February 19, 2024 | View in browser 

🍏 Apple's huge fine?
📱 Android 15 announced
📺 Darn streaming services!
🌎 Stunning Earth shots

Apple is about to be hit with a fine of 500 million euros (about $540 million) for allegedly breaking EU law over access to music streaming services, a Financial Times report claimed on Sunday.

Expected to be announced in early March, the fine would mark the first time that the  EU has taken such action against the tech giant.

The reported fine follows a European Commission antitrust probe into whether Apple has been using its platform to favor its own services over those operated by its rivals.

The investigation has been looking into whether the American company blocked apps from informing iPhone users about more affordable ways to access music subscriptions outside the App Store, the Financial Times said ...

Android fans, it’s time to start your hype engines. Google just released the first developer preview for Android 15, kicking off the release of the next big Android update.

This is just the first step in a months-long process of Android 15’s rollout, which will see numerous developer previews and betas before the final release later this year. So, what’s new? When is Android 15 officially releasing, and should you download it? Here’s everything you need to know.

Google says Android 15 focuses on three main areas: privacy/security, supporting creators and developers, and maximizing app performance. The refreshed OS brings, for example, partial screen sharing that lets you record a specific part of an app rather than the entire screen and more fitness and nutrition data types for its Health Connect platform ...

Just look at the state of the various streaming services going into 2024. You can’t begrudge them for trying to make more money — that’s literally what they’re here to do. But time and time again, one after another, they’ve been nickel-and-diming us. And there’s not a damn thing we can do about it.

It starts with increases to monthly subscription fees. And while that’s bad enough, it’s the passive-aggressive statements that accompany them that really leave a bad taste in my mouth.

Even worse, lately, has been the trend of adding new tiers of service with lower prices, offset by advertising. Sure, you pay less. But Netflix has come right out and said it: The company makes more money this way.

But it gets worse ...

Soon after SpaceX successfully launched Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lander toward the moon last Thursday, the spacecraft snapped some extraordinary images of Earth.

Texas-based Intuitive Machines shared four of the images on social media on Sunday. The first picture in the sequence even shows the second stage of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket falling away shortly after separating from the spacecraft.

Intuitive Machines said its team programmed the lander’s wide and narrow field-of-view cameras “to take five quick images every five minutes for two hours, starting 100 seconds after separating from SpaceX’s second stage,” adding that “out of all the images collected, Intuitive Machines chose to show humanity’s place in the universe with four wonderful images we hope [will] inspire the next generation of risk-takers” ...

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