United News of Bangladesh

Imagine a world with no Firefox. That could be our future — and not because people stopped using it, but because of a major legal battle in the US. Mozilla, the non-profit behind Firefox, just dropped a bombshell: If Google is forced to break up its business, Firefox might not survive. Why? Because Google pays Mozilla to be the default search engine on Firefox — and that deal covers 85% of Mozilla’s revenue! “If we lose that funding, we’d have to make massive cuts,” said Mozilla’s CFO Eric Muhlheim. That means fewer engineers, slower updates, and possibly the end of Firefox as we know it. And it's not just about the browser — Mozilla’s open-source and climate tech projects would also take a hit. This comes as the US government tries to rein in Google’s dominance, possibly by forcing it to sell off its Chrome browser. But Mozilla warns: “You might break one monopoly, but you’ll kill the competition with it.” Apple, Firefox tools aim to thwart Facebook, Google tracking Here’s the twist: Firefox runs on its own browser engine called Gecko — the only one not controlled by a tech giant. If it disappears, the entire internet becomes even more dependent on Google and Apple. Judge Amit Mehta asked if a world with more strong search engines would help. Mozilla’s answer? Absolutely. But until that world exists, losing the Google deal could be fatal. No Google. No Firefox. No real choice online. Be aware. Big tech changes can have unexpected consequences. #SaveFirefox #TechNews #GoogleTrial #Mozilla #Firefox #OpenWeb #BigTech #Antitrust #InternetFreedom Would you like a shorter version for Instagram or a carousel format? Source: With inputs from India Today

European Union privacy watchdogs fined TikTok 530 million euros ($600 million) on Friday after a four-year investigation found that the video sharing app's data transfers to China breached strict data privacy rules in the EU. Ireland's Data Protection Commission also sanctioned TikTok for not being transparent with users about where their personal data was being sent and it ordered the company to comply with the rules within six months, AP reports. The Irish national watchdog serves as TikTok's lead data privacy regulator in the 27-nation EU because the company's European headquarters is based in Dublin. “TikTok failed to verify, guarantee and demonstrate that the personal data of (European) users, remotely accessed by staff in China, was afforded a level of protection essentially equivalent to that guaranteed within the EU,” Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle said in a statement. TikTok said it disagreed with the decision and plans to appeal. The company said in a blog post that the decision focuses on a “select period” ending in May 2023, before it embarked on a data localization project called Project Clover that involved building three data centres in Europe. Microsoft and Meta Platforms lead Wall Street higher “The facts are that Project Clover has some of the most stringent data protections anywhere in the industry, including unprecedented independent oversight by NCC Group, a leading European cybersecurity firm," said Christine Grahn, TikTok's European head of public policy and government relations. “The decision fails to fully consider these considerable data security measures.” TikTok, whose parent company ByteDance is based in China, has been under scrutiny in Europe over how it handles personal information of its users amid concerns from Western officials that it poses a security risk over user data sent to China. In 2023, the Irish watchdog also fined the company hundreds of millions of euros in a separate child privacy investigation. The Irish watchdog said its investigation found that TikTok failed to address “potential access by Chinese authorities” to European users' personal data under Chinese laws on anti-terrorism, counter-espionage, cybersecurity and national intelligence that were identified as "materially diverging" from EU standards. Grahn said TikTok has “has never received a request for European user data from the Chinese authorities, and has never provided European user data to them.” Under the EU rules, known as the General Data Protection Regulation, European user data can only be transferred outside of the bloc if there are safeguards in place to ensure the same level of protection.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said Thursday that the majority of iPhones sold in the U.S. in the current fiscal quarter will be sourced from India, while iPads and other devices will come from Vietnam as the company works to avoid the impact of President Trump's tariffs on its business. Apple's earnings for the first three months of the year topped Wall Street's expectations thanks to high demand for its iPhones, and the company said tariffs had a limited effect on the fiscal second quarter's results. Cook added that for the current quarter, assuming things don't change, Apple expects to see $900 million added to its costs as a result of the tariffs, but Cook said the company remains “confident” in this business. The Cupertino, California-based company earned $24.78 billion, or $1.65 per share, in the first three months of the year, up 4.8% from $23.64 billion, or $1.53 per share, in the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose 5.1% to $95.36 billion from $90.75 billion. Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of $1.62 per share on revenue of $94.19 billion, according to a poll by FactSet. The numbers for the January-March period provide a snapshot of how Apple was faring before President Trump's unveiling of sweeping tariffs in April that rattled the financial markets amid fears a trade war would reignite inflation and shove the U.S. economy into a recession. “While it is likely that some of the sales growth was driven by consumers accelerating purchases ahead of expected tariff increases, margins remained healthy on the other side of the balance sheet,” said Thomas Monteiro, an analyst at Investing.com. He added that the company “still has room for maneuver” regardless of the economic backdrop and will “likely not need to significantly deplete cash reserves to keep moving the needle.” Court sides with Fortnite maker Epic as Apple sanctioned for defying order in App Store case Apple’s reliance on Chinese factories to make its iPhones and other devices thrust the technology trendsetter into the crosshairs of Trump’s trade war. The exposure caused Apple’s stock price to plunge 23% shortly after the president announced the severity of the reciprocal tariffs, temporarily erasing $773 billion in shareholder wealth in the process. Most of those losses have since been recovered after Trump temporarily exempted iPhones and other electronics from the reciprocal tariffs, but Apple’s stock remains down by nearly 5% since the April fusillade of tariffs. Besides the trade war, Apple has been hurt by its inability to live up to its own hype surrounding artificial intelligence features on the iPhone 16 lineup that came out last fall. The technology wasn’t ready when the iPhone 16 went on sale. Some AI features have rolled out in parts of the world as part of software updates, but Apple still hasn’t been able to live up to its original promise to make Siri smarter and more versatile. The missteps prompted Apple to pull advertising campaigns promoting AI breakthroughs on the iPhone, although the company still intends to release more features powered by the technology at some point. Apple had been counting on its late entry into the AI craze to revive demand for the iPhone after last year’s sales dipped 2% from 2023’s levels. Apple said Wednesday that its phone sales climbed 1.9% to $46.84 billion for the first three months of the year. Wall Street had expected iPhone sales of $45.62 billion. But the company continues to see its China business decline, with revenue from the Greater China region down 2.3% to $16 billion for the quarter. Other regions, including the Americas, Europe and the rest of Asia, saw sales increases. When Trump initially indicated his 145% tariffs on Chinese-made goods would apply to the iPhone, U.S. consumers rushed to stores to buy new devices rather than risk prices spiking higher after the duties began driving up costs. But the flurry of panic buying won't show up until Apple reports its results for the April-June quarter this summer. EU fines Apple 500 million euros, Meta 200 million in digital cases Trump's trade war has ramped up the pressure on Cook to work the same diplomatic sleight of hand that enabled the iPhone to avoid being stung by the China tariffs that the president imposed during his first administration. Cook signaled his intention remain on good terms with Trump by arranging private meetings with him and personally donating $1 million to the president's second inauguration ceremony before sitting on the dais when Trump was sworn into office on January 20. Apple subsequently announced plans to invest $500 billion in the U.S. while hiring 20,000 workers during the next four years. Trump's trade war also is prompting a push to Apple to shift all the production of the iPhones that it sells in the U.S. from China to India, where the company has been building up its supply chain for the past seven years, according to a recent story in the Financial Times. But the complicated logistics of making such a huge move likely couldn't be completed until next year, at the earliest, leaving Apple vulnerable to the vagaries of Trump's trade war. Apple's stock fell $5.81, or 2.7%, to $207.51 in after-hours trading.

Microsoft and Meta Platforms are driving Wall Street higher on Thursday after profits for the Big Tech companies at the start of the year turned out to be even bigger than analysts expected. The S&P 500 was up 1% and heading for an eighth straight gain, which would be its longest winning streak since August, AP reports. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 248 points, or 0.6%, as of 10:20 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.8% higher. Microsoft jumped 9% after the software giant said strength in its cloud computing and artificial intelligence businesses drove its overall revenue up 13% from a year earlier. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, also topped analysts’ targets for revenue and profit in the latest quarter. It said artificial intelligence tools helped boost its advertising revenue, and its stock climbed 5.3%. CVS Health, Carrier Global and a bevy of other companies also joined the stream of better-than-expected profit reports that have helped steady Wall Street over the last week. The S&P 500 is back to within 8.5% of its record set earlier this year, after briefly dropping nearly 20% below the mark. Court sides with Fortnite maker Epic as Apple sanctioned for defying order in App Store case Still, plenty of uncertainty remains about whether President Donald Trump’s trade war will force the economy into a recession. A couple mixed reports on the U.S. economy Thursday followed up on several recent updates that have suggested it's weaker than expected. One of Thursday's reports said more US workers filed for unemployment benefits last week than economists had forecast, setting the stage for a more comprehensive report on the job market arriving Friday. A separate update said US manufacturing activity was better last month than economists expected, though it still contracted again. And even though companies have been reporting better profits for the first three months of the year than analysts expected, many CEOs are remaining cautious about the rest of the year.

