Angi CEO Jeff Kip will continue to head the company as IACs 10th fully independent company, IAC said.

This years edition of the festival opened with a compelling rock-influenced opera, based on Dana Spiottas novel about two 1970s radicals who go underground after a protest bombing goes awry.

"A new legal home for Mastodon" Mastodons founder cedes control, refuses to become next Musk or Zuckerberg Mastodon shifts to nonprofit ownership, calls for $5M in donations to expand. Ashley Belanger Jan 13, 2025 3:21 pm | 77 Credit: SOPA Images / Contributor | LightRocket Credit: SOPA Images / Contributor | LightRocket Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreMastodon announced Monday that it's shifting its structure over the next six months to become wholly owned by a European nonprofit organization"affirming the intent that Mastodon should not be owned or controlled by a single individual."This takes control of the social network away from its previous "ultimate decision-maker," Eugen Rochko. As founder, Rochko initially took the reins to ensure the decentralized platform would never be for sale and "would be free of the control of a single wealthy individual." His grand vision remains to leave Mastodon users in control of the social network, making their own decisions about what content is allowed or what appears in their timelines.The news comes after leaders of other social networks, like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, have sparked backlash over sudden changes to popular apps like Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter). For years, Musk has drawn criticism for changing Twitter's hate speech policies through his X rebranding. And more recently, Zuckerberg this month defended Meta's decision to relax hate speech policies (permitting women to be called "property" and gay people to be called "mentally ill") by calling bans on such speech "out of touch with mainstream discourse."Mastodon is hoping to provide an alternative social network for users who are potentially frustrated with their lack of control over their timelines and content on other networks.But to achieve the "envisioned independence" for all users, Mastodon's structure needed to "evolve," the blog said, "as the community grew" to about 1.5 million monthly active users in 2023. Remaining headquartered in Europe primarily, Mastodon's day-to-day operations will be managed by the new European not-for-profit entity, "establishing a new legal home for Mastodon."The user experience on Mastodon won't be affected much by the transition to a nonprofit owner, Mastodon said. But "changes are definitely in the pipeline."Mastodon appears to be betting that even more users will seek alternative social networks in the future as popular apps enact unpopular policies. The blog discussed progress on a "privacy-respecting search tool" that could be used to explore the entire Fediverse, a collection of independent social media networks that Mastodon connects to. That could make it possible to discover more content without depending on a "For You" algorithm mining user data.And perhaps in a nod to Meta's recent changes, Mastodon also vowed to "invest deeply in trust and safety" and ensure "everyone, especially marginalized communities," feels "safe" on the platform.To become a more user-focused paradise of "resilient, governable, open and safe digital spaces," Mastodon is going to need a lot more funding. The blog called for donations to help fund an annual operating budget of $5.1 million (5 million euros) in 2025. That's a massive leap from the $152,476 (149,400 euros) total operating expenses Mastodon reported in 2023.Other social networks wary of EU regulationsMastodon has decided to continue basing its operations in Europe, while still maintaining a separate US-based nonprofit entity as a "fundraising hub," the blog said.It will take time, Mastodon said, to "select the appropriate jurisdiction and structure in Europe" before Mastodon can then "determine which other (subsidiary) legal structures are needed to support operations and sustainability."While Mastodon is carefully getting re-settled as a nonprofit in Europe, Zuckerberg this week went on Joe Rogan's podcast to call on Donald Trump to help US tech companies fight European Union fines, Politico reported.Some critics suggest the recent policy changes on Meta platforms were intended to win Trump's favor, partly to get Trump on Meta's side in the fight against the EU's strict digital laws. According to France24, Musk's recent combativeness with EU officials suggests Musk might team up with Zuckerberg in that fight (unlike that cage fight pitting the wealthy tech titans against each other that never happened).Experts told France24 that EU officials may "perhaps wrongly" already be fearful about ruffling Trump's feathers by targeting his tech allies and would likely need to use the "full legal arsenal" of EU digital laws to "stand up to Big Tech" once Trump's next term starts.As Big Tech prepares to continue battling EU regulators, Mastodon appears to be taking a different route, laying roots in Europe and "establishing the appropriate governance and leadership frameworks that reflect the nature and purpose of Mastodon as a whole" and "responsibly serve the community," its blog said."Our core mission remains the same: to create the tools and digital spaces where people can build authentic, constructive online communities free from ads, data exploitation, manipulative algorithms, or corporate monopolies," Mastodon's blog said.Ashley BelangerSenior Policy ReporterAshley BelangerSenior Policy Reporter Ashley is a senior policy reporter for Ars Technica, dedicated to tracking social impacts of emerging policies and new technologies. She is a Chicago-based journalist with 20 years of experience. 77 Comments

Artists depiction of a white dwarf orbiting the supermassive black hole 1ES 1927+654Aurore Simonnet/Sonoma State UniversityStrange vibrations emanating from a supermassive black hole appear to be growing more frequent and they could be caused by a white dwarf star orbiting perilously close to its event horizon.In 2018, a supermassive black hole called 1ES 1927+654 took astronomers by surprise by changing from a relatively inactive black hole to an extremely bright one. It was the first time a supermassive black hole had been observed changing in this way.

