Publié le Laisser un commentaire

Google’s counteroffer to the government trying to break it up is unbundling Android apps – The Verge

By Richard Lawler, a senior editor following news across tech, culture, policy, and entertainment. He joined The Verge in 2021 after several years covering news at Engadget.
The Department of Justice’s list of solutions for fixing Google’s illegal antitrust behavior and restoring competition in the search engine market started with forcing the company to sell Chrome, and late Friday night, Google responded with a list of its own (included below).
Instead of breaking off Chrome, Android, or Google Play as the DOJ’s filing considers, Google’s proposed fixes aim at the payments it makes to companies like Apple and Mozilla for exclusive, prioritized placement of its services, its licensing deals with companies that make Android phones, and contracts with wireless carriers. They don’t address a DOJ suggestion about possibly forcing Google to share its valuable search data with other companies to help their products catch up.
According to Google’s lawyers, the ruling pointed to arrangements with Apple and Mozilla for their browsers, the companies that make Android phones, and wireless carriers. Google regulatory VP Lee-Anne Mulholland writes on the company blog, “This was a decision about our search distribution contracts, so our proposed remedies are directed to that.
For three years, its proposal would block Google from signing deals that link licenses for Chrome, Search, and its Android app store, Google Play, with placement or preinstallation of its other apps, including Chrome, Google Assistant, or the Gemini AI assistant.
It would also still allow Google to pay for default search placement in browsers but allow for multiple deals across different platforms or browsing modes and require the ability to revisit the deals at least once a year.
While the company still plans to appeal Judge Amit Mehta’s ruling that said, “Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” first, it says it will submit a revised proposal on March 7th, ahead of a two-week trial over the issue in April.
/ Sign up for Verge Deals to get deals on products we’ve tested sent to your inbox weekly.
The Verge is a vox media network
© 2024 Vox Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved

source

Publié le Laisser un commentaire

Drone expert calls on national security 'reset' to deal with drone 'threats' – Fox News

Log in to comment on videos and join in on the fun.
Watch the live stream of Fox News and full episodes.
Reduce eye strain and focus on the content that matters.

©2024 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. All market data delayed 20 minutes.

