Article

Pocket AI portable external graphics module

Pocketable RTX 3050 GPU Has Thunderbolt Power | Tom’s Hardware (tomshardware.com)

Adlink readies Pocket AI palm-sized portable Nvidia GPU for AI applications – NotebookCheck.net News

From the horse’s mouth

Adlink

Pocket AI | Portable GPU with NVIDIA RTX GPU (Product Page)

ADLINK launches portable GPU accelerator with NVIDIA RTX A500 in NVIDIA GTC (Press Release)

My Comments

Sonnet put up one of the first Thunderbolt-3-connected portable external graphics modules that you can put in your laptop bag or backpack and allow you to improve your laptop’s graphics performance when you are away from home or work. It doesn’t matter whether you are using an external monitor or the laptop’s own display to see the results. Subsequently a few other manufacturers offered similarly-portable external graphics modules that achieve this same goal in something that can be easily transported.

The Dell XPS 13 series of ultraportable computers and other Thunderbolt-3-equipped laptops can benefit from external graphics modules

But a mixture of circumstances ranging from COVID with the associated supply-chain issues and the “Crypto Gold Rush” bubble had impacted on the availability and cost of graphics processors. This meant that it was hard to find a portable external graphics module that was in the price range for even the most serious creator or gamer.

Subsequently the supply chain issues started to ease up and the Crypto Gold Rush bubble had burst which led to more graphics-processor silicon being made available. Some manufacturers even made a point of positioning particular graphics silicon away from crypto mining through means like software crippling or creating auxiliary processor cards dedicated to that task. This has freed up the supply of graphics silicon for high-performance-computing tasks like gaming, creator / prosumer computing, certified workstations and artificial intelligence.

That led to Sonnet refreshing their portable external graphics module with newer AMD graphics silicon and offering it as two different units powered by different GPUs. That allowed for some form of product differentiation in this product class.

Now Adlink are promoting a pocketable external graphics module for use with Thunderbolt-3-equipped laptops and “next-unit-of-computing” computers. This integrated external graphics module which is powered by NVIDIA RTX silicon is being pitched at artificial-intelligence use cases but can come in to play for gamers, creators and the like.

The Pocket AI external graphics module uses a soldered-in NVIDIA RTX A500 mobile graphics processor with 4Gh display memory. The Tom’s Hardware article reckoned that this offered performance akin to an NVIDIA RTX-3050 mobile graphics processor offered for recent entry-level discrete-GPU laptops.

Rather than using a device-specific power supply, the Pocket AI uses a USB Power-Delivery-compliant power supply with at least 45 watts output. This means you could get away with a USB-PD charger that works from household AC mains power or from DC power used in automotive, marine or aircraft setups; or even a suitably-rated powerbank.

It then connects to the host computer using a Thunderbolt 3 or 4 connection, as expected for an external graphics module. But there doesn’t seem to be any external connections for other devices like monitors or other USB devices.

Here, you would benefit from the essential features offered by NVIDIA for its recent GeForce RTX graphics processors including RTX Broadcast which would benefit videocall and online broadcast use cases.

It is a pocketable unit, which you may say is equivalent to something like a pocket radio or early-generation pocket scientific calculator that is run on AA batteries. This leads to something that doesn’t take much room in a messenger style laptop bag, briefcase or backpack.

The Pocket AI external graphics module is being pitched towards artificial-intelligence and machine-learning use cases where a secondary processor is needed to facilitate these tasks.

But it is being pitched towards gamers with the commentary being towards adding a bit of “pep” towards the gaming experience on something like a Dell XPS 13. It is also said to come in to its own for work like graphics and multimedia, statistics or computer programming on those kind of computers.It is also about bringing NVIDIA RTX-specific features to your computer for use cases like video conferencing, video editing and similar uses and would easily court the “creator” or “prosumer” user class.

From what I see of the Adlink Pocket AI external graphics module, it could benefit from further connectivity options like DisplayPort or HDMI ports for external monitors. Or it could be about having a downstream Thunderbolt 3//4 port to allow it to be used with Thunderbolt 3 hubs or docks.

What this device is showing is a slow resurgence of reasonably priced discrete GPUs including external graphics modules that has come about after the crypto-asset bubble had burst. It may even allow computer manufacturers to invest in Thunderbolt 4 and related connection options on laptops, all-in-one computers and low-profile desktop computers for these devices; as well as to see a wide range of external graphics modules on the shelf.