A federal judge has strongly rebuked Apple, finding that the iPhone maker willfully violated a court injunction in an antitrust case filed by Fortnite maker Epic Games. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers had ordered Apple to lower the barriers protecting its previously exclusive payment system for in-app digital transactions and allow developers to display links to alternative options. On Wednesday she found that Apple violated a 2021 injunction that, she wrote, sought to “restrain and prohibit the iPhone maker’s anticompetitive conduct” and pricing. “Apple’s continued attempts to interfere with competition will not be tolerated,” Gonzalez Rogers said in the ruling, which held Apple in contempt. She ordered that Apple “no longer impede developers’ ability to communicate with users nor will they levy or impose a new commission on off-app purchases.” Epic CEO and founder Tim Sweeney said on X the company will return Fortnite to Apple's U.S. App Store next week. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Meta launches AI app, Zuckerberg chats with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at developer conference Epic first filed an antitrust lawsuit in 2020 alleging that Apple had built an illegal monopoly around its popular App Store that makes billions of dollars annually from a then-exclusive payment system collecting commissions ranging from 15% to 30% on in-app commerce. Although Gonzalez Rogers had rejected the monopoly claims, she ordered Apple to lower the barriers protecting its previously exclusive payment system for in-app digital transactions and allow developers to display links to alternative options. The Supreme Court rejected Apple's appeal in the case in January 2024. “In stark contrast to Apple’s initial in-court testimony, contemporaneous business documents reveal that Apple knew exactly what it was doing and at every turn chose the most anticompetitive option,” the judge wrote Wednesday. She accused the company's Alex Roman, vice-president for finance, of “outright” lying under oath. “Internally, (longtime Apple executive) Phillip Schiller had advocated that Apple comply with the injunction, but (CEO) Tim Cook ignored Schiller and instead allowed Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri and his finance team to convince him otherwise. Cook chose poorly,” Gonzalez Rogers wrote. Amazon launches its first internet satellites to compete against SpaceX's Starlinks The judge referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California to investigate whether criminal contempt proceedings are appropriate.

Working to differentiate itself in the crowded field of artificial intelligence, Meta Platforms has launched a standalone AI app — with a social media component — to compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT. The Meta AI app, built with the company’s Llama 4 AI system. It includes a “discover” feed that lets users see how others are interacting with AI. It also has a voice mode for interacting with the AI. “It’s smart for Meta to differentiate its ChatGPT competitor by drawing from the company’s social media roots. The app’s Discover feed is like a version of the OG Facebook Feed but only focused on AI use cases," said Forrester research director Mike Proulx. By letting users link their Facebook and Instagram accounts, the Meta AI app “gets a leg up on instantly personalizing its user experience with social media context.” Meta has taken a different approach to AI than many of its rivals, releasing it for free as an open-source product. The company says more than a billion people use its AI products each month. At the Menlo Park, California-based tech giant's inaugural conference, LlamaCon, on Tuesday Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg chatted with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in a technical discussion around the speed of AI development and how the technology is shifting both their companies — where AI is already writing code — as well as the world. EU fines Apple 500 million euros, Meta 200 million in digital cases Acknowledging there is a lot of "hype” around AI, Zuckerberg said “if this is going to lead to massive increases in productivity, that needs to be reflected in major increases in GDP.” “This is going take some multiple years, many years, to play out,” Zuckerberg said. “I’m curious how you think, what’s your current outlook on what we should be looking for to understand the progress that this is making?” Nadella brought up the advent of electricity, saying that “AI has the promise, but you now have to sort of really have it deliver the real change in productivity — and that requires software and also management change, right? Because in some sense, people have to work with it differently.” He said it took 50 years before people figured out to change how factories operated with electricity. Zuckerberg replied “well we’re all investing as if it’s not going to take 50 years, so I hope it doesn’t take 50 years.” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wraps up testimony in antitrust case

