Lawmakers probe Apple’s App Store policies on blockchain, NFTs

July 29, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Apple

Their letter aimed to explore whether these guidelines might inadvertently hinder the progress and growth of cutting-edge innovations.

United States Representatives Gus Bilirakis and Jan Schakowsky penned a formal letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook about concerns related to the California-based company’s App Store, and the potential effect of its guidelines on emerging technologies like blockchain and nonfungible tokens (NFTs).

The letter requests information about whether the App Store’s guidelines might inadvertently hinder the progress and growth of cutting-edge innovations.

*Screenshot of the letter from the lawmakers addressed to Apple's CEO. Source: Bilirakis blog.*

The lawmakers observed a pattern in Apple’s approach to its App Store guidelines, where the company seemingly capitalized on and simultaneously limited the functionality of crypto apps. They pointed out that Apple achieved this by mandating the release of “lite” versions, which both generated profits for Apple and diminished the overall utility of the applications. As evidence, they specifically mentioned the case of Axie Infinity’s App Store experience.

By dispatching the letter, the lawmakers expressed apprehensions regarding the potential negative consequences of Apple's policies on the United States' standing in the realm of emerging technologies. The Chairman and Ranking Member of the Innovation, Data, and Commerce Subcommittee conveyed their viewpoint, noting that while Apple has justified these limitations as a means to enhance security through a "walled garden" approach, there is widespread concern that the company might be wielding the App Store as a tool to suppress competition.

They emphasized the utmost importance for Congress to gain a comprehensive understanding of the App Store Guidelines and to assess to what extent these guidelines may impede innovation and have an impact on American technological leadership. They added:

"Our subcommittee remains committed to promoting full transparency and ensuring that Big Tech is held accountable for monopolistic behavior,"

They stated that they intend to create a level playing field within the industry so that American ingenuity can continue to thrive. The lawmakers previously penned a similar letter to Apple regarding App Store policies relating to TikTok and other apps originating from China.

Magazine: GOP crypto maxis almost as bad as Dems’ ‘anti-crypto army’

Apple has its own GPT AI system but no stated plans for public release: Report

July 19, 2023 Coin Telegraph

The Cupertino, California-based company reportedly developed an internal GPT system on Google infrastructure for employees to tinker with.

Apple’s reportedly working on its own generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) artificial intelligence (AI) model. However, there’s no indication that the company has any plans to launch it to the public.

Per a July 19 report from Bloomberg, Apple’s internal GPT system is called “Ajax.” It’s purportedly similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard.

Apple has a longstanding reputation for developing its products inside of a walled garden. While “Ajax,” which Bloomberg reports some engineers have referred to as “Apple GPT,” could eventually turn into a consumer-facing product, its current infrastructure could pose a problem.

Apple codenamed its GPT system “Ajax” because it was developed on top of Google Jax, a machine learning framework. It’s also reportedly running on Google Cloud, which could limit Apple’s ability to affordably scale Ajax beyond internal testing.

Google’s Bard AI system is one of the primary competitors in the consumer-facing generative AI technology space, facing direct opposition from Microsoft and OpenAI in the form of BingAI and ChatGPT. However, Apple has so far not indicated it intends to compete in this arena.

Apple’s track record concerning AI demonstrates that the company is privacy-focused when it concerns machine learning technology. For this reason, most of its efforts are focused on AI technologies that can be run using onboard processors instead of cloud-based services.

Chatbot technology, such as ChatGPT, typically requires internet connectivity to work. While it’s possible to run a chatbot on discrete architecture, such as the AI chip on an iPhone, the model size and capabilities are constrained by the device’s hardware.

However, if Apple were to develop a comparatively useful GPT model capable of running discretely on iPhone hardware, that could be a boon to users who value privacy over the conversational features embedded in the larger cloud-based models. Consumers who require privacy as a default would stand to benefit the most.