It could be a chance for more manufacturers to offer highly-portable external graphics modules with entry-level or modest graphics silicon to court people who want that bit more out of their thin-and-light notebook computers.

Most of us who have used Facebook have found ourselves seeing a friend request for someone who is already our Facebook Friend. This is a form of account compromise where someone creates a doppleganger of our account as a way to impersonate our online personality.

Such “clone” accounts of our online presence can be used as a way to facilitate a “man-in-the-middle” attack especially when dealing with an encrypted communication setup. It is an issue that is becoming more real with state-sponsored cybercrime where authoritarian states are hacking computer and communications equipment belonging to journalists, human-rights activists or a democracy’s government officials and contractors.

Mutually-verified contacts

In most implementations, each contact has a code that is generated by the messaging or social media platform as a human-readable or machine-readable form. The former approach would be a series of letters and numbers while the latter would be a barcode or QR code that you scan with your computing device’s camera.

In a lot of cases, this code changes if the user installs the social-media app on a new device or reinstalls it on the same device. The latter situation can occur if your phone is playing up and you have to reinstall all of your apps from scratch.

Users are encouraged to verify each other using this authentication code either in person or through another, preferably secure, means of communication. In-person verification may take place in the form of one user scanning the other user’s machine-readable code with their phone.

This allows each user of the platform to be sure they are communicating with the user they intend to communicate with and there isn’t anything that is between each party of the conversation. It is similar to a classic contact-authentication approach of asking someone a question that both you and the contact know the answer to mutually like a common fact or simply using a nickname for example.

The feature is part of Signal but is being baked in to Apple iMessage as part of iOS/iPadOS 16.3 and MacOS Ventura 13.1. But I see this as a feature that will become part of various instant-messaging, social media and similar products as the market demands more secure conversation.

Zoom also implements this as part of its end-to-end encryption feature for videoconferences. Here, users can verify that they are in a secure videoconference by comparing a number sequence read out by the meeting host after they click on a “shield” icon that appears during an encrypted videoconference. Here, this feature could come in to play with Signal and similar apps that are used for group conversations.

Relevance

Primarily this feature is being pitched towards users who stand to lose a lot, including their lives because they engage in “high-stakes” activities. Such users are government officials, public servants and military in democratic states, vendors who sell goods and services to government or military in these states, journalists and media workers in states that value a free press along with human-rights activists and NGSs.

Here, these users become highly vulnerable due to them being of interest to authoritarian states and organisations or individuals that aid and abet these states.  It is also being applied to countries that have undergone a significant amount of democratic backsliding or are considered to be socially unstable.

Personally, I see this as being important for everyday use so you can be sure that whom you want as part of your social-media or online messaging circle is whom you actually want. Here, it can avoid you dealing with scams based on others impersonating you or others in your social circle such as the “relative in distress” scam. As well, it can also be seen as a way to be sure you are linking with the right person when you add a new person to your social-media list.

Conclusion

I would see an increasing number of communications, social media and similar platforms acquiring the “mutual contact verification” function as a security feature. This would be more so where the platform supports end-to-end encryption in any way or there is a reliance on some form of personal safety or business confidentiality.

Article

Why Emiko is forgetting the trolls and passing on her love of food to her daughters instead – ABC Everyday

Previous coverage on HomeNetworking01.info

Constance Hall puts trolling and bullying in the TV spotlight on Dancing With The Stars

What can you do about people who use the Social Web to menace

Dealing with Internet trolls

How can social media keep itself socially sane?

My Comments

I had come across another personality who had to do battle with online bullies and trolls and she and her fan base turned it around for good.

Emiko Davies is a food writer of Japanese heritage who writes for newspaper lifestyle supplements as well as running an online presence about food. She has two daughters that are part of her food culture with one that has a large body frame.

There was an instance that she documented as part of an interview with Everyday, the ABC’s online lifestyle site. This was where Emiko’s large-bodied daughter was fat-shamed by online trolls, with Emiko being accused of not doing things right as a parent even though she is encouraging an enjoyment-of-food culture.

