Good morning. It’s a new week and it’s time to get into the tech news.
1. Forrest’s case against Meta thrown out
Andrew Forrest’s lawsuit against Meta, which alleged that ads using the billionaire’s image were promoting scams, has been cast out of a WA court. Prosecutors decided to drop the case after a brief of evidence in late 2023, per The Australian. “It shows that Facebook is beyond the laws of Australia, that hardworking Australians are not protected, and that scams will continue to run rampant with no recourse for those who are duped by increasingly sophisticated technology on social media platforms that take no responsibility,” Forrest said. The mining bigwig has said he is pursuing legal action through other means.
2. Google de-linking California news sites in test
Google has said in a blog post that it is removing links to Californian news sources for an unspecified group of users as it tests the impact of the state’s incoming Journalism Preservation Act. The law would require big tech companies like Google to pay news organisations for the content that they are linking to, though the search giant says that the bill undermines Californian news. “We don’t take these decisions lightly and want to be transparent with California publishers, lawmakers, and our users. To avoid an outcome where all parties lose and the California news industry is left worse off, we urge lawmakers to take a different approach,” vice president of global news partnerships Jaffer Zaidi said.
3. Apple denies violating US court order
Apple has denied violating a court order about the governance of its app store, in light of the Apple v Epic case in the U.S., per Reuters. Apple’s introduction of a 27 per cent fee on developers for some purchases was slammed by Epic in a court filing last month, and criticised for making the use of alternate payment methods “commercially unuseable”. Apple clapped back and said that Epic wanted to make its “tools and technologies available to developers for free.”
4. Galaxy AI is coming to older Samsung devices
The Samsung Galaxy S21 is getting the company’s new Galaxy AI suite of products, a forum post from a Samsung employee has confirmed, per 9to5Google. The Galaxy S21 series, along with the Galaxy Z 3 and Galaxy Tab S8 range, will be getting the new suite of AI-powered tools – but not all of them, as likened to a Galaxy S FE device, and how it typically has stripped-down features compared to the flagship range.
5. Speaking of AI
Meta is cramming its AI into Instagram Messages, meaning users can now generate images, have poorly-written poetry served up to them, and speak to an AI all within their DMs, per Engadget. “Our generative AI-powered experiences are under development in various phases, and we’re testing a range of them publicly in a limited capacity,” Meta told the news website. Yay, more AI.
BONUS ITEM: Oh to be a little mouse in a car.
this couple taught their rats to drive tiny cars 😭❤️ pic.twitter.com/mFxjAAolDK
— 🇦🇺 🧡🐀 venus 🐀🩷 🇯🇵 (@venuslovesrats) April 14, 2024
Have a wonderful week.
Image: iStock