MacworldAround 40 million Apple customers in the U.K. could be entitled to an average payout of 70 if a major new legal challenge is successful.The consumer publication Which? has announced what it describes as a landmark legal claim against the company for alleged breaches of competition law. It contends that users have been unfairly locked into rip-off iCloud prices by anticompetitive behavior, and is launching an action worth 3 billion (around $3.8 billion) to obtain compensation.Which? believes taking this action is essential to changing the behavior of huge companies like Apple that use their market dominance to engage in anti-competitive practices that reduce choice and drive up prices for consumers, the publication said in a press release.The central claim is that Apples iOS ecosystem is monopolistic and that the company uses its power over the platform to give preferential treatment to iCloud, its cloud storage service.A key tactic to achieve this, says Which?, has been encouraging users to sign up to iCloud for storage of photos, videos, and other data while simultaneously making it difficult to use alternative providers, including because Apple does not allow customers to store or back up all of their phones data with a third-party provider.This directs revenue into Apples own coffers, at the expense of rival offerings. This in turn enables Apple to charge what the publication believes are above-market-rate prices: Which? claims consumers are overcharged by an increasing amount each year, up to 13.36 in 2024. Over many years these additional costs add up, and Which? believes the average consumer will be owed 70 in damage, although this will vary depending on how long they have been paying for iCloud.This isnt the first time Apple has been accused of monopolistic behavior; indeed the company has been fighting off such claims for years. (Unsurprisingly, Apples official position is that it isnt a monopoly.) Earlier this year, the company was sued by the U.S. Justice Department for its alleged iPhone monopoly. Similar investigations have been conducted in the U.K. and the EU.If youre a U.K. consumer who has paid for iCloud at any point since October 1, 2015, you may be entitled to compensation. Visit www.cloudclaim.co.uk for more information about the action and to register to receive updates on its progress.

MacworldAnalysts speculated earlier this year that the iPhone 16 and its AI capabilities would trigger a new upgrade super cycle. Fired up by the innovative functions of Apple Intelligence, customers were expected to buy new handsets in record numbers, even if their current iPhone was still in perfect working order.A few weeks after the launch, however, much of that enthusiasm appeared to have fizzled out. In Germany, for example, we found it easy to get hold of the new phones, either from an Apple Store or on Amazon, with the latter able to deliver the device as early as the following week. In the U.K. right now, the cheapest configuration of the iPhone 16 Pro is available for next-day delivery. This is all a far cry from the stock shortages we usually encounter when an iPhone is a spectacular success.One possible reason why the iPhone 16 has not triggered a super cycle is the slow introduction of Apple Intelligence. The first features werent available until several weeks after launch in the U.S. and Canada, while European users may have to wait as much as a year. If AI was the key to success, delaying AI could have been a critical error.A cycle of innovationAnother issue could be the psychology of consumerism: to a lot of buyers its not whats inside that counts, but the external design. An abstract upgrade such as a 40 percent increase in performance is less appealing than new colors, shapes, and materials. And this is confirmed by sales data: the biggest leaps were made by the iPhone generations that brought noticeable changes in shape or dimensions.Weve put Apples iPhone sales in a diagram (bars) and also calculated how big the percentage difference was compared to the same quarter of the previous year (line). Because Apple has been releasing iPhones in the fall since the iPhone 4s in 2011, the new models make a big contribution to sales in the first quarter of each fiscal year: thats where youll see the biggest bars. But in terms of percentage differences, the iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone X, and iPhone 12 have delivered the biggest jump compared to previous generations.Why were these models the big winners? Because of design. The iPhone 6 Plus, for example, was the first time Apple introduced a larger model alongside the standard-size model; thats a very noticeable change. (Two years earlier, the iPhone 5 had already increased the screen diagonally from 3.5 to 4 inches, but thats a little more subtle.)For the iPhone X, an anniversary model, Apple switched to a borderless design, replacing the Home button and Touch ID with Face ID facial recognition for biometric authentication. The notch provided for this purpose quickly became a recognizable, perhaps even iconic feature. And the iPhone 12 was the first square-edged smartphone since the iPhone 5S was discontinued, six years previously. Although the iPhone 13 is the most successful iPhone model to date in terms of pure sales, the 12 sold 17 percent better than its predecessor, whereas the 13 was up by just 9 percent. The iPhone 12 was a bigger step forward for the company.The iPhone 16 Pro is a great phone, but its not the revolutionary change we were hoping for.Anyron Copeman / FoundryLooking down the roadSo where does this leave the iPhone 16? It offers Apple Intelligence, its true. But that wasnt available at launch, many features have yet to arrive, and for a large proportion of potential buyers who live outside the U.S., its not available at all. In terms of design change, meanwhile, the iPhone 16 offers very little thats new.Compare this to the launches planned for 2025. If the rumors about the iPhone 17 Air are trueand theyve been swirling for more than half a year nowthen it will be the first model in five years to feature a radically new design, similar to the extremely thin iPad Pro M4 models. Add to that a striking color, like the Product Red that was discontinued with the iPhone 14, and its sure to be a bestseller.Our interest and optimism is further piqued by the latest developments at Apple. John Ternus hardware team has seen some important promotions in recent days: Richard Dinh, for example, became Vice President of iPhone Product Design. Ternus himself has promised radical innovations in iPhone design in an internal memo, calling the roadmap the most ambitious in the products history.So things are looking up. Just not until next year.