This could also solve or mitigate some of the outstanding problems with GPT-based chatbots. Cryptocurrency trading bots built on GPT tech, for example, currently suffer from hallucinations. In the technical sense, this means that sometimes they make things up when they can’t come up with a factual answer.

A pretrained chatbot capable of referencing user-tuned data sets and running discretely on an iPhone could eliminate noisy data for trading bots and keep users’ financial data — such as wallet keys, personally identifiable information and transaction records — completely private.

Despite Apple’s lack of impact in the chatbot space, the Cupertino, California-based company is one of the most impactful players in AI. The AI powering the iPhone’s camera and photography editing suite remains cutting edge, and Apple Research outputs a steady stream of significant papers in the machine learning space.

A veritable “who’s who" of AI luminaries and renowned experts have also recently filtered through the company’s secretive AI labs, including the “GANfather,” Ian Goodfellow, who recently left the company to join Google DeepMind, and its current head of AI, John Giannandrea, who previously led Search at Google.

Apple to delist Nostr-based Damus app for Bitcoin tip feature

June 13, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Apple

The decentralized social media app called it a watershed moment for peer-to-peer transactions and claimed it would affect many other platforms with similar features.

Due to its Bitcoin (BTC) tipping feature, the decentralized social media app called Damus could face the axe from the Apple app store.

The creators behind the decentralized social media platform shared a warning letter from Apple on June 13. The letter warned that the app will be removed from the platform because of the “Zaps” feature that allows people to tip users and content creators in Bitcoin. The Bitcoin tipping feature was made possible through the integration of the Lighting Network widget to make Bitcoin payments and tips directly on the platform.

The Apple team in its warning claimed that the Zaps feature violates their policy that prohibits any other form of tipping feature other than in-app purchases. The tech giant claimed even though the tipping feature may be optional, “if they are connected to or associated with receiving digital content, they must use in-app purchase in accordance with guideline 3.1.1."

The Damus team called it a watershed moment with huge implications for platforms with peer-to-peer support. The team also clarified that Damus doesn’t sell any digital goods or provide features for selling digital goods. It simply has tip buttons for facilitating p2p transactions like Venmo or Cashapp.

Damus will be removed from the app store in 14 days, apple says zaps are not allowed on their platform because they *could* be used by content creators to sell digital content. This is right before we’re about to give our talk at the oslo freedom forum on how decentralized social… pic.twitter.com/uAK1U0UBet
— Damus⚡️ (@damusapp) June 13, 2023

Bitcoin or crypto tipping has become quite popular on social media platforms and the likes of Twitter and Reddit have also enabled the same. The crypto tipping feature makes way for peer-to-peer transactions that don’t require an intermediary to process such transactions. Apple themselves approved a Bird game app with Bitcoin tipping in 2015.

Zaps on Twitter good ✅
Zaps on @damusapp bad ❌

Damus is being forced to remove this feature, whats up with that? pic.twitter.com/nnq6ytna1I
— Damus⚡️ (@damusapp) June 13, 2023

Nostr creator who goes by the Twitter name Walker pointed out that the reservation made by Apple against its policies was wrongly placed as Damus is not selling any digital content and requested the tech giant to rectify their mistake.

Many other crypto proponents also questioned how tips on Twitter are ok while the same feature on Damus violates Apple’s policies. While others accused Apple of protecting the interest of Silicon Valley over decentralization.

Magazine: Bitcoin is on a collision course with ‘Net Zero’ promises

Crypto Biz: The SEC’s summer crackdown, Apple’s ‘spatial computing,’ and Mercado Bitcoin gears up

June 9, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Along with the recent wave of lawsuits, this week’s Crypto Biz also explores Apple’s new headset, Brazil’s Mercado Bitcoin payments arm and how regulators are targeting AI-generated fake news.

After a period of relative calm, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) kicked off its summer crypto crackdown by targeting two major exchanges, Binance and Coinbase.

