US Gets a Voice in Epic Battle with Apple

17 February 2016, Bavaria, Munich: The Apple logo shines on the façade of an Apple Store. (dpa)
17 February 2016, Bavaria, Munich: The Apple logo shines on the façade of an Apple Store. (dpa)
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US Gets a Voice in Epic Battle with Apple

17 February 2016, Bavaria, Munich: The Apple logo shines on the façade of an Apple Store. (dpa)
17 February 2016, Bavaria, Munich: The Apple logo shines on the façade of an Apple Store. (dpa)

The US justice department wants to have its say on Apple's antitrust tussle with Epic Games, which is due to be heard on appeal next month -- a year after a Californian court ruled largely in favor of the iPhone maker.

On Friday, the appeals court granted the department the right to send a representative to the hearing scheduled for October 21, where both sides are expected to make their case again, AFP said.

In 2021 a California judge ruled against Fortnite-maker Epic, which had accused Apple of acting like a monopoly in its shop for digital goods or services.

But the judge also barred Apple from prohibiting developers from including in their apps "external links or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms."

Apple can still mandate that its payment systems is used for in-app transactions.

Both sides are appealing.

Earlier this year the justice department asked for time at the appeal hearing to air concerns about the trial judge's interpretation of antitrust law at issue in the case.

"The district court committed several legal errors that could imperil effective antitrust enforcement, especially in the digital economy," justice department lawyers argued in their brief.

Justice officials have been investigating whether Apple and other tech giants are abusing their market clout with anti-competitive practices.

Attorneys for Apple, Epic and the justice department will all speak to the appeals court, which will also consider their written arguments.


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Microsoft, Turning 50, Dials up Copilot Actions to Stay in AI Game

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Microsoft, Turning 50, Dials up Copilot Actions to Stay in AI Game

The Microsoft logo during the Hanover Fair 2025 (Hannover Messe) in Hanover, Germany, 31 March 2025 (reissued 03 April 2025). (EPA)
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Thousands of people swooned in a dark conference hall that felt more like a rock concert when a Microsoft product manager demonstrated the company's latest feature: how to sum numbers in Excel, with the click of a button.

"It was literally like Mick Jagger walked out," said Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft's consumer chief marketing officer, who started as an intern.

That was more than 30 years ago. On Friday, the day Microsoft turned 50, the company's leaders and staff gathered at its Redmond headquarters to remember the software maker's glory days while trumpeting what they hope will bring it into the future: more powerful artificial intelligence.

Copilot, Microsoft's AI assistant, is gaining a host of new features to make it more proactive. The version for consumers will start remembering personal facts about them. It will offer birthday reminders or support ahead of a presentation, or consumers can opt out, Mehdi said in an interview.

Copilot likewise will personalize podcasts and shopping recommendations, and it will let consumers task their AI to book events for them, or send a friend a gift while checking in for guidance. "It frees you up," said Mehdi.

Microsoft is hardly first to roll out action-taking or "agentic" software. As with rival systems, the AI will work best on popular sites where Microsoft has done some behind-the-scenes technical work, like with 1-800-Flowers.com and OpenTable, Mehdi said.

Mehdi recalled days when Microsoft was smaller and growing. He said CEO Bill Gates could devour three books' worth of information from one day to the next, at a time when the co-founder still worked on Microsoft software. Mehdi watched Steve Ballmer, Gates' eventual successor, chant "developers, developers, developers!" in a sweat-drenched shirt to rouse a crowd into the ".net" era.

Microsoft went from top of the pack to badly bruised in a high-profile lawsuit that US antitrust enforcers brought against it in 1998. Years later, younger companies and startups, among them Alphabet and ChatGPT creator OpenAI, beat it to the punch on key AI developments.

Satya Nadella, Microsoft's current CEO, is not standing still. The leader who turned Microsoft into the No. 2 cloud powerhouse challenged his executives at an internal summit this week, recalled Mehdi: "How do we rethink the way that we build the software?"

Microsoft is iterating on its chatbot technology in a crowded field that includes Elon Musk's xAI and Anthropic. It has added Copilot to its heavily used productivity suites for business while giving consumers a distinctive version.

"It's warm; it has that personality," said Mehdi. Some users have taken to this, while others find it asks too many questions, he said.

"When we get to now be more personalized, we can start to get smarter," Mehdi said. "We're part way through that journey."