With last weeks US elections, everything changed for the tech industry, especially for Microsoft. Given President-elect Donald J. Trumps penchant for incendiary statements, off-the-cuff decisions, plans to impose massive tariffs, and willingness to use the power of his office for personal vendettas, almost anything could happen.But based on Trumps past actions, who he turns to for tech and economic advice, and what hes said on the campaign trail, theres a lot we know about how Microsoft will likely be affected by his upcoming four-year reign.Theres so much, in fact, that its more than can be covered in one column. Here, Ill look at how Trumps likely plans for AI will affect the company. In Part 2, Ill look at tariffs, antitrust and climate change issues, and how Trumps actions often are based more on personal grievances than policy.Heres how the president-elects likely AI plans could help or hurt the company.Letting AI run freeMicrosoft is the world leader in AI and has built generative AI (genAI) copilots into its entire product line. That was just the start. The company continues to invest billions and has bet its future on the technology. As genAI goes, so goes Microsoft. That means any actions Trump takes could dramatically affect Microsofts present and future.Trump has said plenty about tech through the years, but surprisingly little about AI. Based on his big tech backers, general outlook on technology, and the few things hes said about it, we can get some sense of what hell do.One of his biggest tech boosters is venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, who is opposed to any regulation of AI, and believes AI development should be absolutely unfettered. Elon Musk wields even more influence with Trump than Andreessen, though, and has become his most trusted tech adviser. Musk is generally against any government regulation over tech, but when it comes to AI, hes a bit more nuanced.Musk has often spoken about his fears that unchecked AI could lead to the destruction of the human race. He also supporteda California bill that would have required AI to undergo safety testing before being deployed.As he wrote on X: For over 20 years, I have been an advocate for AI regulation, just as we regulate any product/technology that is a potential risk to the public.The bill was passed by the California legislature, but Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed it.That makes it sound as if Musk is all in on regulation. But thats not really the case. His primary worry is that AI might eventually represent an existential threat to mankind and thats all he wants to regulate. Hes against regulations around existing real-world issuessuch as intellectual property theft, or AIs use to violate civil rights, its role in misinformation, privacy violations, its effect on jobs and more.What this all means is that its unlikely AI will face much regulation under Trump. The first thing hell probably do is rescindBidens well-thought-out AI executive orderthat addresses everything from safety and security measures to issues related to bias and civil rights, and oversight over how genAI is produced. Because it was only an executive order, it didnt carry the full force of law. But it did have some effect. And it was an ideal roadmap for how Congress could act on AI regulation if it wanted to.Samuel Hammond, a senior economist at the Foundation for American Innovation, was blunt about what would happen to that order. He told Vox,There will likely be a day one repeal of the Biden executive order on AI.Trump will also almost certainly want to boost AI to make sure the US leads China in it.He told the right-wing influencer Logan Paul in an interview, We have to be at the forefront [of AI]. Its going to happen. And if its going to happen, we have to take the lead over China.Finally, in JulyThe Washington Post reported that Trumps tech boostersare drafting a sweeping AI executive order that would launch a series of Manhattan Projects to develop military technology and immediately review unnecessary and burdensome regulations.How this affects MicrosoftWhat does all this mean for Microsoft? Under Trump its going to be full speed ahead on AI. Any regulations are likely to cover only the existential danger AI could pose to humanity, and not any of the many dangers it currently poses. That means the company will be free to develop AI in pretty much any way it wants.Theres more good news for Microsoft than just being free of regulations. Because it is the worlds most powerful AI company, the Trump administration will almost certainly turn to Microsoft for help in its fight against China and pay the company well for it. The Biden administration has already done so, much to Microsofts benefit. The administration brokered a deal in which Microsoft invested $1.5 billion in a powerful genAI company based in the United Arab Emirates, which then cut its ties to China and aligned with the US.In addition, there will be direct government AI contracts. Expect Trump to pour billions into the military use of AI. Microsoft has had contracts with the US military for decades. In just the past few years, its gottena $22 billion contract to provide the US Army with 120,000 AR headsetsandbillions for a Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) contract to establish what the company calls an enterprise-level tactical cloud.A new generation of AI-related military contracts under Trump will fatten the companys bottom line even more.The Trump wild cardAll this requires that Trump acts rationally, though, which rarely occurs. If Microsoft wants those government contracts and wants to be free from regulation, its going to have to be obsequious to Trump, praise him when necessary and stay away from even the slightest hint of criticism. Its going to have to close its eyes to the worst of his actions and behavior. Its also going to have to do the same with Musk, who is as mercurial and thin-skinned as Trump.If Microsoft does all that, its profits will be sky high. As for what price in self-respect and its sense of itself as a moral company, only Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and those who work there know.

