Spotty

Here's the response from Apple: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/03/the-app-store-spotify-and-europes-thriving-digital-music-market/ It's worth reading the full statement. Basically they say that Spotify is the dominant music streaming platform and that Spotify owes their success to Apple allowing their app on the app store. Apple argues Spotify is ripping off Apple by not selling subscriptions through the app and not giving Apple a cut of the money they make. Some justification provided by Apple for why they deserve to get paid... While Apple's point about providing hosting for downloads/updates is somewhat valid, apps like Spotify wouldn't need to use Apple's App Store if Apple allowed 3rd party app stores on iOS devices. Apple took on that burden of hosting and managing apps when they decided to prevent 3rd party app stores. Once the new EU laws go in effect that allow iOS app installs outside of the App Store I wonder if we will see a split between Spotify and Apple resulting in the Spotify app being removed from the App Store. Spotify is one of those major apps that people expect to be able to use on their device and it is mutually beneficial for Spotify and Apple for the app to be available on the App Store. If popular apps like Spotify weren't available on Apple devices it might drive consumers to buy competing phones (android) that do offer the apps they want. While Apple can argue all they want about how they're not getting anything from Spotify being on the App Store, it would probably hurt them to start losing popular apps like Spotify.

Apple probably doesn't care too much about the fine. While it is substantial, 1.8 billion isn't that much for Apple. Apple is going to be hurt more long term by the requirement to allow app developers to inform consumers about alternative payment methods outside of Apple. Imagine going to subscribe to an app on iOS and seeing two prices listed; "Subscribe with Apple for $18.99/month or subscribe through our website for $13.99/month". How much money would Apple miss out on by people choosing the cheaper payment option cutting Apple out of their 30% tax? That's the money Apple is worried about.

I didn't mention it in my post, but the original fine was only 40 Million Euro. They added 1.8 Billion Euro on top of the original fine as a fuck you deterrent to Apple. https://www.reuters.com/technology/apple-hit-with-over-18-bln-euro-eu-antitrust-fine-spotify-case-2024-03-04/

Summary Apple has been ordered by the European Commission to pay a 1.8 Billion Euro fine (approximately 2 Billion USD) after Spotify launched a complaint over Apple's 30% tax on subscriptions purchased through iOS apps and Apple's developer rules preventing app developers from informing customers that subscriptions can be purchased at a cheaper price outside of the app [such as subscribing directly through the website]. Apple takes a 30% cut on subscriptions made through iOS apps and their developer agreement prevents developers from informing customers of alternative purchase methods. Apple has been ordered to stop preventing app developers from informing customers of cheaper subscription options. Apple has announced they intend to appeal the decision. Quotes Statement from the European Commission: [Continued... https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_24_1161] My thoughts There was recently a post on this forum asking why it was more expensive for them to subscribe to Youtube Premium through an iPhone than it was for them to subscribe on their PC. I don't think many people realise that Apple's takes a 30% cut from subscriptions made through iOS apps which will often make subscribing to those services more expensive as services pass that extra cost on to consumers. I think 30% is excessive but I actually don't mind if Apple takes a cut of purchases made through the Apple App store. Google (Android Play Store) and Steam to name some similar software marketplaces also take a cut from sales made through their store and taking a cut of sales is required for those marketplaces to remain feasible. The restriction Apple places on developers preventing them from informing customers about cheaper subscription methods is purely designed as an anti-competitive measure to prevent people from subscribing outside of the Apple system. I'm glad that the European Commission has recognised it as such and fined Apple over it. I really hope that Apple is forced to allow all app developers to inform customers about alternative subscription methods - not just music streaming services. Apple is a direct competitor to Spotify and other streaming services with their Apple Music service which is likely why they were hit so hard in this complaint from Spotify but I would like other apps like video streaming (Youtube, Twitch, Floatplane?) to be able to inform customers within the app about cheaper subscription methods. Hopefully this is just the first domino to fall in allowing all apps on the Apple App store to inform customers about alternative subscription methods. Sources https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-68467752 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_24_1161

Threads merged. According to the motherboard manual the B450M ds3h V2 supports PCIe 3.0 x4 for the M.2 slot. Though - That might depend on the CPU which is being used since the B450 series motherboards support CPUs which only support PCIe 3.0 (Ryzen 1000, Ryzen 2000) as well as CPUs that support PCIe 4.0 (Ryzen 3000, Ryzen 5000). Since it states PCIe 3.0 I'm assuming that the M.2 slot is using PCIe lanes from the chipset which will be PCIe 3.0 regardless of the CPU used. The Samsung 990 Pro is a PCIe 4.0 drive. Since the motherboard only supports PCIe 3.0 on the M.2 slot the drive will run in PCIe 3.0 mode and will only be able to achieve PCIe 3.0 transfer speeds. This may limit the transfer speeds you can obtain. But realistically a PCIe 4.0 drive running in PCIe 3.0 mode is not going to be any slower than a PCIe 3.0 drive. If it's cheaper to get a different PCIe 3.0 drive then you may want to consider that to save money, but if there's no difference in cost it doesn't really matter. PCIe is backwards/forwards compatible, you can use a PCIe 4.0 drive in a PCIe 3.0 slot it just won't be as fast as if it was in a PCIe 4.0 slot.

Thread locked. It seems you've already solved the problem yourself, but this forum won't help you solve problems with pirated content or help getting pirated content working. Aside from any moral concerns over pirating, nobody can properly diagnose issues with pirated content because we don't know what modifications the pirates made to the game (including hiding malware). If you want to pirate games then don't expect people to help you fix it when they're broken. Discussion on how to engage in piracy is not allowed.

The TX850M comes with 2 PCIe cables. Each cable has two connectors which gives a total of 4 connectors. Do you mean the socket on the power supply? On the power supply the sockets labelled "6+2 PCI-E & 4+4 CPU" can be used for either CPU or PCIe cables.

I suspect the price your parents are seeing is likely higher because they're viewing on the app on iPhone. Apple will take a 30% cut of subscriptions. Youtube is just passing that cost on to the consumers. The way around paying the Apple Tax is to just go to the website and subscribe directly instead of doing it through the iOS app. I did check logged in to my account and incognito (both on desktop) and while the price is the same Youtube does not show me family or student plan options when logged in even when viewing the same youtube.com/premium page. Not sure why it doesn't give me the family or student options. (This is Australian pricing) Logged in: Not logged in:

Good. That stupid media bargaining code was never going to work. If the media outlets don't like it they can stop posting their content to Facebook.

Just wait until you download a game from the Microsoft store and the game is installed in a folder you don't have access to and it shows the folder size as 0kb even though there's a 100GB game installed there.

No graphics card? Without a graphics card that system will use around 100w. 450w will be plenty.

Save files are often stored separately from the game files. The folder they're stored in will depend on the game but many games will use the my documents folder or the appdata folder. There's also cloud backups for save files like what Steam does for games.

Moved to Cooling. The option you're looking for is called hysteresis. Try FanControl. It has support for Hysteresis and you can set it to only apply for temps going down like you want.

Thread cleaned. I've removed all arguments regarding Russia and the war in Ukraine. A complaint has been made about a sponsor and a response from LMG has been given regarding the sponsorship. We won't have any further discussion on the war in Ukraine. No political content, regardless of your views.

There is a share button on the top right corner of forum posts. This gives you a direct link to the content as well as external sharing on other social media. The timestamp on any post (including status updates) is also a direct link to that content.