But, what I liked here was that an army of her online followers jumped in to defend Emiko, her daughters and her food culture. This took Emiko’s mind away from dealing with the perils of online life and led to most of these trolls deleting the comments they had posted.

It also led to Emiko changing her online-presence policy by limiting comment-writing privileges to followers and not sharing content about her children in the online space. Here she was able to rely on her followers as an army of defenders and to use the content-management tools and policies wisely to limit bad behaviour online.

But it also showed up an issue amongst the trolls as not having a healthy relationship with their food or bodies. This was drawing on an unhealthy culture where people who have a large body frame are frequently denigrated while their isn’t much positive content about these people, especially large-bodied children, engaging in joyful activities relating to food like cooking.

It is also driven by the diet culture and a vanity culture amongst women where the “hourglass figure” is considered the ideal look. As well, large-framed people aren’t really portrayed as significant heroes in popular fiction, especially juvenile fiction. There is a reality that some men and women who look large aren’t necessarily fat with this coming about because of ethnic origins or other factors or how one’s body shape changes over our lives.

Some of these accounts are showing up how a group of loyal followers for an online creator can act as their army especially when dealing with online bullying and harassment. It takes the heat off the online creator’s mind and allows them to continue to create good content. In some cases, it can also expose particular hurts that are taking place within our society.

LG SoundPop 360 Bluetooth speakers
– an example of the popular Bluetooth speakers

A very popular accessory for smartphones, tablets and laptops is the Bluetooth speaker. These speakers connect to your mobile device via Bluetooth and work as an audio output device for it.

The typical design for most of these speakers is to be a highly portable battery-operated unit that can fill a small area with sound in a manner equivalent to the typical portable radio. These appear in many different sizes from something that fits in your palm to larger tube-shaped units that can be carried using a strap or shoved in your coat pocket. Add to this an increasing number of larger cube-shaped speakers that put out a bass rich sound.

Add to this larger mains-powered bookshelf active speakers that have Bluetooth audio functionality in them along with a variety of inputs like analogue line-level and phono inputs or USB, SP/DIF and HDMI digital-audio inputs. These are being pitched as a way to set up a stereo for an office or small apartment.

In a lot of cases especially with portable speakers, these have a built-in microphone so they can become a speakerphone for your mobile device, something that can come in handy for conference calling including Zoom calls. But some Bluetooth speakers like the B&O Beosound A1 2nd Generation speaker even have this function set up so they work with your smartphone or tablet as a voice-activated smart speaker.

T

Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 2nd Generation Bluetooth smart speaker that works with a smartphone or similar devicce to benefit from Amazon Alexa

hese exist in a universe of Bluetooth audio endpoints like audio adaptors that work between a line-level audio connection and Bluetooth Classic audio as either a transmitter or receiver. This is in addition to home audio equipment receiving Bluetooth audio as an input and/or transmitting content available to it as a Bluetooth audio stream.

An example of this is in the form of portable and mantel radios that work as Bluetooth speakers. This device class has capitalised on the interest over the last 15 years in premium radios thanks to the likes of Bose and Tivoli offering radios that look and perform “above average”; the nostalgia for vintage-styled radios, along with broadcast radio being delivered via digital-broadcast technology or Internet technology and yielding programming exclusive to those technologies.

It includes companies offering audio source devices like turntables or CD players that stream to Bluetooth speakers. This is because the Bluetooth audio specifications are in fact “application-level” specifications that have been pre-determined for a long time, so there as surety that their source devices can work with any Bluetooth audio endpoint device. Here, it could allow someone to create an elementary sound system around that device and a pair of Bluetooth speakers.

Some of these speakers come with other features like LED-driven “party lights” or very large batteries that work as powerbanks for charging mobile devices. As well, a lot of larger portable Bluetooth speakers make use of passive radiators as a way to increase their bass response while others rely on an app-driven approach to allow you to adjust their sound quality from your smartphone.

Multi-speaker operation

But, thanks to Bluetooth 5, there has been an interest in multi-speaker Bluetooth audio approaches. This comes in the form of two operating modes:

Party Mode: Multiple speakers play the same programme content from the same source device with speakers that are stereo-designed playing the content in stereo across the speakers in that same box. This is to provide more sound coverage, typically for entertaining people at a party. Most such setups can handle a relatively large number of speakers due to latency not being considered important for this use case.

