, such as the Google Authenticator app and Google Prompt, which sends a notification to the user’s mobile device asking them to approve the login attempt.

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

Italy Restores ChatGPT after OpenAI Responds to Regulator

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Suhani Jain

According to the agency and the corporation, the ChatGPT chatbot has been reinstated in Italy after OpenAI resolved concerns expressed by the country’s data protection body.

After the Italian data protection authority, designated as Garante, temporarily suspended the chatbot and opened an investigation into the artificial intelligence program’s alleged violation of privacy laws, OpenAI powered by Microsoft, banned ChatGPT in Italy this past month.

Garante had granted OpenAI till Sunday for it to alleviate its worries before permitting the chatbot to resume operations in the nation.

Garante claimed a month ago that ChatGPT didn’t have any legal justification for the huge collection and storage of users’ personal data required to train the chatbot.

Also Read: OpenAI rolls out ‘incognito mode’ on ChatGPT

Garante had also charged OpenAI with failing to verify the legal age of ChatGPT users, who are required to be 13 or older. In response, OpenAI announced it will provide a tool to confirm the age of users in Italy at the time of registration.

The firm announced on Friday that it would make its privacy policy as well as input from users’ opt-out form more visible.

According to a company spokesperson, it will also make available an enhanced way for users in the European Union to take advantage of their privilege to protest its utilization of private information to train its models.

Individuals who wish to opt-out must fill out an elaborate form with their personal information, including any proof of data processing via pertinent prompts.

Garante expressed its appreciation for the measures made to balance technical advancement with adherence to human rights and expressed the hope that the firm would continue on this road toward achieving compliance with European data security standards.

Although ChatGPT’s swift growth has drawn the interest of lawmakers as well as regulators in multiple nations, Italy was the first Western European nation to restrict it.

Also Read: How Will ChatGPT Change Education and Teaching?

On Thursday, a panel of EU parliamentarians approved new regulations requiring companies using generative AI tools, including ChatGPT, to declare any copyrighted data used to create their systems.

The organization that unifies Europe’s national privacy regulators, the European Data Protection Board, established an investigation force on the chatbot previously this month in response to Garante’s concern regarding ChatGPT.

Garante stated that it will cooperate with the special task team and carry out its investigation into ChatGPT.

Suhani Jain

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