This article first appeared in The Debrief,MIT Technology Reviewsweekly newsletter from our editor in chief Mat Honan. To receive it in your inbox every Friday, sign up here. On Tuesday last week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg released a blog post and video titled More Speech and Fewer Mistakes. Zuckerbergwhose previous self-acknowledged mistakes includethe Cambridge Analytica data scandal, allowinga militia to put out a call to armson Facebook that presaged two killings in Wisconsin, and helping tofuel a genocide in Myanmarannounced that Meta is done with fact checking in the US, that it will roll back restrictions on speech, and is going to start showing people more tailored political content in their feeds. I started building social media to give people a voice, he said while wearing a$900,000 wristwatch. While the end of fact checking has gotten most of the attention, thechanges to its hateful speech policyare also notable. Amongother things, the company will now allow people to call transgender people it, or to argue that women are property, or to claim homosexuality is a mental illness. (Thiswent over predictably wellwith LGBTQ employees at Meta.) Meanwhile, thanks to that more personalized approach to political content, it looks likepolarizationis back on the menu, boys. Zuckerbergs announcement was one of the most cynical displays of revisionist history I hope Ill ever see. As very many people have pointed out, it seems to be little more than an effort to curry favor with the incoming Trump administrationcomplete with a roll out onFox and Friends. Ill leave it to others right now to parse the specific political implications here (and many people are certainly doing so). Rather, what struck me as so cynical was the way Zuckerberg presented Facebooks history of fact-checking and content moderation as something he was pressured into doing by the government and media. The reality, of course, is that these were his decisions. He structured Meta so thathe has near total control over it. He famously calls the shots,and always has. Yet in Tuesdays announcement, Zuckerberg tries to blame others for the policies he himself instituted and endorsed. Governments and legacy media have pushed to censor more and more, he said.He went on: After Trump first got elected in 2016, the legacy media wrote nonstop about how misinformation was a threat to democracy. We tried in good faith to address those concerns without becoming the arbiters of truth, but the fact-checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they've created, especially in the US. While Im not here to defend Metas fact checking system, I never thought it was particularly useful or effective, lets get into the claims that it was done at the behest of the government and legacy media. To start: The US government has never taken any meaningful enforcement actions against Meta whatsoever, and definitely nothing meaningful related to misinformation. Full stop. End of story. Call it a day. Sure, there have beenfinesandsettlements, but for a company the size of Meta, these were mosquitos to be slapped away. Perhaps more significantly, there isan FTC antitrust case working its way through the court, but it again has nothing to do with censorship or fact-checking. And when it comes to the media, consider the real power dynamics at play. Meta, with a current market cap of $1.54 trillion, is worth more than the combined value of the Walt Disney Company (which owns ABC news), Comcast (NBC), Paramount (CBS), Warner Bros (CNN), the New York Times Company, and Fox Corp (Fox News). In fact, Zuckerbergsestimated personal net worthis greater than the market cap of any of those single companies. Meanwhile, Metas audience completely dwarfs that of any legacy media company. According to the tech giant, itenjoys some 3.29 billion daily active users. Daily! And as the company has repeatedly shown, including in this weeks announcements, it is more than willing to twiddle its knobs to control what that audience sees from the legacy media. As a result, publishers have long bent the knee to Meta to try and get even slivers of that audience. Remember thepivot to video? OrInstant Articles? Media has spent more than a decade now trying to respond or get ahead of what Facebook says it wants to feature, only for it to change its mind and throttle traffic. The notion that publishers have any leverage whatsoever over Meta is preposterous. I think its useful to go back and look at how the company got here. Once upon a time Twitter was an actual threat to Facebooks business. After the 2012 election, for which Twitter was central and Facebook was an afterthought, Zuckerberg and company went hard after news. It created share buttons so people could easily drop content from around the Web into their feeds. By 2014, Zuckerbergwas saying he wanted it to be the perfect personalized newspaper for everyone in the world. But there were consequences to this. By 2015, it had a fake news epidemic on its hands,which it was well aware of. By the time the election rolled around in 2016, Macedonian teens hadfamously turned fake news into an arbitrage play, creating bogus pro-Trump news stories expressly to take advantage of the combination of Facebook traffic and Google