source

Publié le Laisser un commentaire

What does Trump’s crypto support mean for Americans? – Baltimore Sun

Baltimore Sun eNewspaper
Sign up for email newsletters

Sign up for email newsletters
Baltimore Sun eNewspaper
Trending:
A tiny bit of shine came off bitcoin when Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell poured cold water on the idea of the U.S. government holding a cryptocurrency reserve.
But bitcoin is still riding high since Donald Trump won the 2016 White House race.
Trump has voiced support for crypto and has picked crypto supporters for key roles within his administration.
Bitcoin was valued at about $69,000 on Election Day. In the weeks after Trump won the election, bitcoin surged above $100,000.
Trump spoke at the Bitcoin 2024 conference this summer, telling attendees that he wanted to make America the “crypto capital of the planet and the bitcoin superpower of the world.”
Some of his picks for key jobs within his administration, such as treasury secretary and Securities and Exchange Commission chair, seem to back up that pro-crypto position.
But on Wednesday, Powell said the central bank isn’t allowed to own bitcoin and isn’t looking for a law change to allow the government to hold a crypto reserve.
A day later, bitcoin, the largest and oldest cryptocurrency, was trading about 5% lower than its 24-hour high, according to CoinDesk.
“I’m not surprised the Fed chair says they will not hold a central reserve of bitcoin,” Leonard Kostovetsky, an associate professor of finance at Baruch College, said in an email. “It’s not a part of the Federal Reserve’s mandate of keeping inflation and unemployment low and there is no obvious benefit to the economy from the Fed holding it. It’s also a decentralized currency so the Federal Reserve does not really play much of a role in its regulation.”
Kostovetsky, a cryptocurrency expert, also said he wasn’t sure Trump’s support of crypto had a lot of impact on its legitimacy.
“But crypto market participants are certainly betting that his appointees will reduce regulations on crypto which will make it more valuable,” he said.
The question of crypto regulations is not a simple one, said Roger Nober, the director of the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center. And it begins with simply “deciding what it is.”
“Is crypto a security? Is it a commodity? Is it nothing, like who won the coin flip at the Super Bowl, just kind of a prop bet? Or is it any or any combination of those?” Nober said. “And so, first you have to decide what it is and how to regulate it.”
The current SEC felt that cryptocurrencies were securities, like stocks, and kept trying to control them with lawsuits against exchanges or tokens, Nober said.
Many aspects of crypto are now left to the eye of the beholder. Nober said he thinks the Trump administration will bring more clarity around crypto assets, but the approach remains murky.
“There’s a lot of ideas that are being thrown out by people, and it’s hard to know how many of them are what the administration thinks or what they don’t,” Nober said. “I don’t know that the administration knows what it thinks. I think different people involved in the administration may think they know what it thinks or want to speak for them.”
Peter Whitehead, a senior engineer at RAND, equated cryptocurrencies to “lemon” used cars due to an inherent asymmetry of information between crypto sellers and buyers.
“In the multibillion-dollar world of cryptocurrencies, information asymmetry is an inescapable and unchecked phenomenon and, unlike in the market for used cars, there is little consumers can currently do about it,” Whitehead wrote.
Cryptocurrencies operate through blockchains, or decentralized digital ledgers. Most Americans know little about the working of cryptocurrencies, Kostovetsky said. He noted that a recent Motley Fool poll showed only 18% of people felt they understood how crypto works.
Crypto is an extremely volatile investment, Kostovetsky said. It can often lose or gain as much as 10% of its value in just one day. And we can’t forecast crypto prices.
Unlike normal financial assets, like stocks and bonds, crypto is an asset whose entire value depends on what people are willing to pay for it at a period in time based on what they think someone else will pay for it in the future.
It is not backed by anything else, such as gold, tax revenue or corporate earnings. Kostovetsky said that makes it impossible to estimate if a particular crypto asset is overpriced or underpriced.
“The American public should approach crypto with extreme caution,” Kostovetsky said. “If people want to gamble, they can go to a casino or buy lottery tickets or bet on sports. Putting money in cryptocurrency should be seen as more similar to those activities than to investing one’s savings in stocks, bonds, or real estate.”
Nober said crypto’s instability is a deterrent to people who want to make long-term investments.
“You have to have a tolerance for risk that a lot of more mainstream investors don’t necessarily have,” he said.
The U.S. government holding a bitcoin reserve would be one way of demonstrating confidence in crypto.
“I think the people who are after a bitcoin reserve were perhaps after that market signal,” Nober said.
The Trump administration can foster adoption of crypto with regulatory clarity of the digital currencies. But he said congressional legislation would be preferable for clarity and durability of the market.
“Getting Congress to act on a statutory framework, particularly for something as controversial as crypto, is a challenge,” Nober said.
Have a news tip? Contact Cory Smith at corysmith@sbgtv.com or at x.com/Cory_L_Smith. Content from The National Desk is provided by Sinclair, the parent company of FOX45 News.
Copyright © 2024 Baltimore Sun

source

Publié le Laisser un commentaire

Shooting at Fenton: Murder suspect worked for center's security company – WRAL News

The man facing a murder charge after a Friday night shooting at Cary’s Fenton social district is an employee of the security provider there.
Cory Edward McNeill was found shot to death just before 9 p.m. Friday in Fenton’s Green parking deck, police said.
Shortly thereafter, police say, Malik Emaje Scott-McClarin called them and surrendered in connection with the shooting.
According to the warrant for his arrest, Scott-McClarin is an employee of Sunstates Security, a private security provider based in Raleigh. In a statement, Sunstates VP Roberta Scoblick said the company is cooperating with police in the murder investigation.
“Sunstates Security provides services for Fenton in an unarmed capacity,” she said.
She did not address why Scott-McClarin had a weapon on the property or whether he was on duty for Sunstates at the time of the shooting.
On Saturday, at least one guard wearing a Sunstates patch was visible on Fenton property. 
Mike Woodard, who identified himself as a Sunstates employee contracted with Fenton, referred questions to the corporate office and asked WRAL News to leave the property.  
Woodard did say that security at Fenton on Saturday was on par with the crowds to be expected on the final weekend before Christmas. He declined to offer specifics about security or personnel.
According to the Cary Police Department, officers were called around 8:45 p.m. to the Green parking deck at Fenton, where they found McNeill inside a vehicle.
Police Scott-McClarin and McNeill knew each other, and that there was no further threat to anyone else.
Court records show the two men were arrested on the same day (Oct. 22) and on the same charges in Selma — possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. 
The shooting in Cary was the second in two days for the town. On Thursday night, a woman was shot on Berry Chase Way
It was also at least the second at a busy shopping area Friday night, just days before Christmas. In Lumberton, a 42-year-old woman was shot and killed at a Walmart on the 5000 block of Fayetteville Road. Police there also said it was an isolated incident with no further threat to the public, although they did not immediately make an arrest or release the name or description of a suspect.

source