Box is developing new AI and automation tools to help customers tap into unstructured data stored in its content management platform; Box AI Studio and Box Apps were both unveiled at the companys Box Works event Tuesday.Box AI Studio lets customers build custom AI agents that workers can interact with via a natural language chatbot. Each agent can be prompted to respond in a particular way to specific groups of workers. There could be a legal contract review agent that knows all about a companys contracting policies, for example, or a sales agent that staff can consult for advice.You could be inside of your sales portal, trying to get sales advice for a deal youre working on, and talk to the sales agent thats using the information from within your sales portal, said Box CEO and founder Aaron Levie.The agents are built with a no-code interface, with customers able to select large language models (LLMs) from third-party providers such as Anthropic, Google, and Microsoft.Then were going to obviously have to figure out how we get the agents to all interact with each other thats going be the next frontier of interoperability, Levie said.Generative AI (genAI) technologies such as Box AI Studio will disrupt how organizations create, manage and leverage unstructured content and documents said Holly Muscolino, group vice president for Workplace Solutions at IDC. While business adoption of genAI has been slow so far due lack of clear ROI, trust around data access, and change management challenges when deploying tools to workers theres potential forlarge improvements in productivity, customer and employee experience and other business metrics, she said.Box is rolling out generative AI tools designed to help users build custom AI agents they can interact with via a chatbot.BoxWe believe that they will eventually be table stakes and part of baseline solutions. Note that Box is not unique in rolling out these capabilities, but they are very good at marketing them, Muscolino said.AI Studiois just the first step in Boxs vision for AI agents: Levie said the company is also working on agentic workflows that will let customers build AI assistants that can be set up to act autonomously on behalf of workers; these will arrive in the medium term, with no specific timeline set.We anticipate that any knowledge worker within an enterprise will probably be interacting with dozens, if not hundreds, of agents to do their work, said Levie.Not all those agents will be created within Box, he said, with all software vendors eventually creating their own agents. Youll have one agent help you with a contract process, another review information for some strategic decision, and another that gets your calendar organized, he said.The other major feature addition unveiled Tuesday is Box Apps, a no-code app development framework that includes features such as a custom UI interface, metadata extraction, workflow automations, and content dashboards.The idea is to automate common content-intensive businesses processes such as contract management and invoice processing. To run these processes, customers would typically have to either build an entire custom app on top of Boxs APIs, or use bespoke technology platforms, said Levie. This means customers must move data out of the Box platform, bypassing security controls in place.With Box Apps, these custom apps can be created directly within Box. You can have a contract management system, you can have an invoice processing system, you can have a digital asset management system, and in a matter of hours, if not minutes, you can build that entire application and deploy it to people in your organization, said Levie.So, this is going to be a real kind of a breakthrough in delivering no-code applications for every business process in the enterprise.Box Apps is built on technology from business process app builderCroozeone of two acquisitions Box made this year. Box also intends to release functionality based on another recent acquisition,Polish startup Alphamoon,next year, said Levie.Both of those acquisitions added important capabilities to Boxs portfolio by providing data extraction and metadata management, said Muscolino.Box AI Studio and Box Apps will be available in January in a new Enterprise Advanced payment plan that will also include premium features such as Box Archive for long-term content management, and Doc Gen, a custom document creation tool now in a beta preview. Enterprise Advanced will be the next tier up from the Enterprise Plus plan that arrived in 2021.Box said it would announce pricing for Enterprise Advanced closer to launch.Muscolino noted thatpricing forgenAI tools isstill all over the place. While customers may be happy to pay additional fees for the latest AI-powered features, many of these willeventuallybe an expected component of a content management system, she said.Of course, prices wont come down, but these features will not command a premium, said Muscolino.