AdSense dollars. Following the 2016 election, this allblew up in Facebooks face. And in December of that year,it announced it would begin partnering with fact checkers. A year later, Zuckerberg went on to say the issue of misinformation was too important an issue to be dismissive. Until, apparently, right now. Zuckerberg elided all this inconvenient history. But lets be real. No one forced him to hire fact checkers. No one was in a position to even truly pressure him to do so. If that were the case, he would not now be in a position to fire them from behind a desk wearing his $900,000 watch. He made the very choices which he now seeks to shirk responsibility for. But heres the thing, people already know Mark Zuckerberg too well for this transparent sucking up to be effective. Republicans already hate Zuck. Sen. Lindsey Graham has accused him of having blood on his hands. Sen. Josh Hawleyforced him to make an awkward apologyto the families of children harmed on his platform. Sen. Ted Cruz has, onmultiple occasions,torn into him. Trump famouslythreatened to throw him in prison. But so too do Democrats. Sen.Elizabeth Warren,Sen. Bernie Sanders, andAOChave all ripped him. And among the general public, hes bothless popularthanTrumpand more disliked thanJoe Biden. He loses on both counts toElon Musk.Tuesdays announcement ultimately seems little more than pandering foran audience that will never accept him. And while it may not be successful at winning MAGA over, at least the shamelessness and ignoring all past precedent is fully in character. After all, lets remember what Mark Zuckerbergwas busy doingin 2017: Image: Mark Zuckerberg Instagram Now read the rest of The Debrief The News NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huangs remarks about quantum computingcaused quantum stocks to plummet. See our predictionsfor whats coming for AI in 2025. Heres what the US is doing toprepare for a bird flu pandemic. New York state will try to passan AI bill similar to the one that died in California. EVs are projected to bemore than 50 percent of auto sales in China next year, 10 years ahead of targets. The Chat Every week, I talk to one ofMIT Technology Reviews journalists to go behind the scenes of a story they are working on. But this week, I turned the tables a bit and asked some of our editors to grill me aboutmy recent story on the rise of generative search.Charlotte Jee:What makes you feel so sure that AI search is going to take off? Mat:I just dont think theres any going back. There are definitely problems with itit can be wild with inaccuracies when it cobbles those answers together. But I think, for the most part it is, to refer to my old colleague Rob Capps phenomenal essay,good enough. And I think thats what usually wins the day. Easy answers that are good enough. Maybe thats a sad statement, but I think its true. Will Douglas Heaven:For years I've been asked if I think AI will take away my job and I always scoffed at the idea. Now I'm not so sure. I still don't think AI is about to do my job exactly. But I think it might destroy the business model that makes my job exist. And that's entirely down to this reinvention of search. As a journalistand editor of the magazine that pays my billshow worried are you? What can youwedo about it? Mat:Is this a trap? This feels like a trap, Will. Im going to give you two answers here. I think we, as inMIT Technology Review, are relatively insulated here. Were a subscription business. Were less reliant on traffic than most. Were also technology wonks, who tend to go deeper than what you might find in most tech pubs, which I think plays to our benefit. But I am worried about it and I do think it will be a problem for us, and for others. One thing Rand Fishkin,who has long studied zero-click searchesat SparkToro, said to me that wound up getting cut from my story was that brands needed to think more and more about how to build brand awareness. You can do that, for example, by being oft-cited in these models, by being seen as a reliable source. Hopefully, when people ask a question and see us as the expert the model is leaning on, that helps us build our brand and reputation. And maybe they become a readers. Thats a lot more leaps than a link out, obviously. But as he also said to me, if your business model is built on search referralsand for a lot of publishers that is definitely the caseyoure in trouble. Will:Is Google going to survive as a verb? If not, what are we going to call this new activity? Mat:I kinda feel like it is already dying. This is anecdotal, but my kids and all their friends almost exclusively use the phrase search up. As in search up George Washington or search up a pizza dough recipe. Often its followed by a platform, search up Charli XCX on Spotify. We live in California. What floored me was when I heard kids in New Hampshire and Georgia using the exact same phrase. But also I feel like were just going into a more conversational mode here. Maybe we dont call it anything. James ODonnell:I found myself highlighting this line from your piece: "Who wants to have to learn when you can just know?" Part of me thinks the process of finding information with AI search is pretty niceit can allow you to just follow your own curiosity a bit more than