Apple Agrees To Pay $490 Million In Lawsuit Settlement Over Alleged Misleading iPhone Sales Information In China

Apple has agreed to pay $490 million to settle a lawsuit. The lawsuit claimed that Tim Cook, the CEO, didn't tell investors the truth about iPhone sales in China dropping. The court in Oakland, California, got the settlement details, but a judge still needs to approve it.

The lawsuit began after Apple said it would make $9 billion less than expected in early 2019. This drop was blamed on trade issues between the U.S. and China. Back in November 2018, Cook said China's sales were fine, even though other countries were struggling.

Soon after, Apple told its factories to make fewer iPhones. This was the first time Apple had to lower its sales forecast since the iPhone came out in 2007. The company's stock value fell by $74 billion the next day.

Apple hasn't responded to the settlement news. The company says it did nothing wrong but decided to settle to avoid the hassle and expense of a court fight. A lawyer for the investors who sued called the settlement a great outcome. This group includes people who bought Apple stock in the two months after Cook said China's sales were good.

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who is handling the case, decided not to end the lawsuit last year. She thought it was possible that Cook was misleading about how well iPhones were selling. She also noted that Apple was aware of the economic slowdown in China and the risk of falling demand.

The main plaintiff in the case is a pension fund from Norfolk, England. The lawyers for the investors might ask for up to 25% of the settlement money as their fee.

Despite this lawsuit, Apple's stock price has gone up more than four times since January 2019. Now, Apple is worth more than $2.6 trillion. The legal case is known as In re Apple Inc Securities Litigation and is being handled in the Northern District of California.

Image: DIW-AIgen

Read next: What's the Most Common Way for Smartphones to Get Damaged?
by Mahrukh Shahid via Digital Information World

What's the Most Common Way for Smartphones to Get Damaged?

If you’ve recently purchased a smartphone, you’d likely consider it to be an extremely crucial and sizable investment with all things having been considered and taken into account. The prospect of the phone getting damaged is likely something that would end up causing you no small amount of stress, so as a result of the fact that this is the case, Allstate Protection Plans/SquareTrade just released the most common ways in which smartphones were damaged in 2023.

The first thing to note about this data is that 78 million smartphone users said their phones were damaged in the US in 2023. That’s a steep decrease from the 87 million that said the same in 2020, but in spite of the fact that this is the case, the amount of money that they spent on getting their phones repaired increased a fair bit. In 2018, smartphone owners spent a total of $3.4 billion on phone repairs. This number jumped to a staggering $8.3 billion in 2023.

There was a time when water damage was the single biggest thing that people needed to be concerned about as far as their smartphones were concerned. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that it’s no longer the leading cause of damage to smartphones. That dubious honor now belongs to damaged screens, with 67% of people whose smartphones were damaged reporting this. This is the single biggest issue by far, with WiFi or connectivity issues coming in at a distant second with 28%.

Screens in general appear to be problematic to a great extent, with 24% reporting issues with their touchscreens. Loose or damaged charging ports were reported by 22% of users, and then finally water damage came in fifth with 21%. It was equalled by battery problems which were also reported by 21% of users, and chipped sides cleared the 20% mark as well.

49% of the people that responded to this survey stated that they wouldn’t fix their phone as soon as it got damaged, with 39% of these people pointing to the cost. 21% also said that they wouldn’t want to forego using their devices for an extended period of time, 12% voiced concerns about it ending up in a landfill.

Read next: IDC Reports PC Shipments Decreased in First Half of 2023 but Grew in the Last Quarter of 2023
by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Reddit Rolls Out New Advertising Format That’s Similar To Posts Generated By Users On App

Social media giant Reddit has just launched a new format for ads. This is quite similar to how posts appear on the app that users create.

The news was rolled out on Thursday at a time when the company mentioned it’s gearing up for this new initial offering to the general public.

The latest format dubbed free-form advertising was created to make it appear quite like content that users are sharing to assist advertisers in attaining the greatest form of engagement online.

The latest format might be captivating to advertisers but there’s a major issue here. These ads appear quite like regular posts which might not be welcomed by all users across the board.

Moreover, advertisers are said to make use of this format to put together several kinds of media types such as pictures, videos, as well as text messages through templates that are ready-made in design.

The app said that this advertising format continues to receive inspiration from one of the app’s famous types of posts which is known as the megathread. You can better envision this as a one-stop destination where users can discuss a wide array of topics regarding similar themes.

Quite like megathreads, you can see how many free-form types of ads are designed to assist readers in attaining the data they need at a quick pace. Moreover, the firm added how the latest design of advertising formats serves as the ideal means to do great things such as roll out products or give rise to bigger brands so that new audience members could benefit the most.

Quite like how other kinds of ads are run on Reddit, users could differentiate between ads that are free-form and those that are regular in design via the Promoted label that’s present near the company’s title.

During the initial testing phase of such formats, the company found such free-form advertisements doing better than other variants in the CTR domain with a 28% rise in engagement when you enable comments online.

