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Founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, Apple is best known for making some of the world's most ubiquitous consumer devices, software, and services: the iPhone, iPad, iMac and MacBook computers, Apple TV, Apple Watch, iOS, iCloud, iTunes, Apple Music, Apple Pay, and many more. Led by CEO Tim Cook since 2011, Apple is one of the largest technology companies in the world alongside Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Facebook.

Press conference wraps with Kanter saying Apple’s choices have made its system less private.

Kanter said the lawsuit explains “the illegal and exclusionary conduct that Apple has engaged in is not necessary to protect security and privacy.” To the contrary, “in many instances, Apple’s conduct has made its ecosystem less private and less secure.”


Garland addresses massive resource imbalance between DOJ and Apple.

“When you have an institution with a lot of resources, that in our view is harming the American economy and the American people, it’s important for us to allocate our resources to protect the American people,” Garland said. “And that is certainly the case where individual Americans have no ability to protect themselves.”


Apple has felt threatened by easy ways to switch between iPhone and Android, says Kanter.

“Apple has long relied on contractual restrictions rather than competition on the merits to fortify its monopoly power,” Kanter said. He pointed to emails between an Apple executive and then-CEO Steve Jobs in 2010, lamenting a Kindle ad where a user switches seamlessly between the Kindle app on an iPhone and an Android.


Apple benefited from DOJ’s Microsoft case.

Apple was a “significant beneficiary” of the DOJ’s suit against Microsoft more than 20 years ago, said Jonathan Kanter, assistant attorney general for the Antitrust Division. “The remedy paved the way for Apple to launch iTunes, iPod and eventually the iPhone.”

He described the new suit as a way “to protect competition and innovation for the next generation of technology.”


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You should read this epic story from 2000 on the Microsoft antitrust trial.

I reread this massive Wired piece this morning on the train, a propos of, you know, things. It’s an incredible tale of antitrust warfare, and it’s wild how much of what the DOJ said and did about Microsoft rhymes with today’s lawsuit against Apple.

I’d bet that Tim Cook saying “buy your mom an iPhone” will become an iconic legal phrase the way “cut off Netscape’s air supply” did 25 years ago.


The Apple suit echos DOJ’s earlier Microsoft challenge, DOJ says.

The new complaint “alleges that Apple has engaged in many of the same tactics that Microsoft used,” Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin Mizer said, referencing the DOJ’s landmark antitrust case at the turn of the century.


Apple has maintained “a chokehold on competition,” deputy AG says.

Apple has “smothered an entire industry” by shifting from “revolutionizing the smartphone market to stalling its advancement,” according to Lisa Monaco.


Apple doesn’t actually do everything for security, AG alleges.

Garland described how Apple “inserts itself into the process” of transactions through its digital wallets, when consumers may “prefer to share that information solely with their bank.”

“That is just one way in which Apple is willing to make the iPhone less secure and less private, in order to maintain its monopoly power,” Garland said.


Garland takes on green texts.

The AG says it’s not just that the green texts between Android and iPhone devices are annoying, there’s also “limited functionality.”

“Videos are pixelated and grainy, and users cannot edit messages or see typing indicators,” Garland said.


US Attorney General Merrick Garland kicks off DOJ press conference on Apple suit.

“Apple has maintained monopoly power in the smartphone market, not simply by staying ahead of the competition on the merits, but by violating federal antitrust law,” Garland said.

He also referenced the so-called Apple tax that the company charges for in-app purchases.


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Watch the DOJ announce it’s suing Apple for allegedly operating an illegal monopoly.

Watch the press conference below as US Attorney General Merrick Garland lays out the case against Apple, and read more details right here.


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“Buy your mom an iPhone.”

Debates over green bubbles, iMessage, and RCS came to a head in this moment from the 2022 Code Conference when LiQuan Hunt asked Tim Cook about messaging across platforms. Leading to today, when Hunt’s question and Cook’s response came up on page 39 of the DOJ’s antitrust complaint against Apple.

In 2022, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook was asked whether Apple would fix iPhone-to-Android messaging. ‘It’s tough,’ the questioner implored Mr. Cook, ‘not to make it personal but I can’t send my mom certain videos.’ Mr. Cook’s response? ‘Buy your mom an iPhone.’

Correction: it’s on page 39, right 92.


Today’s Decoder explains everything you need to know about the EU’s Digital Markets Act.

The Justice Department just announced a long-awaited, massive antitrust suit against Apple. Those antitrust suits — big but slow-moving — are the primary way the US is challenging big tech.

But across the Atlantic, the European Union has been hard at work enforcing what’s known as the Digital Markets Act, a sweeping regulation that went into effect earlier this month that’s aimed at leveling the playing field between big tech and smaller competitors. Apple, in particular, has been engaging in what we can only describe as “malicious compliance.”

Verge reporter Jon Porter, who’s been covering EU regulation for years, joined me on Decoder to break down which companies qualify as “gatekeepers,” what new rules they have to follow, and what this means for the future.


The DOJ is expected to announce an antitrust lawsuit against Apple, and a livestream is scheduled for 11AM ET.

The Department of Justice’s website doesn’t say which company this antitrust announcement livestreaming will be about, but there are signs that point to Apple.

We’ll have all the updates for you right here as soon as they’re available. (Update: And as of 10:30AM ET, now they are — the stream is still scheduled for 11AM.)


Screenshot showing the DOJ livestream offline
Image: DOJ
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The US Justice Department’s Apple antitrust lawsuit may be imminent.