traditional search. But I also wonder how the meaning of research may change. Doesn't the process of "digging" do something for us and our minds that AI search will eliminate? Mat: Oh, this occurred to me too! I asked about it in one of my conversations with Google in fact. Blake Montgomeryhas a fantastic essay on this very thing. He talks about how he cant navigate without Google Maps, cant meet guys without Grindr, and wonders what effect ChatGPT will have on him. If you have not previously, you should read it. Niall Firth:How much do you use AI search yourself? Do you feel conflicted about it? Mat:I use it quite a bit. I find myself crafting queries for Google that I think will generate an AI Overview in fact. And I use ChatGPT a lot as well. I like being able to ask a long, complicated question, and I find that it often does a better job of getting at the heart of what Im looking for especially when Im looking for something very specificbecause it can suss out the intent along with the key words and phrases. For example, for the story above I asked What did Mark Zuckerberg say about misinformation and harmful content in 2016 and 2017? Ignore any news articles from the previous few days and focus only on his remarks in 2016 and 2017. The top traditional Google result for that querywas this storythat I would have wanted specifically excluded. It also coughed up several others from the last few days in the top results. But ChatGPT was able to understand my intent and helped me find the older source material. And yes, I feel conflicted. Both because I worry about its economic impact on publishers and Im well aware that theres a lot of junk in there. Its also just sort of an unpopular opinion. Sometimes it feels a bit like smoking, but I do it anyway. The Recommendation Most of the time, the recommendation is for something positive that I think people will enjoy. A song. A book. An app. Etc. This week though Im going to suggest you take a look at something a little more unsettling. Nat Friedman, the former CEO of GitHub, set out to try and understand how much microplastic is in our food supply. He and a team tested hundreds of samples from foods drawn from the San Francisco Bay Area (but very many of which are nationally distributed). The results are pretty shocking. As a disclaimer on the site reads: we have refrained from drawing high-confidence conclusions from these results, and we think that you should, too. Consider this a snapshot of our raw test results, suitable as a starting point and inspiration for further work, but not solid enough on its own to draw conclusions or make policy recommendations or even necessarily to alter your personal purchasing decisions. With that said:check it out.

The feud between Zuckerberg and Cook became public in 2014, when Cook lambasted Facebook's business model.Apple CEO Tim Cook criticized Facebook's business model in 2014. AP In September 2014, Cook gave an in-depth interview with Charlie Rose that touched on a range of topics, including privacy.During the interview which took place in the weeks following the infamous leaks of multiple female celebrities' nude photos stored on their iCloud accounts Cook espoused Apple's commitment to privacy while denouncing the business models of companies like Google and Facebook."I think everyone has to ask, how do companies make their money? Follow the money," Cook said. "And if they're making money mainly by collecting gobs of personal data, I think you have a right to be worried. And you should really understand what's happening to that data."Shortly after, Cook reiterated his stance in an open letter on Apple's dedicated privacy site."A few years ago, users of Internet services began to realize that when an online service is free, you're not the customer. You're the product," Cook wrote. Cook's comments rankled Zuckerberg, who called the claims "ridiculous" and blasted Apple products as being expensive.Mark Zuckerberg responded with a critique of Apple's prices. Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP In an interview with Time later that year, Zuckerberg was reportedly visibly irritated by Cook's assertions."A frustration I have is that a lot of people increasingly seem to equate an advertising business model with somehow being out of alignment with your customers," Zuckerberg told Time's Lev Grossman. "I think it's the most ridiculous concept. What, you think because you're paying Apple that you're somehow in alignment with them? If you were in alignment with them, then they'd make their products a lot cheaper!" Their squabble came to a head following the Cambridge Analytica scandal when Cook criticized Facebook's actions.Cook has taken a shot at Facebook over its infamous Cambridge Analytica scandal. Edgar Su/Reuters In 2018, a whistleblower revealed that consulting firm Cambridge Analytica harvested user data without consent from 50 million users.During an interview with Kara Swisher and Chris Hayes in the months following, Cook was asked what he would do if he was in Zuckerberg's shoes.Cook responded: "What would I do? I wouldn't be in this situation."Cook said that Facebook should have regulated itself when it came to user data, but that "I think we're beyond that here." He also doubled down on his