Such types of ads provide the greatest level of flexibility to create advertisements of any kind of length. They make use of several types of media which make it appealing and very native to the app online.

This also similarly encourages the mixing of content and context as well as creativity coming from different brands. It would also enable maximal performances and great awareness for brands who can benefit from these likes.

You can find this latest advertising format up for grabs for all Reddit advertisers through the app’s Ads Manager feature.

It’s interesting how today’s feature rollout arrives just several days after we saw the platform give rise to new suites of offerings such as Reddit Pro. The goal is to assist different companies in growing a bigger and better presence organically through the Reddit app.

So far, Reddit is on the move to include several brands in the app as well as convert those into subscribers that pay in the end. Such launches are giving rise to the first time that this app can offer tools free of cost so that businesses can make the most of their current business and social strategies in place.

The fact that Reddit is rolling this new feature out to help businesses on the app grow really says a lot and that’s why it’s being welcomed with open arms. What do you think about the latest rollout? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Image: DIW-Aigen

Read next: IDC Reports PC Shipments Decreased in First Half of 2023 but Grew in the Last Quarter of 2023
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

IDC Reports PC Shipments Decreased in First Half of 2023 but Grew in the Last Quarter of 2023

An analyst company named as IDC revealed that PC shipments have dropped by 9% in 2023 after the surplus shipments that were observed in the pandemic. Inflation is also being a cause because now users have limited budgets and cannot afford a PC. Even though PC shipments saw a decline in 2023, it grew 6.1% YoY in the fourth quarter of 2023. IDC predicts that this new rise in the unit shipments will be continued in 2024.

Jay Chou who is a research manager at IDC’s Worldwide Client’s Devices Tracker says that many drivers are going to take place in the first half of 2024. Windows 10 support is also expiring in 2025 which means that companies are going to migrate towards Windows 11 faster and it will probably continue until the end of 2025. There are also expectations that new models of CPU and GPU are also going to drop around this time. Right now, many companies are adapting to AI for work so many use cases are going to be needed across many companies.

• Also read: Unveiling 5 High-Paying Careers in Technology in 2024

In the fourth quarter of 2023, the PC model that had the largest shipments was Dell, followed by HP, Lenovo, NEC and ASUS. IDC says that the shipments are going to rise to 5.2% in 2024 and it will reach 7.9% in 2025 as many users will go from Windows 10 to Windows 11. After this transition, the shipment growth of PCs will be average. Inflation is going to play a great role in affecting PC shipments because the prices are rising and the unemployment rates are increasing.

Read next: New Research Shows ChatGPT Plugins Have Increased Vulnerability to Cyberattacks
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Stripe Enables Apple Pay Later By Default For All Merchants

Apple’s Pay Later feature was first rolled out in 2023 and since then, many have been talking about the useful feature.

The option gives users the chance to divide their in-app and online purchases from Apple Pay into a whopping four types of equal payment categories that spanned a timeframe of six weeks. And the best part was that there was no type of fees or interest involved.

The Apple Pay Later option was up for grabs for many retailers to benefit from but not all online merchants could make the make of this endeavor.

Now, we’re hearing more on this front including how the feature is getting launched to all businesses as a default setting so that Stripe merchants can benefit.

We have seen Stripe show support for Apple Pay Later since the start of last year but the real launch is taking place officially right now to all those concerned this week.

The most notable option on this front has to do with Stripe Merchants accepting Apple Pay as explained by the organization.

This means that once you start checking out online from the platform or across the app with a merchant involved who uses Stripe for things like payment processing, the feature transforms into a new option that is seen everywhere.

Through Apple Pay Payments, you can select if you’d like to make a full payment or if you’d like to pay in installments. The feature is designed for things like purchases that range between $75 to $1000 while you make use of Stripe.

The company even mentioned the news and how happy it was to have this feature on board while adding that giving clients across the US to divide their purchases into several equal installments throughout several weeks is key.

Apple can back and manage payments and in this way, the firms involved are given their due shares in full, similar to how Apple Pay works.

This Pay Later feature by Apple starts off with the user giving rise to new applications for loans that could be through direct checkout flow. Another option to make use of is the Wallet application at any given moment in time.

Apple also confirmed how such a feature doesn’t affect their respective credit but after seeing the entire history for payments, you can report that to respective credit bureaus. Seeing the way Apple rolled out one official partnership this past month toward Apple’s Pay Later direction is proof of how things are really taking shape.

Stripe has also followed through with its fine share of details for merchants including how to opt-out of this for the website.

For quite some time now, Stripe has shown great support for such endeavors and now that it’s coming into play finally is certainly a sign of relief for both merchants and users in the US, not to mention the added convenience for online purchases.

Image: DIW

Read next: New YouTube TV App Redesign Promises Better Shopping Experiences and Quicker Comment Access
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

New YouTube TV App Redesign Promises Better Shopping Experiences and Quicker Comment Access

Popular video-sharing platform YouTube just rolled out a new redesign for its television application that’s said to come into effect as early as next week.