The New York Times reported in January that the DOJ was nearing the end of an investigation into Apple’s locked-down ecosystem. Now, Bloomberg, citing anonymous sources, says the agency is preparing for the next step:

The Justice Department is poised to sue Apple Inc. as soon as Thursday, accusing the world’s second most valuable tech company of violating antitrust laws by blocking rivals from accessing hardware and software features of its iPhone.


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Apple made it a lot easier to find and read its repair guides and manuals.

Often times for me try to troubleshoot an Apple device rarely leads me to the actual Apple website. Ifixit, Reddit and Apple forums unaffiliated with the company are often a better bet for getting a clear understanding of how Apple’s products actually work and can be repaired.

Which is wild! Users shouldn’t have to rely on a big third party ecosystem just to figure out how to fix a key on their keyboard. But as the right to repair movement gains momentum Apple has gotten a better at providing documentation. Now it’s launched a whole new section filled with tech specs and documentation of devices going back over thirty years. The documentation gets less robust the further back you go, but this is still a very welcome change.


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The EU’s antitrust chief is paying close attention to Apple’s DMA compliance.

“There are things that we take a keen interest in, for instance, if the new Apple fee structure will de facto not make it in any way attractive to use the benefits of the DMA,” Margrethe Vestager tells Reuters. “That kind of thing is what we will be investigating.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Vestager says she’s received “Quite a lot” of comments about how the DMA’s gatekeepers are complying with the EU’s new antitrust rules.


How Apple’s lobbyists are trying to make getting an ITC import ban even harder.

The New York Times reports on the campaign pushing the US International Trade Commission “to put the public interest of a product ahead of a ban.”

Apple tried avoiding its Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 import ban late last year by arguing it would have a “detrimental” effect on users. However, the ITC denied this request, saying “public interest favors the protection of intellectual property rights by excluding infringing products.”


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The iPhone will supposedly get an anti-glare display that’s more scratch resistant — but not this year.

It’s a little early to be taking iPhone 17 rumors seriously. But per MacRumors, a Weibo account with a “mixed” track record claims Apple’s 2025 smartphones will have a display that’s better at avoiding both reflections and scratches — just like Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra.

Corning runs the game when it comes to display glass, so this seems inevitable. I’m just surprised Apple (allegedly) couldn’t make it happen this fall instead.


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You can watch March Madness games for free in the Vision Pro.

The NCAA’s March Madness Live app is also getting a new, swipeable vertical video highlights feed.

The “Vision Pro compatibility” means the iPad app, so you won’t get any “spatial” features, but at least it’s there (unlike, say, YouTube). What, did the Samsung Gear VR app not do well or something?

The NCAA also says it’s offering “expanded live game radio” for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.


Opera’s mobile browser is getting a lot of new users in the EU.

The company credits the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) for the 164 percent increase in new iOS users it saw from March 5th to the 7th. Opera also saw significant user growth in specific countries, including a 402 percent spike in France and a 143 percent boost in Spain.

Apple started letting iPhone users choose their default browser as part of its compliance with the DMA earlier this month. Besides Opera, Brave and Firefox are also seeing more iPhone users in the EU.


A chart seeing user growth for Opera’s browser
Image: Opera
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The Verge
The M1 MacBook Air price war between Best Buy and Walmart is on.

Now that Apple’s done selling the M1 MacBook Air, Walmart is offering the 8GB RAM, 256GB storage model for $699, which Best Buy quickly responded to by dropping its price to $649.99.

Other laptops have more capacity, and newer models probably have more software updates to look forward to, but at these prices, it’s harder to complain. So let us know, are any of you picking up one more wedge-shaped laptop while you still can?

Note: If you buy something from these links, we might get affiliate revenue.


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Oracle warns that macOS Sonoma 14.4 on Apple Silicon breaks Java.

Product management director Aurelio Garcia-Ribeyro wrote on Friday that “all Java versions from Java 8 to the early access builds of JDK 22” are affected by a bug that causes the Java process to terminate unexpectedly.

Oracle’s issue tracker that lists the bug as open and unresolved says Macs on 64-bit Intel hardware are unaffected. The company recommends users wait to update.


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FineWoven case dirty? Just clean it! It’s okay!

Faruk from the iPhonedo YouTube channel wants to lay the online “drama” around Apple’s scratch-prone case to rest. So he spruced up the grossest one he says he could find on eBay.

After bringing it back to life, he has a message about product upkeep for his viewers. Text alone doesn’t do his delivery justice — keep your ears open around the 7:30 mark.


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Apple will face an AirTags class-action lawsuit.

Judge Vince Chhabria of California’s Northern District found that three plaintiffs had sufficiently claimed “negligence and product liability” in the suit, which alleges that AirTags “help stalkers track their victims,” Bloomberg reported Friday.

Bloomberg quotes Judge Chhabria:

“Apple may ultimately be right that California law did not require it to do more to diminish the ability of stalkers to use AirTags effectively, but that determination cannot be made at this early stage,”


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The Verge
You’ll get your OLED iPads when they’re good and ready.

Apple’s updated tablets should arrive after “a variant of iPadOS 17.4” is finished around the end of this month or “sometime in April,” Mark Gurman writes in the subscriber version of Power On for Bloomberg today.

He also writes that the new USB-C AirPods — the entry-level model and a mid-tier version with noise-canceling — are expected “around September or October.”


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Plus, in this week’s Installer: how the Apple Car failed, a great Cold War doc, an AI texting app, and much more.