stance that Facebook considers its users its product."The truth is, we could make a ton of money if we monetized our customer if our customer was our product," Cook said. "We've elected not to do that." Zuckerberg hit back, calling Cook's comments "extremely glib."Zuckerberg again responded by calling Apple products expensive. Andrew Harnik/AP "You know, I find that argument, that if you're not paying that somehow we can't care about you, to be extremely glib. And not at all aligned with the truth," Zuckerberg said during an interview on The Ezra Klein Show podcast.He refuted the idea that Facebook isn't focused on serving people and once again criticized the premium Apple places on its products."I think it's important that we don't all get Stockholm Syndrome and let the companies that work hard to charge you more convince you that they actually care more about you," he said. "Because that sounds ridiculous to me." Privately, Zuckerberg was reportedly outraged by Cook's remarks so much so that he ordered his employees to switch to Android devices.Zuckerberg reportedly had management employees at Facebook switch from Apple to Android devices. Yuri Gripas/Reuters In November 2018, The New York Times published a blockbuster report detailing the fallout from the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The Times reported that Cook's comments had "infuriated" Zuckerberg, who ordered employees on his management team who used iPhones to switch to Android.Soon after the report published, Facebook wrote a blog post refuting some of the reporting by The Times but not the Zuckerberg-Cook feud."Tim Cook has consistently criticized our business model and Mark has been equally clear he disagrees. So there's been no need to employ anyone else to do this for us," Facebook wrote. "And we've long encouraged our employees and executives to use Android because it is the most popular operating system in the world." In 2019, Zuckerberg and Cook had a meeting at the annual Sun Valley retreat in Idaho that went poorly, according to The New York Times.The two reportedly had a contentious meeting at Sun Valley in 2019. MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images;Xinhua/Liu Jie via Getty Images;Insider According to The Times, Zuckerberg asked Cook for his advice following the Cambridge Analytica scandal.Cook told Zuckerberg Facebook should delete the user data his company collects from outside of its family of apps, which "stunned" Zuckerberg and was akin to Cook saying Facebook's business was "untenable,"The Times reported. In August 2020, Zuckerberg jumped in the fray as Apple faced criticism over its App Store policies.Zuckerberg has called Apple a "gatekeeper" because of its App Store. Drew Angerer/Getty Images During a company-wide meeting, Zuckerberg openly criticized Apple, saying it has a "unique stranglehold as a gatekeeper on what gets on phones," according to a report from BuzzFeed News.Zuckerberg also said that the App Store blocks innovation and competition and "allows Apple to charge monopoly rents," BuzzFeed reported.Apple has been facing antitrust scrutiny from Congress and has been strongly criticized by developers most notably "Fortnite" creator Epic Games for the 30% fee it takes from App Store purchases. In 2020, Facebook said Apple blocked an update to Facebook's iOS app that would have informed users about the fee Apple charges. Apple's iOS 14.5 software update angered Facebook, which says the privacy features could destroy part of its business.Apple's iOS 14.5 update was a sore point for Facebook. Apple That version of Apple's smartphone operating system, iOS, made it so that iPhone app developers would need permission from users to collect and track their data. While this affects any company that makes iOS apps, it also has a direct impact on Facebook's advertising business: It uses data tracking to dictate which ads are served to users.In an August 2020 blog post, Facebook said it may be forced to shut down Audience Network for iOS, a tool that personalizes ads in third-party apps."This is not a change we want to make, but unfortunately, Apple's updates to iOS 14 have forced this decision," Facebook said.The complaints from Facebook and other developers led Apple to temporarily delay the new privacy tools, saying it wanted to "give developers the time they need to make the necessary changes." Facebook escalated the feud to a full-page ad in The New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal.In the ads, Facebook argued that the changes would hurt small businesses that advertise on Facebook's platform."Without personalized ads, Facebook data shows that the average small business advertiser stands to see a cut of over 60% in their sales for every dollar they spend," the ad reads, which was posted by Twitter user Dave Stangis.Apple hit back, telling Business Insiderthat it was "standing up for our users.""Users should know when their data is being collected and shared across other apps and websites and they should have the choice to allow that or not," an Apple spokesperson said. Meanwhile, Facebook also said it would help Epic Games, the company behind "Fortnite," in its legal battle against Apple.Facebook indicated it'd support Epic Games in its legal battle against