The Department of Justice and more than a dozen states filed a lawsuit against Apple in US federal court, accusing the company of violating antitrust laws. It said Apple’s hardware and software products were largely unavailable to competitors, making it difficult for competitors to compete and for customers to switch to other companies’ products.

The case comes after the European Commission fined Apple 1.8 billion euros ($1.95 billion) to stop music streaming developers from “informing iOS users of available alternative and cheaper music subscription services” outside the App Store. And all this while US lawmakers are pursuing another tech company, TikTok, with much enthusiasm.

The Justice Department alleges that Apple used its control over iOS to block innovative apps and cloud streaming services from the public. (Look at cloud gaming services like Google’s now-defunct Stadia and Microsoft’s xCloud). The suit also alleges that Apple has hindered competing payment platforms, made it more difficult to display Android messages on iPhones, and limited the way competing smartphones integrate with iOS devices.

You could compare Apple’s antitrust lawsuit to Microsoft’s antitrust lawsuit filed against Windows in the late 1990s—even Attorney General Merrick Garland noted those in the suit. But Microsoft indeed dominated computer software then, with over 90 percent of all computers running some version of Windows.

The DOJ says Apple owns 70 percent of all smartphones, which is already down. Go outside the US, which is a bit academic here, and Apple has the same market share as Samsung, with many other phone makers fighting for a percentage or two. It’s not quite the same grip that Microsoft had on PCs.

— Matt Smith

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Microsoft

Two devices conspicuously missing from Microsoft’s Surface and AI event last fall are finally here — and they’re what we expected, and a little surprising. Today, Microsoft introduced the Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6, with the same design as the previous models, but now with the AI ​​intelligence of Intel’s new Core Ultra CPU. Alas, both have the ominous word “for business” attached to their names, so you’ll only be able to buy them from Microsoft’s website or commercial distributors. But why? We really don’t know.

Keep reading.

This is in partnership with Alphabet’s Wing.

DoorDash just announced the launch of a new drone delivery pilot program in Christiansburg, Virginia, with an estimated population of 22,000. The company says orders should arrive in 30 minutes or less, making the high-flying drones almost as fast as a standard pizza delivery. However, it is limited to “eligible items” only. And, alas, only products from the fast food chain Wendy’s.

Wendy? Wendy.

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The social media powerhouse is looking to raise about $631 million in its IPO.

Nearly two decades after its debut, Reddit is now a publicly traded company. It was listed on the New York Stock Exchange as RDDT on Thursday, with mascot Snoo on hand to ring the opening bell. One interesting aspect of Reddit’s IPO is that it has been offering shares at an IPO price to long-term users in good fortune for the past few weeks. Not all news is good for Reddit, though. It recently signed a deal with Google, reportedly worth $60 million a year, to train the latter’s AI models on user-generated content. The Federal Trade Commission is reviewing this agreement.

Keep reading.

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