While no concrete details were unveiled on this front, we do know that the streaming giant states that a new design is in the works and would give rise to a bigger and better range of experiences including shopping options for creators who can find their best products in one location.

Other than shopping, we are talking about updates that are designed to enhance the overall array of features that give simpler access to the likes of comments as well as descriptions for videos.

On that end of the spectrum, there would be a new comments feed with descriptions that will take up more space. Moreover, it’s going to be quicker to access that and when clicked on, you’ll see the real video size shrinking.

The platform added how users continually request smaller video feeds while giving greater priority to the likes of comments. As we can see right now, the feed featuring comments covers videos, and that refresh enables users to better engage through comments and not be forced to deal with coverups linked to real content seen online.

This YouTube platform keeps getting used by millions around the globe daily and that’s why the company says it is time for a revamp. People want to carry out searches more easily and have their personal feeds display a more refreshed appeal.

They also want to be given the chance to search for what to watch next while the current video continues to play like seen on mobile phones.

YouTube acknowledged how there’s a constant push and pull arising between television-based experiences that are more lean-back in design and continue to arise at the heart of resigning initiatives.

However, there is yet to be any kind of mention of anything that was brought up on this front.

Users can however be engaged in purchasing items that others adorn in videos by simply clicking on a button that’s seen across the remote.

YouTube did end up teasing all sports fans and hoped they would check live scores without any kind of interruptions across a video. But they failed to get into the details of it.

Despite many media outlets reaching out to the app on this front, the addition of new features like these is yet to be spoken about in detail so far.

Such redesigns will just give rise to video chapters that can be accessed easily and are handy in design and function.

It must be mentioned how these kinds of updates are going to be rolled out for YouTube platforms that continue to function across different televisions and aren’t just giving rise to live services across YouTube’s television platform today.

What we are well aware of is that this would attain new updates in a couple of days and give users the chance to make the most of Views without seeing interferences such as live content.

Image: YT

Read next: EU Gives Green Signal To New AI Act That Imposes Stricter Rules On Generative AI Use
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

EU Gives Green Signal To New AI Act That Imposes Stricter Rules On Generative AI Use

The EU Parliament has reportedly introduced a new AI Act that’s designed to impose stringent regulations over the use of generative AI across the region.

The Parliament confirmed the thoughts of Wednesday where it added how the goal was to regulate generative AI to keep citizens safe at all times. Moreover, a whopping 523 votes were received by members who voted in favor of this new act while just 46 voted against it.

It is believed that this new law that governs AI use took a staggering two years to come into shape and therefore is designed to ensure that humans come before AI at all times.

The Parliament mentioned how all practices that it felt were unfit in regards to AI governance would no longer be acceptable in this part of the world while citizens' rights would be the highest priority at all times.

There would also be a new setup for a new AI office in the region to assist firms in complying with a host of regulations before coming into play.

The EU Commission’s head also gave replies to reports on this front by adding how the new AI Act will work towards assisting the EU’s workforce and give rise to a plan where users can blindly trust AI not only in Europe but other regions around the globe.

Passing of this new law also means that after getting finalized, systems would be categorized into one of the four leading risk domains. It would be controlled in the same way. Any AI tools that it feels aren’t acceptable would now be subjected to a serious ban including biometric categorization and AI tool poilcing.

Tools that cover domains such as education, immigration, justice, safety, employment, law enforcement, and beyond could come under a new category called high-risk. But those that carry minimal to no risk would be able to skip the entire oversight completely.

All apps that are considered high-risk wouldn’t be given the green signal from the general public unless they have the necessary paperwork that allows them to function safely and after meeting high-quality standards.

Users coming across AI tools such as chatbots would now feel safer as those tech giants giving rise to such offerings would now disclose the matter to the EU and how they are interacting with technology and not real human beings. This means they’re no longer going to be kept in the darkness.

If and when they feel they’re at threat, they have the right to back out as the reality is printed in front of them and no one will force them to do anything.

The Parliament also mentioned how the main focus for AI systems is complying with copyright laws in this area and also rolling out summaries in detail about any data used for the likes of training and beyond.

Users can protect work online and ensure it’s not copied or made use of for the likes of training large language models for example. So if the user to whom this data belongs says they don’t want it to be offered to others, then it would be off-limits to all.

After this act transforms into law, the EU says the impact can be major for those hosting generative AI models that were trained using a heap of content from the web that’s copyrighted. But it’s still not clear what stance AI firms have on this front and what the actual impact of such laws would be from their end.

Remember, the law will take another three years to come into play completely in the EU while limitations detailed in the new document say it would come into play as early as six months but AI models can take up to one year to follow so there’s a long time coming.

Whatever the case may be, one thing is for sure. It was a long time coming and users are happy that something is being done to safeguard them against the growing woes of the AI world.

Read next: TikTok Users Stage Uproar As App One Step Closer To Getting Banned After Bill Passed In US House
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World