Apple. Epic Games; Getty Images Epic Games had accused Apple of violating antitrust laws and engaging in anticompetitive behavior regarding the App Store's fees and policies.Facebook said it planned to help Epic with discovery for the trial. Zuckerberg also lashed out at Apple during an earnings call in 2021, saying the company frequently interferes with how Facebook's apps work.Zuckerberg in 2021 accused Apple of making "misleading" privacy claims. Facebook When discussing Facebook's suite of messaging apps during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call, Zuckerberg made a clear dig at Apple, saying the iPhone maker made "misleading" privacy claims."Now Apple recently releasedso-called nutrition labels, which focused largely on metadata that apps collect rather than the privacy and security of people's actual messages, but iMessage stores non-end-to-end encrypted backups of your messages by default unless you disable iCloud," Zuckerberg said.Zuckerberg went on to describe Apple as "one of our biggest competitors" and said that because Apple is increasingly relying on services to fuel its business, it "has every incentive to use their dominant platform position to interfere with how our apps and other apps work, which they regularly do to preference their own.""This impacts the growth of millions of businesses around the world," he added. But Cook hasn't backed down from his view that Facebook's business model of harvesting user data and selling it to advertisers is harmful to consumers.Cook repeated his criticisms of Facebook's handling of user data. AP During a speech at the European Computers, Privacy and Data Protection Conference the same week, Cook discussed business models that prioritize user engagement and rely on user data to make money. Though he didn't mention Facebook by name, Cook made several references that alluded to the platform."At a moment of rampant disinformation and conspiracy theories juiced by algorithms, we can no longer turn a blind eye to a theory of technology that says all engagement is good engagement the longer the better and all with the goal of collecting as much data as possible," Cook said. Facebook launched another ad campaign in 2021 aimed at proving the need for personalized advertising amid its ongoing battle with Apple.Facebook took out an ad in 2021 arguing for personalized advertising. Nick Wass/Associated Press The initiative,titled "Good Ideas Deserve to be Found,"makes the case that personalized ads help Facebook users discover small businesses, particularly during the pandemic."Every business starts with an idea, and being able to share that idea through personalized ads is a game changer for small businesses," Facebook said in a blog post announcing the theme. "Limiting the use of personalized ads would take away a vital growth engine for businesses." Cook called Facebook's objections to the privacy update "flimsy arguments" during an interview with The New York Times.Cook said Facebook isn't one of Apple's biggest competitors, contrary to Zuckerberg's previous remarks on the subject. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images During a podcast interview with Kara Swisher, Cook said that he believes society is in a privacy crisis and that he's been "shocked" that there's been pushback to the new feature to this degree."We know these things are flimsy arguments," Cook told The Times. "I think that you can do digital advertising and make money from digital advertising without tracking people when they don't know they're being tracked."Cook also said he doesn't view Facebook as a competitor, contrary to what Zuckerberg has said."Oh, I think that we compete in some things," Cook said. "But no, if I may ask who our biggest competitor are, they would not be listed. We're not in the social networking business." Apple's iOS 14.5 update finally rolled out in April 2021, and Facebook paid steeply for it.Facebook says Apple's iOS 14.5 update has cost it billions of dollars. Alex Wong/Getty Images "The impact of iOS overall as a headwind on our business in 2022 is on the order of $10 billion," then-Meta CFO David Wehner estimated in an earnings call that year.In March 2024, Meta, Microsoft, X, and Match Group joined Epic Games in arguing that Apple has been flouting a 2021 court-ordered injunction that required the company to let developers show users links to alternative payment systems beyond the App Store.Meta has sided with Epic Games in the developer's legal war with Apple. Getty Images Apple, for its part, said in January 2024 that it had "fully complied" with the injunction. One of the latest battlegrounds in Apple and Meta's feud is their work on virtual and augmented reality.Now, Cook and Zuckerberg are feuding over their Apple Vision Pro and Quest headsets, respectively. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Apple released its Vision Pro headset in February 2024, and Zuckerberg was quick to offer his critique of the competitor to Meta's Quest headsets."I have to say that before this, I expected that Quest would be the better value for most people since it's really good and like seven times less expensive, but after using [Vision Pro] I don't just think that Quest is the better value, it's the better product, period," Zuckerberg said in a video on Threads. "They have different strengths, but overall Quest is better for the vast majority of things that people use mixed reality for."Zuckerberg says many people "assumed that Vision Pro would be higher quality because it's Apple and it costs $3,000 more.""I know that some fanboys get upset whenever anyone dares to question if Apple's going to be the leader in a new category," he said. "But the reality is that every generation of computing has an open and a closed model. And yeah, in mobile, Apple's closed model won, but it's not always that way."In Meta's first quarter earnings call in April, Zuckerberg said he didn't think AR glasses would find mainstream success without "full holographic displays.""I still think that that's going to be awesome and is the long-term mature state for the product," he said. "But now, it seems pretty clear that there's also a meaningful market for fashionable AI glasses without a display."Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth has also taken shots at Apple over its Vision Pro."As soon as I put the headset on, I can see what trade-offs they made and why they made them. And, perhaps definitionally, those aren't the trade-offs I would have made," he said.Bosworth called the Vision Pro's motion blur "really distracting" and said the headset was "very uncomfortable to use." The companies also reportedly had a disagreement over a potential AI partnership.Apple shot down the idea of integrating Meta's AI chatbot into iPhones, per Bloomberg. Alex Wong via Getty Images Apple months ago rejected the possibility of integrating Meta's Llama AI chatbot into the iPhone because it doesn't consider Meta's privacy practices up to par, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported in June 2024, citing people with knowledge of the matter.Apple has sincelaunched iOS 18, which includes a partnership with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into the iPhone's software. Zuckerberg recently leveled some new insults against Apple.Zuckerberg says Apple hasn't invented anything big since the iPhone. Meta In an episode of the "Joe Rogan Experience" podcast released in January 2025, he said Apple hasn't "really invented anything great in a while" since the iPhone."It's like Steve Jobs invented the iPhone and now they're just kind of sitting on it 20 years later," he said on the podcast.Zuck added that Apple has been "squeezing people" for money with the 30% commission the company charges developers for selling paid apps through the App Store."They build stuff like Airpods, which are cool, but they've just thoroughly hamstrung the ability for anyone else to build something that can connect to the iPhone in the same way," he said.

GTA 6 is expected to be one of the biggest games of all time, and one analyst has explained just what that could mean for the industry whenever it does arriveTech16:28, 13 Jan 2025Updated 16:28, 13 Jan 2025When will we get our next glimpse at GTA 6?(Image: Still)GTA 6 is coming, although we're not sure when, and while we wait for the game's second trailer, we do at least have an idea as to when we'll hear something thanks to Take-Two (Rockstar's parent company) announcing the date of its earnings call.The game, which is expected to pull in billions of dollars when it does launch, could land in 2025 or shift to 2026, but one analyst has spoken about what its eventual release could mean for the industry even saying it 'keeps him up at night'.Here's what Mike Fischer, Professor of Interactive Media at the University of Southern California and Advisor at Krafton told Game World Observer.GTA 6 could hit its 2025 date, or it could be delayed"What actually keeps me up at night is the thought that GTA 6 is going to be so big and so successful it may suck up all of the time and all of the money of all gamers," Fischer explains."Now, Ive met peers in the industry who disagree with me and think it wont affect other genres and that you will still have your traditional racing games, sports games and fighting games, and not everyone will have their lunch eaten by GTA. Me, Im not so sure."Fischer points to Fallout 4's launch and the "blast radius" that meant Shadow of the Tomb Raider "missed some of its potential"."So whenever Rockstar ships GTA 6, there will never have been a game as big, as immersive, as incredible, as all-encompassing as GTA 6. Its an unknown territory, and Im a little concerned about what that will do for a lot of other AAA games in that space."Still, there is a positive (other than, you know, finally being able to play GTA 6), as Fischer says it'll sell hardware."For the current console generation, we havent had a super compelling game that has driven people to buy it, right? Weve had a lot of great projects, but I dont think weve had those sort of generation-defining games that would compel people to buy next-gen systems the way that Final Fantasy or Gran Turismo did for PlayStation or Gears of War for Xbox.Article continues below"When GTA 6 ships, it will be a challenging disruption. Hopefully, there will be a larger audience as a result, but its literally an unknown territory, so well just have to wait and see."With that earnings call creeping up, we don't have long to find out how challenging that disruption will be.For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.RECOMMENDED