A new report claims that despite overall sales declining, Apple's iPad continues to sell steadily, and is second only to the iPhone.iPad Air 2024While the iPad dominates the US market, overall it's sales have been declining, and the latest models reportedly failed to reverse that trend. Nonetheness, the Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) says in a new report, that iPad sales are chiefly stable.Apple does not release detailed sales data, so information such as CIRP's has to come from surveys. CIRP also does not give actual sales figures though, so its use solely of percentages is only illustrative of the differences between the iPad models. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Apple and A24 are working on a film adaptation about Sam Bankman-Fried and the FTX crypto scandal, with the script set to be written by Lena Dunham.A representation of Bitcoin - Image Credit: Pixabay/Michael WuenschThe two studios are in the early stages of developing the film based on the New York Times bestseller "Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon" by Michael Lewis. The book covers the rise of Bankman-Fried, followed by the eventual discovery of missing funds at the cryptocurrency exchange and subsequent fraud charges.Lena Dunham has been attached to the film, reports Variety, having previously starred and produced the HBO series "Girls," as well as "Camping" and "Generation." Her work on "Girls" led to eight Emmy Award nominations, as well as one Golden Globe. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Situated at the pinnacle of Singapores iconic Capital Tower, the newest member of the SUSHISAMBA network, designed by architects Kokaistudios, revolutionizes the dining experiencehttps://www.e-architect.com/singapore/sushisamba-singapore-southeast-asia-restaurant#singapore #tower #restaurantdesign #architectureSituated at the pinnacle of Singapores iconic Capital Tower, the newest member of the SUSHISAMBA network, crafted by Kokaistudios

CNN has confirmed the planned demolition of Stephen HoddersRIBA Stirling Prize-winning Centenary Building at the University of Salford. A spokesperson from the university told the network: "While the Centenary Building has been part of our university estate for a number of decades, unfortunately its ageing infrastructure means it no longer meets modern standards and requirements. It has now been vacant for a third of its built life."Speaking to his former client's plans for the building, which was the first RIBA Stirling winner in 1996, Hodder toldAJ: "For a university that promotes its sustainability credentials, the intention to demolish surely undermines the credibility of its policy. We urge it to reconsider, and hope the architectural community and wider industry collectively exclaim its concerns."University administrators had previously floated the idea of repurposing it into a K-12 facility before deciding on the demolition.

Following our previous look at an opening for Healthcare Planners at Flad Architects, we are using this weeks edition of ourJob Highlights seriesto explore open roles on Archinect Jobs for visualization positions at Rafael Violy Architects and Brandon Architects.Rafael Violy Architects is seeking a Visualization Designer to join their New York studio, requiring an individual to create high-quality digital imagery, including photorealistic CGI renderings, rendered plans, elevations, and/or axonometric drawings for design presentations. Meanwhile, Brandon Architects seeks a 3D Render Artist to support the team pushing the boundaries of luxury living by managing their visualization projects.Related on Archinect: Rafael Violy Architects reveals first Canadian project in Toronto.Rendering courtesy Binyan and Madison GroupWhy the role interests usAs our Archinect In-Depth: Visualization series continues, the open roles at Rafael Violy Architects and Brandon Architects offe...

From the street the University of Chicago John W. Boyer Center is defined by Brise-soleil made up of 900 cylindrical stone batons. These batons were coated in Lutetian limestone, a common building material in Paris dating back to antiquity.The University of Chicago John W. Boyer Center in Paris is now open, marking Studio Gangs first built project in France. The building provides UC students and faculty classrooms, study spaces, and more in the citys illustrious 13th arrondissement.