Stereo Mode: A pair of like speakers are set up so that one plays the left channel of a stereo programme source from one source device while the other plays the right channel of that same source. This is to improve the channel separation for the stereo content.

Typically manufacturers are limiting this functionality to a subset of their Bluetooth-speaker product range, more so the products in the “value” and “premium” market positionings.

These operating modes may work in one of two arrangements;

Source-to-speakers / hub-and-spoke: The source device streams the audio content to the speakers at once. This is typically implemented for stereo-mode operation so as to reduce latency by making sure the data gets to each speaker without any middleman device processing it.

Speaker-to-speaker / daisy-chain: The source device streams the audio content to one speaker which passes it on to other speakers down the line. This appeals to party-mode operation so as to permit large numbers of speakers to be in the setup. It may allow speakers to introduce some latency but this isn’t an issue for party-mode operation due to the goal of covering a large area with sound.

What to watch

Bluetooth LE Audio and its impact on Bluetooth speakers

Bluetooth LE Audio has been cemented in stone as the next-generation Bluetooth multimedia audio standard and is expected to provide a raft of improvements for this device class.

This implements the Bluetooth LC3 audio codec which is about efficient audio data transfer and even improve sound quality, operational stability and battery runtime. Here it also allows mobile-technology designers to avoid reinventing the wheel for audio-codec improvements when it comes to baseline audio performance for Bluetooth audio.

For portable Bluetooth speakers, this could be about allowing you to move around more freely with your mobile device without fear of losing the music as well as being able to run for a long time before needing to be charged up. As well, there will be the ability for these speakers and similar devices to cope with congested 2.4GHx wireless environments like in a city centre because of the robustness that the LC3 audio codec will offer.

This could impact how they are designed such as to have portable speakers that are lighter because of not needing to design around large battery packs. There will also be the chance to design higher-quality portable Bluetooth speakers that take advantage of higher quality sound that the new codec offers. Multi-speaker setups, especially based on Auracast, could be benefitting if the setup permits meshed or daisy-chained operation because of reduced latency in such setups and less impact on battery runtime for the actual sound reproduction.

Auracast broadcast audio will come in to its own with Bluetooth speakers that implement the Bluetooth LE Audio standard. Firstly, this could be about multiple-speaker party-mode operation without a requirement to use particular speakers from the same manufacturer. It may even allow the use of multichannel setups within the same Auracast multi-speaker setup rather than having “party mode” or “stereo mode” being mutually exclusive. Here, you would be using “audio sharing” on your phone, tablet or laptop to facilitate this mode with the device being enabled for Bluetooth LE Audio and Auracast.

As well, Auracast-based broadcast audio and Bluetooth speakers can be a perfect partner here. For example, a small Bluetooth speaker used in this context could be about close listening to an alternative soundtrack for video or other content or following an event going on in a nieghbouring area from another small room where you might be engaging in activity relating to that event.

Similarly, Auracast with Bluetooth speakers could be a logical follow-on to FM radio where listenership using BYO audio devices is desired for an event hosted in an area with a small footprint.

Previously, radio broadcasters were often collaborating with event organisers to broadcast the musical soundtrack to a large public event like a fireworks display, street parade or motorcade. Then you would have to bring a portable radio to that event and tune in to that station to follow the soundtrack using that radio to get the best value from that event. This approach may be seen as irrelevant for a radio station with a large broadcast area like a major city’s metropolitan area unless the event has a large footprint that takes in more of that broadcast area such as a fireworks display encompassing a waterway that passes through the city.

Similarly, there were the drive-in cinemas where you tuned your car radio to a particular frequency to hear the film’s soundtrack. Here, this was limited to what the FM band was about and issues like destructive multipath that could ruin your listening experience.

Here, Auracast could lead towards a license-free wireless audio distribution approach centred around Bluetooth speakers that implement Bluetooth LE Audio technology. It would also be about increased flexibility within the setup like multichannel speaker clusters (think stereo pairs or speakers plus subwoofer setups).

The Bluetooth LE Audio specification will also impact multiple-input operation for Bluetooth speakers. This could be about seamless multipoint operation when you want to use a speaker with a smartphone and laptop or allowing your party guests to contribute to the music at your party using their devices. It could also be about party speakers that work with Bluetooth LE Audio microphones for karaoke and PA usage.

