This week, Apple's losing control of the App Store, Netflix is getting into Games, and Disney is expanding its lineup.
Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.
Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.
Over the past year, the most-watched, and possibly the most important, legal challenge in the technology world has been the one between Epic Games and Apple. Epic Games claimed that Apple had violated anti-competition laws by forcing developers to use Apple's App Store payment system and blocking them from using their own, pre-existing payment systems. While the case ended in a nearly total loss for Epic Games, one of their claims was granted, and Apple wants to get out of the repercussions.
Over the past 2 weeks, a long-rumored feature of Netflix has become available: Netflix Games. The new service is similar to Apple Arcade or Google Play Pass, except it is not an additional fee.
While all focus might be on the newly renamed Meta these days, the tech company with the most scrutiny over the past decade or so has been Alphabet's Google. While the company once had an internal motto "Don't be evil," an overwhelming consensus is that Google regularly violates both the public's trust, as well as its market position in search. Governments across the globe have created special laws and started investigations into the way Google does business. This week, Google is dealing with two specific issues in the US and the EU.
A few weeks ago, DC showed off new content across all media types. Not to be outdone, this week, Disney countered by showing off a bunch of new content coming specifically to its Disney+ streaming service. This content included shows and movies from Marvel, Star Wars, and Disney itself, and there is something for nearly everyone.