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The Antitrust-Reprieve Edition Friday, March 17, 2023

Apple, Amazon, Google Will Likely Get A Reprieve From GOP-controlled House On Antitrust Legislation, by Brian Schwartz, Lauren Feiner, CNBC

Tech giants Google, Amazon and Apple are likely to get a reprieve in Congress this year from efforts to rein in some of the companies' most controversial and allegedly anti-competitive business practices — even though the legislation has typically enjoyed broad bipartisan support.

The new Republican leadership in the U.S. House doesn't appear to have the appetite to impose tougher antitrust rules on the tech giants to ensure they don't abuse their dominant position in the market to block smaller rivals, Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., the former the top Republican on the House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust issues, said in an interview.

Stuff

Apple Maps Expands Detailed City Experience With 3D Landmarks To Boston, by Joe Rossignol, MacRumors

Apple says the updated map provides richer detail for road markings, buildings, commercial districts, marinas, land cover, trees, elevation, public transit routes, and more. Navigation is also improved with the additions of augmented reality walking directions and a road-level "windshield view" when approaching complex interchanges.

The New Camo App Makes Even Your Crappy Webcam Look Halfway Decent, by David Pierce, The Verge

Where Camo most obviously shines is when you connect your smartphone, particularly an iPhone — Camo may work with everything, but it’s still best with Apple gear. It’s just so much better than Continuity Camera. By default, Continuity Camera gives you practically no control other than a couple of semi-useful filters like Portrait and Center Stage. But connect via Camo and you can zoom in or out, you can switch your camera’s frame rate, you can shoot vertically instead of in landscape, and you can add a filter that makes everything purple for some reason. And at least to my eyes, it all happens without any loss in image quality.

Clip Studio Paint 2.0 Introduces New 3D Referencing Tools, by Jess Weatherbed, The Verge

Celsys has released Clip Studio Paint 2.0, the first major update for its popular digital illustration app that introduces new 3D referencing tools, brush effects, and additional language support.

Agenda 17, by Agen Schmitz, TidBITS

Momenta has issued version 17 of Agenda, adding multi-window capabilities to the date-focused note-taking app and a new purchasing model for its Premium features.

NBA iOS App Updated With Live Activities Support Ahead Of April Playoffs, by Michael Potuck, 9to5Mac

Just a week after the NCAA March Madness app was updated with support for iOS 16 Live Activities, the NBA app has followed suit. The handy feature arrives as the regular season comes to a close on April 9 and the NBA playoffs kick off on April 11.

Notes

Apple Testing New Siri Natural Language Generating Features Starting With Latest tvOS Update, by Chance Miller, 9to5Mac

Apple is testing new natural language generation features for Siri, 9to5Mac has learned. Codenamed “Bobcat,” this new technology is being tested starting with the latest tvOS 16.4 beta and will eventually make its way to the rest of Apple’s operating systems. Still, Apple is currently focused on using this technology to improve Siri.

Apple Planning Redesigned TV App For Mac With Sidebar For Navigation, by Chance Miller, 9to5Mac

Apple is planning a redesign for the TV app on the Mac, 9to5Mac has learned. The redesign is included in the macOS 13.3 beta but is currently disabled. With a little bit of trickery, however, we were able to activate the new design and get a look at what’s new.

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I find it a bit strange to hear so many people declare that AR glasses are still years and years away to be technically feasible. But isn't Google Glasses a thing already, or are we talking about different things?

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Thanks for reading.