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has issued licenses in favour of Starlink Services Bangladesh Limited, enabling the company to provide internet services through non-geostationary satellite orbit (NGSO) systems in the country. The license handover ceremony took place on Tuesday afternoon at the BTRC headquarters in Agargaon, Dhaka, said a press release. BTRC grants initial approval to Starlink, awaits final ministry clearance BTRC handed over two separate licenses—Non-Geostationary Satellite Orbit Operator License and Radio Communication Apparatus License —to Starlink, marking a significant step in the expansion of satellite-based internet connectivity in Bangladesh. The licenses have been granted for a period of 10 years, following prior approval from the government. Under the first license, issued by BTRC’s Licensing Division, Starlink will be able to conduct commercial operations in Bangladesh. The second license, issued by the Spectrum Division, allows the company to use approved frequencies to provide internet services, as well as to import and use radio communication equipment and related devices. Electronics Tariff relief is temporary, semiconductor tariffs on the way :Commerce Secretary Lt Col Syed Md Tawfiqul Islam, Director of the Licensing Division, handed over the first license to Rebecca Slick Hunter, Director of Global Licensing and Market Aviation at Starlink. The second license was handed over by Dr Md Sohel Rana, Director of the Spectrum Division, also to Rebecca Slick Hunter.

Amazon’s first batch of internet satellites rocketed into orbit Monday, the latest entry in the mega constellation market currently dominated by SpaceX's thousands of Starlinks. The United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket carried up 27 of Amazon's Project Kuiper satellites, named after the frigid fringes of our solar system beyond Neptune. Once released in orbit, the satellites will eventually reach an altitude of nearly 400 miles (630 kilometers). Two test satellites were launched in 2023, also by an Atlas V. Project officials said major upgrades were made to the newest version. The latest satellites also are coated with a mirror film designed to scatter reflected sunlight in an attempt to accommodate astronomers. Stargazers oppose the fast-growing constellations of low-orbiting satellites, arguing they spoil observations. Others fear more satellite collisions. Founded by Jeff Bezos, who now runs his own rocket company, Blue Origin, Amazon aims to put more than 3,200 of these satellites into orbit to provide fast, affordable broadband service around the globe. Spaceship carrying 3 Chinese astronauts docks with Tiangong space station in latest crew rotation Elon Musk's SpaceX already has launched more than 8,000 Starlinks since 2019. The company marked its 250th Starlink launch Sunday night. More than 7,000 Starlinks are still in orbit some 300-plus miles (550 kilometers) above Earth. The European-based OneWeb satellite constellation numbers in the hundreds in an even higher orbit. Amazon already has purchased dozens of rocket launches from United Launch Alliance and Blue Origin for Project Kuiper, as well as others. “There are some things you can only learn in flight" despite extensive testing on the ground, said Rajeev Badyal, the project's vice president. “No matter how the mission unfolds, this is just the start of our journey," he said in a statement ahead of the evening liftoff. ‘Flying taxis’ poised to revolutionise urban commuting The first liftoff attempt earlier this month was nixed by bad weather. It took until now to secure another spot in the launch lineup at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has given initial approval to Starlink to provide satellite internet services in Bangladesh. It sent a letter to the Posts and Telecommunications Division last week seeking final endorsement, according to a ministry source. Under the telecommunications law, BTRC is required to obtain prior approval from the ministry before making major decisions, including the issuance of licences. Bangladeshi firms join hands with US telecom giant Starlink On April 7, Starlink applied to the BTRC for a licence to operate in the country under the regulatory framework titled "Guidelines for Non-Geostationary Orbit (NGSO) Satellite Services Operators in Bangladesh. On March 25, Chief Adviser Dr Muhammad Yunus directed the relevant authorities to ensure the commercial launch of Starlink’s satellite broadband internet service in Bangladesh within 90 days. During trial broadcasts in the country, Starlink operated using its foreign satellite broadband gateway, according to officials. However, for commercial operations, the company must comply with the Non-Geostationary Satellite Orbit (NGSO) policy. This policy requires the use of a local broadband gateway or International Internet Gateway (IIG). Starlink, a subsidiary of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, has been in negotiations with Bangladesh’s regulatory authorities over the licensing process. The initiative aims to address the recurring internet shutdowns that have disrupted freelance and business activities. Starlink's entry ensures uninterrupted internet in Bangladesh: CA’s Press Secretary Starlink’s entry into the market is seen as a major breakthrough for ensuring uninterrupted connectivity, particularly benefiting remote communities and local entrepreneurs. Bangladeshi companies are already collaborating with Starlink to establish ground stations, facilitating the integration of satellite connectivity.  