How Bluetooth LE Audio will come in to play for devices like Bluetooth headsets and speakers is the availability of dual-mode system-on-chip circuitry for this class of device. This will allow devices to work in a Bluetooth LE Audio or Bluetooth Classic Audio mode depending on what Bluetooth device they are working with, so as to assure maximum compatibility.

What could be done

There could be an emphasis towards optimising for and promoting mesh operation within multiple-speaker setups. Here, it can be used to make these setups more robust including allowing you to position your smartphone or other source device near any of the member speakers to assure audio continuity.

Multi-speaker setups could also be about bass improvement such as to add a subwoofer in to a party-mode or stereo-mode setup to pump up the bass. This also includes use of speakers that implement separately-amplified bass drivers being capable of working as part of these setups, especially “stereo-mode” setups.

There could be less reliance on “app-cessory” operation for common advanced functionality like tone control or lighting control. This could be facilitated with application-level functionality in Bluetooth LE Audio for these functions and avoid the need to create buggy apps for mobile and desktop platforms.

Manufacturers could look towards offering a variant of their Bluetooth speaker designs that has a broadcast-band radio tuner built in. Here, if you had already bought a particular speaker and then know there is one of the same design as what you already bought but has the radio functionality as well, you could justify buying the one with the radio so you can have a pair of speakers for party-mode or stereo-mode operation. It could also incentivise the manufacturer to design the speakers to work in multi-speaker mode for radio broadcasts as well as your phone’s audio.

It could extend to Bluetooth speakers that have line-input connections being able to stream the device connected to that input across a multi-speaker setup. This would extend the utility of that connection for multi-channel setups or party-mode setups.

Other complementary standards could be worked on to bring more utility out of the Bluetooth speaker class. For example, the HDMI-ARC standard could be worked on in a manner to support delivery of multiple soundtracks for the same video content. Here, this could incentivise the development of soundbars and AV receivers that allow streaming of different soundtracks to Bluetooth audio endpoints associated with the same device. That could allow a viewer to hear an alternate-language or audio-described soundtrack for video content using a Bluetooth headset or speaker paired to the soundbar or AV receiver while others hear the main soundtrack for that same content through that soundbar.

What I see that will affect Bluetooth speakers is the next few model cycles is to have Bluetooth LE Audio support as a heavily-marketed feature that will improve how they operate in many ways. It is something that I would see drip through a manufacturer’s Bluetooth audio product range.

Articles

OpenStreetMap seen as a viable alternative to Google Maps

Big Tech Companies Join Linux in Effort to Kill Google Maps (gizmodo.com)

There could finally be a solid Google Maps alternative on Android – SamMobile

From the horse’s mouth

Linux Foundation Project

Overture Maps Foundation – Linux Foundation Project

My Comments

Major tech firms like Microsoft, Meta (Facebook, Instagram), TomTom, Amazon Web Services and the Linux Foundation to build an open-source mapping and geolocation project to compete with Google Maps. It is to complement OpenStreetMap as a major competing navigation and geospatial data pool.

As well, they are pulling in data from public sources like government urban-planning departments to create the “shape” of cities and towns. Here, this allows for factoring in new property developments that are given the green light along with government-planned urban-renewal and similar projects. It could also encompass government roads departments who are laying down new roads or upgrading existing roads for new needs.

The idea is to support true interoperability when it comes to information about places and areas. Here, it is about using data from a plurality of data sources which leads to better data quality and richer data.

An issue that I would see coming about is whether the Overture Maps Foundation project and OpenStreetMap will present this effort as a consumer-facing mobile platform app or desktop program pitched for general use like HEREWeGo Maps. Or whether it could be focused towards various third-party Websites and software that exploits this data such as e-government, vehicle-dispatch, hotel-booking or similar use cases.

But one area this could affect is your vehicle’s integrated GPS sat-nav feature, especially if a vehicle is intended to be positioned for the so-called “value-price” market. The combination of the Overture Project and OpenStreetMap could be about providing a line-fit sat-nav setup at a price that is affordable to the manufacturer. It could also be about automotive infotainment equipment sold as an aftermarket add-on that has sat-nav functionality where such equipment is to be sold at a price affordable for most people.