A total of 13 charges have been filed against Binance. One of the allegations in the suit claims that funds from Binance and Binance.US were commingled into an account controlled by the Changpeng Zhao-associated company, Merit Peak.

As for Coinbase, the SEC claims it has been offering unregistered securities and was never registered as a broker, securities exchange or clearing agency. Many in the crypto industry have been puzzled by the allegations against Coinbase, primarily because it is a publicly-traded company and received a previous green light from the regulator.

While not surprising, this week’s developments again shed light on the dubious practices of the SEC toward the crypto space, as it claimed companies failed to register with the regulator, despite the absence of a path to do so. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the latest string of lawsuits is an attempt by the SEC to “distract” from the agency’s “FTX debacle” Let’s not forget the SEC has not sued FTX, although it has charged its founder and former executives.

The crypto space has seen sell-offs in tokens and stocks, services halted and heightened uncertainty in recent days, but these events may also bring something that the industry is eager for — legal clarity.

Along with the recent wave of lawsuits, this week’s Crypto Biz also explores Apple’s new headset moving beyond the metaverse, Brazil’s Mercado Bitcoin gets the green light for its fintech payments arm, and how European Union regulators are targeting fake news generated by artificial intelligence.

SEC complaint hints at why Brian Brooks resigned as Binance.US CEO

The SEC’s latest complaint against Binance could explain why former Binance.US CEO Brian Brooks chose to step down in August 2021, only three months after his appointment. According to legal sources, the complaint cites an “unnamed source” who ran Binance.US for a brief period in 2021. The dates correlate with the time that Brooks was CEO of the company. Brooks — a former top banking regulator — led operations at the crypto exchange after replacing former CEO Catherine Coley. According to comments cited in the complaint, Brooks quickly realized that he was “not actually the one running this company.” Upon recognizing this, he decided to leave, announcing his resignation just three months later.

1/ The SEC complaint against @Binance appears to solve the mystery of why Brian Brooks abruptly resigned as CEO of @BinanceUS in 2021.

CZ allegedly reneged on promises that Brooks would be given autonomy to run https://t.co/reBq6K7KAs independently from @Binance.
— MetaLawMan (@MetaLawMan) June 5, 2023

Brazilian crypto exchange Mercado Bitcoin licensed as payment provider

Cryptocurrency exchange Mercado Bitcoin was granted a payment provider license from Brazil’s central bank on June 2. With the license, the company will launch its fintech solution MB Pay. The fintech arm will provide Brazilian users with specific digital banking services using crypto assets held on the exchange, such as digital fixed-income investments, staking and other financial transactions. A debit card offering a crypto off-ramp for users is expected to go live soon. Global crypto exchanges operating in Brazil’s market include Binance, Coinbase, Crypto.com and Bitso.

Apple’s Vision Pro headset reveal swaps metaverse for ‘spatial computing’

Apple’s newly revealed mixed-reality headset, the Apple Vision Pro, has turned tech-enthusiast heads in the past few days. The company, however, deliberately labeled its technology the first “spatial computer” to move away from the metaverse concept and differentiate its virtual reality tool from competitors. Apple’s marketing is focused on the words “spatial” and “spatial computing” rather than words such as “metaverse,” “AR,” and “VR.” A clear step away from Microsoft’s Hololens and Meta’s headsets. Apple’s headset will be launched in the U.S. in early 2024, for a hefty retail price of $3,499, before expanding internationally.

*Using apps with Apple Vision Pro. Source: Apple*

EU officials want all AI-generated content to be labeled

A new effort by the European Union to stamp out fake news targets artificial intelligence-generated content. According to EU officials, companies deploying generative AI tools should label their content to combat fake news. The statement comes as the EU prepares its forthcoming Artificial Intelligence Act, which will be a comprehensive set of guidelines for the public use of AI and the companies deploying it. Major tech companies, including Google, Microsoft and Meta Platforms, have already signed onto the EU’s 2022 Code of Practice on Disinformation.