Rule changes announced by the Trump administration this week could allow automakers to report fewer crashes involving self-driving cars, with Tesla potentially emerging as the main beneficiary. The Transportation Department announced Thursday that it will no longer require automakers to report certain kinds of non-fatal crashes — but the exception will apply only to partial self-driving vehicles using so-called Level 2 systems, the kind Tesla deploys. Tesla CEO Elon Musk had complained the old reporting rules cast his company in a bad light. If Tesla and other automakers are required to report fewer crashes into a national database, that could make it more difficult for regulators to catch equipment defects and for the public to access information about a company's overall safety, auto industry analysts say. It will also allow Tesla to trumpet a cleaner record to sell more cars. “This will significantly reduce the number of crashes reported by Tesla,” said auto analyst Sam Abuelsamid at Telemetry Insight. Added Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities, noting that Tesla rival Waymo won’t get an exception, “This is a win for Tesla, a loss for Waymo.” Tesla stock soared nearly 10% Friday on the rule changes. Wall Street analysts, and Musk critics, have said that Musk’s role as an adviser to President Donald Trump could put Tesla in position to benefit from any changes to regulations involving self-driving cars. Other car makers such as Hyundai, Nissan, Subaru and BMW make vehicles with Level 2 systems that help keep cars in lanes, change speed or brake automatically, but Tesla accounts for the vast majority on the road. Vehicles used by Waymo and others with systems that completely take over for the driver, called Automated Driving Systems, will not benefit from the change. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which enforces vehicle safety standards, said the new rules don’t favor one type of self-driving system over another, and that raft of changes it announced will help all self-driving automakers. Musk damaged Tesla’s brand in just a few months. Fixing it will likely take longer “No ADS company is hurt by these changes,” the agency said in statement to The Associated Press, using the acronym for Automatic Driving System. It added that the changes also make sense because “with ADS, no driver is present meaning stronger safety protocols are needed.” Waymo declined to comment for this story. The AP reached out to Tesla but did not receive a reply. Under the change, any Level 2 crash that is so bad it needs a tow truck to come will no longer be required to be reported if it doesn’t result in death or injury or air-bag deployment. But if a tow truck is called for crashes of vehicles using ADS, it has to be reported. The vast majority of partial self-driving vehicle crashes reported under the old NHTSA rules involved Teslas — more than 800 of a total 1,040 crashes in the past 12 months, according to an AP review of the data. It’s unclear how many of those Tesla crashes required the vehicles to be towed, because a column requesting that information in the database is mostly blank. The NHTSA said after the story was published that only 8% of total reported crashes under the old criteria were cases in which partial self-driving vehicles had to be towed away and there was no other qualifying crash-reporting factor involved. It is not clear about cases where tow-away information wasn’t provided. The relaxed crash rule was part of several changes described by the Transportation Department as a way to “streamline” paperwork and allow U.S. companies to better compete with the China in the race to make self-driving vehicles. The department said it would also move toward national self-driving regulations to replace a confusing patchwork of state rules. “We’re in a race with China to out-innovate, and the stakes couldn’t be higher,” said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Thursday. “Our new framework will slash red tape and move us closer to a single national standard.” Traffic safety watchdogs had feared that the Trump administration would eliminate the NHTSA reporting requirement completely. The package of changes came days after Musk confirmed on a conference call with Tesla investors that the electric vehicle maker will begin a rollout of self-driving Tesla taxis in Austin, Texas, in June. Waymo, which is owned by Google parent Alphabet, already has cybercabs available in that city and several others. Tesla sales fall by 49% in Europe even as the EV market grows Musk has argued that the previous reporting requirements were unfair since Tesla vehicles all use its partial self-driving systems and therefore log more miles than any other automaker with such technology. He says that his cars are far safer than most and save lives. Tesla sales have plunged in recent month amid a backlash against Musk’s backing of far-right politicians in Europe and his work in the U.S. as head of Trump’s government cost-cutting group. The company has pinned its future on complete automation of its cars, but it is facing stiff competition now from rivals, especially China automaker BYD.