Similarly, there will be issues like assuring support for and access to real-time data such as weather, traffic and transit, or emergency-situation information. This could be facilitated through open-frame database APIs associated with weather services and the like who maintain this kind of data, something that could be pushed by the public service achieving the “open source” attitude.

Article

There are times where use of public accounts isn’t appropriate

The murky world of politicians’ covert social media accounts (sbs.com.au)

My Comments

Just lately there have questions raised about how Australian politicians and their staff members were operating multiple online personas to disparage opponents, push political ideologies or “blow their own trumpet”.

It is being raised in connection with legislative reforms that the Australian Federal Government are working on to place the onus of responsibility regarding online defamation on whoever is posting the defamatory material in a comments trail on an online service. This is different to the status quo of having whoever is setting up or managing an online presence like a Website or Facebook Page being liable for defamation.

Here, it is in the context of what is to be expected for proper political communication including any “government-to-citizen” messaging. This is to make sure we can maintain trust in our government and that all political messaging is accurate and authentic in the day and age of fake news and disinformation.

I see this also being extended to business communication, including media/marketing/PR and non-profit advocacy organisations who have a high public profile. Here, it is to assure that any messaging by these entities is authentic so that people can build trust in them.

An example of a public-facing online persona – the Facebook page of Dan Andrews, the current Premier of Victoria

What I refer to as an “online persona” are email, instant-messaging and other communications-service accounts; Web pages and blogs; and presences on various part of the Social Web that are maintained by a person or organisation. It is feasible for a person or organisation to maintain a multiplicity of online personas like multiple email accounts or social-media pages that are used to keep public and private messaging separate, whether that’s at the business or personal level.

The normal practice for public figures at least is to create a public online persona and one or two private online personas such as an intra-office persona for colleagues and a personal one for family and friends. This is a safety measure to keep public-facing communications separate from business and personal communications.

Organisations may simply create particular online personas for certain offices with these being managed by particular staff members. In this case, they do this so that communications with a particular office stay the same even as office-holders change. As well, there is the idea of keeping “business-private” material separate from public-facing material.

In this case, the online personas reference the same entity by name at least. This is to assure some form of transparency about who is operating that persona. Other issues that come in to play here include which computing devices are being used to drive particular online personas.

This is more so for workplaces and businesses that own computing and communications hardware and have staff communicate on those company-owned devices for official business. But staff members use devices they bought themselves to operate non-official online personas. This is although more entities are moving towards “BYOD” practices where staff members use their own devices for official work use and there are systems in place to assure secure confidential work from staffer-owned devices.

But there is concern about some Australian politicians creating multiple public-facing personas in order to push various ideologies. Here, these personas are operated in an opaque manner in order to create multiple discrete persons. This technique, when used to appear as though many vouch for a belief or ideology, is referred to under terms like sockpuppetry or astroturfing.

This issue is being raised in the context of government-citizen communication in the online era. But it can also be related to individuals, businesses, trade unions or other organisations who are using opaque means to convey a sense of “popular support” for the same or similar messages.

What I see as being appropriate with establishing multiple online personas is that there is some form of transparency about which person or organisation is managing the different online personas. That includes where there are multiple “child” online personas like Websites operated by a “parent” online persona like an organisation. This practice comes in to being where online personas like email addresses and microsites (small Websites with specific domain names) are created for a particular campaign but aren’t torn down after that campaign.

As well, it includes what online personas are used for what kind of communications. This includes what is written on that “blue-ticked” social-media page or the online addresses that are written on business cards or literature you had out to the public.

Such public-communications mandates will also be required under election-oversight or fair-trading legislation so people know who is behind the messaging and these are important if it is issues-based rather than candidate-based. If an individual is pushing a particular message under their own name, they will have to state whether an entity is paying or encouraging them to advance the message.

This is due to most of us becoming conscious of online messaging from questionable sources. It is thanks to the popular concern about fake news and disinformation and its impact on elections since 2016 thanks to the Brexit referendum and Donald Trump’s presidential victory in the USA. It is also due to the rise of the online influencer culture where brands end up using big-time and small-time celebrities and influencers to push their products, services and messages online.