The realm of public domain horror has already answered the question What might a killer Winnie-the-Pooh look like?with similar explorations of the dark sides of Popeye, Pinocchio, Tinker Bell, and other traditionally kid-friendly characters following suit. Perhaps the most anticipated reimagining is Disney icon Mickey Mouse, whose visage came into the public domain when Steamboat Willie did in 2024and now theres a first look at his ghastly appearance in the upcoming Screamboat. Variety got the scoop on Screamboats first image depicting David Howard Thorntonbest-known as Art the Clown in the Terrifier series, one of the most exciting and memorable horror villains to come along in years, thanks in no small part to Thorntons wonderfully freakish performance. Will he bring the same flair to his twisted Mickey Mouse? His hat is certainly 1,000 times larger than the tiny chapeau Art the Clown favors According to Variety, Screamboat follows a group of New Yorkers on a late-night ferry ride that turns deadly when a mischievous mouse begins a rampage, targeting unsuspecting passengers. The unlikely crew must band together to thwart the murderous menace before their relaxing commute turns into a nightmare.Speaking to the trade, writer-director Steven LaMorte praised Thorntons performance and the effects by Quantum Creation FX, and said, Screamboat is my way of paying homage to Disney while putting a sinister, yet comedic twist on the classic.LaMorte also made 2022s Grinch horror parody The Mean One; Screamboats script is co-written by Matthew Garcia-Dunn. The cast also features Teen Wolfs Tyler Posey, Cobra Kais Jesse Kove, and Streams Allison Pittel. Screamboat had originally planned on a January 31 release; when io9 reached out earlier this month to distributors to confirm or update, we did not hear back. However, Varietys report says that the film has indeed shifted to April, with no precise date given. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, whats next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

El Perdido Spiritual Space / estudio ALASave this picture! Iwan BaanChapelEl Pescadero, MexicoArchitects: estudio ALAAreaArea of this architecture projectArea:55 mYearCompletion year of this architecture project Year: 2022 PhotographsPhotographs:Iwan Baan Lead Architects: Armida Fernndez, Luis Enrique Flores More SpecsLess SpecsSave this picture!Text description provided by the architects. El Perdido spiritual space draws inspiration from the foundational rustic chapels of the Baja California peninsula. This Ramadas initially built with natural and ephemeral materials served to carry out the first religious ceremonies in the seventeenth century. The plan of the spiritual space is oriented towards the east as a symbol of communion between the different beliefs of the ancient traditional civilizations. Having the historical missions of the Baja California peninsula in the background, El Perdido spiritual space mediates between the exterior and the interior patio, bringing together inmates and the community. Analogically with the religious spaces of the missions that mediated between the exterior and the cloister, the spiritual space is part of the perimeter wall and the most public space of the complex.Save this picture!Save this picture!The space can extend its capacity towards the internal courtyard where spiritual and social events can occur. This is achieved by opening the tall doors that are part of the translucent facade and connect with the interior of the patio that houses a fountain and 4 mediterranean date palms as its main elements. Date palms were introduced by the missionary priests and dates are a symbol of the fruit of subsistence in the desert. The spiritual space was built with natural and endemic materials such as vara de arco, palm thatched roof, wood and rammed earth walls from the site. Thanks to its material qualities, the interior has the ability to contain and release its own space at the same time, charging it with great spiritual strength and at the same time providing it with natural and permanent cross ventilation through its faade that filters sunlight and ventilates permanently.Save this picture!Save this picture!From the outside, the spiritual space does not reveal its program and acts as the main focal point of the entrance of the complex. It is through the sequence of spaces that the spiritual space can be discovered entering from the street or from the interior patio below ground level where it is revealed with greater hierarchy converging with the main walls of the patio.Save this picture!Project gallerySee allShow lessProject locationAddress:El Pescadero, MexicoLocation to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.About this officeestudio ALAOfficePublished on January 13, 2025Cite: "El Perdido Spiritual Space / estudio ALA" [Espacio espiritual El Perdido / estudio ALA] 13 Jan 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1025449/el-perdido-spiritual-space-estudio-ala&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save!ArchDaily?You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

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