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‘Already explored’ — Apple Vision Pro fails to impress Mark Zuckerberg

June 9, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Apple

Zuckerberg highlighted divergent philosophies, with Meta emphasizing a social metaverse, while Apple’s device seemed designed for solitary use.

As Meta struggles to lead the way in virtual and augmented reality, Apple’s recent entry into the market has generated curiosity and apprehension. With the official announcement of its Vision Pro headset, speculations arose about Mark Zuckerberg’s viewpoint as Meta CEO on the competition posed by Apple’s mixed reality headset.

During an all-hands meeting observed by The Verge, Zuckerberg discussed his response to the technical features of the Vision Pro. Expressing his curiosity about Apple’s offering, Zuckerberg acknowledged that he had yet to experience the Vision Pro firsthand. He revealed that Meta’s teams had “already explored” and contemplated the constraints of laws and physics, implying that Apple’s solutions were not entirely groundbreaking.

He mentioned that the headset’s pricing resulted from a deliberate “design trade-off” aimed at emphasizing more expensive technology and demanding increased computational capabilities. Zuckerberg remarked that Apple opted for a higher resolution display, leading to a sevenfold increase in costs and energy consumption, ultimately necessitating a wired connection and battery.

Expanding on his comments, the Meta CEO delved into the divergent philosophical outlooks embraced by Apple and Meta, emphasizing the differences in their values and overarching goals. During this discussion, Zuckerberg naturally explored the concept of the metaverse, which notably did not receive any mention during Apple’s recent Worldwide Developers Conference.

Zuckerberg stated:

“Our vision for the metaverse and presence is fundamentally social. Our device also encourages active engagement and participation. In contrast, every demo they showcased featured an individual sitting alone on a couch.“

He highlighted that Meta Quest is designed to foster virtual communities and encourage interaction, emphasizing its role in promoting engagement. In contrast, Apple’s Vision Pro was characterized as a device primarily intended for solitary use.

Unlike the Meta Quest and Meta Quest Pro, Apple’s Vision Pro introduces control through eye movements and hand gestures, eliminating the requirement for controllers. It also features a translucent display and a lighter design. However, these advanced technologies contribute to a higher price point, with the Vision Pro starting at $3,500. Meta’s most expensive headset, the Meta Quest Pro, starts at $1,000.

Magazine: Is the Metaverse really turning out like ‘Snow Crash’?

Apple confirms acquisition of AR startup Mira following Vision Pro launch: Report

June 7, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Apple

While Apple Vision Pro comes with features geared toward personalized virtual reality, Mira’s headsets are purpose-built for industrial applications.

Just a day after launching a new virtual reality (VR) product line, Apple Vision Pro, the tech giant confirmed the acquisition of Mira, an augmented reality (AR) startup that provides hands-free, smartphone-powered headsets.

On June 7, The Verge reported Apple’s latest acquisition was revealed through a private Instagram post shared by Mira CEO Ben Taft, which Apple later confirmed as accurate to the outlet. Expected to hit the market in early 2024, Apple Vision Pro stands as the most expensive mixed-reality gear — currently being priced at $3,499.

While Vision Pro comes packed with innovations geared toward personalized virtual reality, Mira’s headsets are purpose-built for industrial applications. Current use cases include chemical, steel and food manufacturing, mining services and defense. Other prominent implementations include building AR headsets for Universal Studios in Nintendo World theme parks.

Responding to The Verge’s request for comment, Apple stated:

“Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.”

Mira reportedly raised $17 million in funding in the past from investors including Blue Bear Capital and Sequoia, however, Apple’s investment for the company’s acquisition remains undisclosed.

According to PrivCo data, Mira had a post-money valuation in the range of $50 million to $100 million as of Jul 29, 2020. Moreover, IPqwery confirms that the company holds 14 patents and 8 trademarks.

Apple has not yet responded to Cointelegraph's request for comment.