Articles

There is action taking place that is prying open the app-store marketplace for mobile platform devices

Spotify and Google Give You Choice in Paying Them (droid-life.com)

Apple will allow third-party app stores, because the EU mandates it | Mashable

Apple is reportedly preparing to allow third-party app stores on iOS | Engadget

Previous Coverage on HomeNetworking01.info

USA to pry open mobile-app-store market

My Comments

Thanks to the “Fortnite” saga where Google and Apple were accused of slugging Epic Games with commissions for selling in-app commodities via their mobile-platform app stores, there has been a shake-up regarding how these app stores are run.

This has also been intensified with various jurisdictions instigating work on or passing legislation and regulation regarding a competitive market for online app stores. One of these is the European Union with the Digital Markets Act which targets large online services that have a gatekeeper role, along with the USA with its Open App Markets Act which targets app stores appearing on mobile and desktop computing platforms and other devices like games consoles or smart TVs.

The Europeans see their effort not just to pry open app stores but also search engines, social networks, video-sharing sites, digital ad platforms, public cloud platforms, even so-called intermediary services like AirBnB, Uber, Uber Eats and Booking.com. There are similar efforts also taking place within UK and Australia with this effort resulting in codes of practice being established for online services.

What has happened so far

Google has taken steps to enable user-choice billing for in-app purchases normally made through their Play Store.

Firstly, they allowed people who use Bumble online-dating apps to subscribe directly with Bumble or via the app store. Now they have enabled Spotify subscribers to pay for their subscription either through the Play Store or direct with Spotify. Of course, some online services like Netflix and Britbox allow for direct payment for their subscriptions by requiring you to manage your account through the service provider’s Website.

But Google will implement this feature at the checkout point in your purchase by allowing you to select payment via Google Play or directly with the software developer. When you pay directly, you will see the online service payment user-experience provided by the developer including the ability to redeem their service’s gift vouchers, pay using PayPal or pay using a payment card platform they have business relations with. Or you pay using Google Play Store’s payment user interface that you would be familiar with.

When your payment-card statement arrives, you will see a reference to Google if you paid for the online commodity through them or a reference to the software developer / online service if you paid directly.

Paying directly would mean that software developer or online service gets your money without having to pay a “cut” to Google for accepting payment via the Google Play Store. As well, the software developer or online service is at liberty to sign up with other payment means like PayPal, other credit cards like AMEX or Discover / Diners Club, or national account-linked payment platforms like EFTPOS, Carte Bleue or EC-Karte. There is also the ability for them to offer gift vouchers that go towards their offerings.

Another benefit that will come about if you pay for a subscription directly is that if you change to a different mobile platform, your subscription is kept alive rather than you having to reinstigate your subscription with the new platform’s app store and payment mechanism.

It also positions the Google Play Store’s online payment arrangement in competition with the software developer or online service thus improving the terms of business for accepting payment from customers. An example of this is both service providers providing a link with payment-anchored loyalty programs as a way to incentivise customers towards payment through their platforms.

Another direction being taken towards prying open the app stores is Apple baking  support for third-party app stores into iOS 17 which is the next major feature release of iOS. This is in addition to offering newer versions of the iPhone with USB-C ports rather than MFi Lightning ports for external connectivity. Here, this is due to intense European pressure to open themselves up to open markets by the European Union. But the support for third-party app stores would also come down to the Open App Markets Act that is being pushed through the US Congress.

Issues to be resolved

One issue that will have to be resolved is how the average smartphone or tablet user can install a competing app store to their device.

This is more about where a smartphone manufacturer or mobile operating system developer can get away with burying this option behind a “developer mode” or “advanced-user mode”. Or it could be about onerous requirements placed on software developers by mobile platforms when it comes to creating or publishing their software such as access to application-programming interfaces or software development kits.

The app stores will also have to be about selling good-quality compelling software and games. This is so they don’t end up as the equivalent of bulletin boards, download sites and optical discs attached to computer magazines where these resources were full of poor-quality software, known as “shovelware”.

Then there is the appeal of competing app stores to consumers and software developers. Personally I see these stores have initial appeal in the gaming sector with the likes of Steam or GOG existing on mobile platforms. Also I would see some software developers operate their own app stores as a way to maintain end-to-end control of their apps.

Conclusion

There are steps being taken by Google and Apple to liberate their mobile-platform software ecosystem even though it is under pressure from competition authorities in significant jurisdictions.