While Apple decided to explicitly exclude the words “metaverse” or “virtual reality” during Vision Pro’s launch, tech entrepreneurs see the device’s potential to expedite the sub-crypto ecosystem’s adoption.

Along with tech giants, government agencies have also started experimenting with the metaverse. Most recently, the Chinese city of Nanjing inaugurated the China Metaverse Technology and Application Innovation Platform to advance metaverse research and development across the country.

The platform aims to serve as a central hub of resources for metaverse-related endeavors. Other major Chinese cities, including Shanghai, have also launched various metaverse initiatives with the hopes to cash-in annual revenue of 350 billion yuan ($49.6 billion) by 2025.

Magazine: Tornado Cash 2.0: The race to build safe and legal coin mixers

Apple’s Vision Pro headset reveal swaps metaverse for ‘spatial computing’

June 6, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Apple

The tech giant finally dropped details of its new pricey mixed-reality headset during the Worldwide Developers Conference, though it made no mention of the word “metaverse.”

Apple’s newly revealed mixed-reality headset, the Apple Vision Pro, has both turned tech-enthusiast heads and raised eyebrows after its unveiling at the WWDC on June 5.

There was however, one glaring omission from the launch — a single mention of the word “metaverse.”

Apple Vision Pro is everything we hoped for and then some.

But at $3,499 you're either an early adopter or a AR/VR developer.

Yet two things change after today:

1. "Metaverse" will stop being a bad word (even though Apple didn't use the word) - sparking a resurgence in… pic.twitter.com/x8FcGsKTbj
— Bilawal Sidhu (@bilawalsidhu) June 5, 2023

The tech company appears to have taken deliberate steps to call its technology the first “spatial computer.” It will be launched in the U.S. in early 2024, for a hefty retail price of $3,499, and will roll out to other countries shortly after.

The announcement is a firm step away from Microsoft’s Hololens launches and that of Meta’s headsets, which both notably used the term generously in comparison.

Instead, Apple’s marketing is focused on the words “spatial” and “spatial computing,” as opposed to words such as “metaverse,” “AR” and "VR.”

“Creating our first spatial computer required invention across nearly every facet of the system,” noted Apple’s vice president of the technology development group, Mike Rockwell.

“Through a tight integration of hardware and software, we designed a standalone spatial computer in a compact wearable form factor that is the most advanced personal electronics device ever,” he said.

*Looking at photos with Apple Vision Pro. Source: Apple*

Back in January 2022, Bloomberg’s Apple tech reporter, Mark Gurman, suggested via Twitter that the firm had no intention of approaching the sector in a similar vein to Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, particularly relating to the notion of the metaverse.

“I’ve been told pretty directly that the idea of a completely virtual world where users can escape to — like the can in Meta Platforms/Facebook’s vision of the future — is off-limits from Apple,” Gurman said, adding that the firm will place its focus providing a mixed-reality headset intended for use in short bursts for work, gaming, communication, etc.

Apple’s Vision Pro has both augmented reality and virtual reality capabilities, as it can make it look like apps have been projected out into the nearby physical space around the user or provide a fully virtual experience via modes such as Immersive Environments.

“Featuring visionOS, the world’s first spatial operating system, Vision Pro lets users interact with digital content in a way that feels like it is physically present in their space,” the announcement reads.

Anticipation over Apple’s new headset had some investors hoping metaverse-related tokens would see a meteoric rise; however, a new Securities and Exchange Commissionlawsuit on the same day appears to have spoiled optimism for metaverse-related tokens.

According to CoinGecko, the top-ranked metaverse token Internet Computer (ICP) is down 9.5% over the past 24 hours, while second and third-placed The Sandbox (SAND) and Decentraland (MANA) are also down 12.7% and 11.2% apiece.

*Metaverse token prices. Source: CoinGecko*

Going further down the list, there are no projects of note with positive price action over that time frame, with the total market cap for metaverse tokens decreasing by 10% to $7.7 billion over the past 24 hours.

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Apple