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If theres one thing that digital platforms really dont want, its you giving login details to people outside of your household. The past few years have seen Netflix, Disney, and HBO Maxto name a fewcrack down on password sharing with anyone who doesnt live under your roof. Now, Amazon has joined them. The Seattle e-commerce giant is ending its Prime Invitee program as of October 1 and is offering up the Amazon Family plan in its place. What’s the difference between Prime Invitee and Amazon Family? The former allowed Prime subscribers to share their free shipping benefits with a select number of individuals outside their abode. By contrast, the Amazon Family plan is restricted to people living in your household. It will allow you to add one other adult who shares your address and four children. The plan also includes four teen accounts, but those accounts must have been created before April 7 which is when Amazon discontinued its teen program. These individuals can access benefits including free delivery on Prime eligible items, Prime Video (with ads), Amazon Music (ad-free on shuffle mode), and other content like audio books and games. Like its fellow tech companies, Amazon is angling for a boost in subscriptions. The announcement comes just as Reuters reported Amazons Prime signups failed to meet last years numbers or current targets ahead of Julys Prime Day event. Amazon told Reuters that its membership numbers continue to grow, but didnt provide figures. Fast Company has reached out to Amazon for comment and will update this post if we hear back.
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E-Commerce
Last August, a federal judge issued a historic ruling against search giant Google: The company engaged in monopolistic behavior when it offered payment to be the default search engine on tech platforms owned by other companies. Months later, the historic antitrust verdict led the Department of Justice (DOJ) to seek numerous possible remedies against Google, including limiting the companys ability to enter into paid search deal agreements and selling off its Chrome browser. But yesterday, the federal judge overseeing the case issued his remedies, which manyincluding those on Wall Streetsee as a win for Google, as the company has been allowed to escape the harshest consequences. As a result, shares in Google and Apple are up in premarket trading on Wednesday. Here’s what you need to know: Whats happened? Yesterday, the U.S. district judge presiding over the DOJ’s long-running antitrust case against Google issued remedies that the company would be liable for. And many industry watchers and legal experts say Google got off much better than it could have. After the same judge, Amit Mehta, ruled last August that Google engaged in monopolistic behavior in several aspects of its search business, the U.S. Department of Justice proposed several possible remedies, including: Selling off its Chrome web browser Selling off its Android operating system Barring Google from entering into preferred search agreements with third parties If Google were forced to sell off Chrome and Android, it would lose control over the software that billions of people across the globe use to interact with the internet, the companys services, and its search tools. This impact would also greatly harm Google’s search business, and any new owner of Android and Chrome likely wouldnt keep Google as the default search engine of the software. Barring Google from entering preferred search agreements would have also greatly affected the companys advertising revenues, as that DOJ provision would have forbidden Google from paying third parties, such as Apple, to make Google the default search engine on other companies devices. That remedial provision would have also significantly hurt the revenues of Samsung and Apple, with which Google has preferred search deals. The company reportedly pays Apple a staggering $20 billion a year to be the default search engine on the iPhone. DOJ ‘overreached’ Yet none of these DOJ-proposed remedies will be levied against Google, Mehta revealed yesterday. Google will not be required to divest Chrome; nor will the court include a contingent divestiture of the Android operating system in the final judgment, the decision stated, as noted by CNBC. It went on to say that the DOJ overreached in seeking forced divestiture of these key assets, which Google did not use to effect any illegal restraints. At the same time, Google didnt get off scot-free. Judge Mehta said that while the company can continue to make payments to preload its products on third-party devices and services, it is not allowed to enter into exclusive contracts that bar those third parties from offering other search options. This means Google can continue to pay Apple billions to have its search featured on the iPhone. Announcing this decision, the filing stated (via CNN), Cutting off payments from Google almost certainly will impose substantialin some cases, cripplingdownstream harms to distribution partners, related markets, and consumers, which counsels against a broad payment ban. The judgment also requires Google to share search data with rivals. How have Google, Apple, and the DOJ reacted? Despite walking away relatively unscathed, Google has taken issue with the remedies that the judge did levy against it in a statement published to its blog. Now the Court has imposed limits on how we distribute Google services, and will require us to share Search data with rivals, the statement read. We have concerns about how these requirements will impact our users and their privacy, and were reviewing the decision closely. The Court did recognize that divesting Chrome and Android would have gone beyond the cases focus on search distribution, and would have harmed consumers and our partners. The Department of Justice framed the ruling as a win, despite the agency not seeing its major proposed remedies adopted by the court. In the statement on the ruling, the DOJ said that the courts ruling recognizes the need for remedies that will pry open the market for general search services, which has been frozen in place for over a decade. The agency also said that the ruling recognizes the need to prevent Google from using the same anticompetitive tactics for its [generative artificial intelligence] products as it used to monopolize the search market, and the remedies will reach GenAI technologies and companies. Apple has not issued a public response to the ruling, though in late 2024, the company filed a motion to support Google in the antitrust casea request Mehta ultimately denied. Fast Company reached out to Apple for comment. How has Google stock reacted? Its not hard to guess how the stock price for Googles parent company, Alphabet (Nasdaq: GOOG), reacted after the company avoided the harshest proposed consequences of the antitrust verdict. GOOG shares are currently trading up above 5.6% in premarket trading as of this writing. Currently, GOOGs stock price is $224 per sharea high for the year. Before Alphabets share price jump after the ruling, GOOG shares were already up more than 11% for the year as of yesterdays close. Over the past 12 months, GOOG shares have risen more than 28% as of yesterdays close. How has Apple stock reacted? While Alphabet shares are seeing the most benefit from yesterdays ruling this morning, Apple stock (Nasdaq: AAPL) is also benefiting. As of the time of this writing, in premarket trading, AAPL shares are currently up over 4% to $239. Thats the highest price they have seen since March, before they got pummeled by Trumps tariff orders. Before this mornings 4% jump, AAPL shares were down more than 8% for the year so far, as of market close yesterday. Over the past 12 months, AAPL shares were up a paltry 0.3% as of yesterdays close.
Category:
E-Commerce
One of the most powerful buttons on your phone is also one of the easiest to ignore. Im referring to the humble “Share” button, a mainstay of both iOS and Android that unlocks all kinds of useful features. Beyond just sharing links and photos with other people, the Share button serves as a hub for all kinds of helpful shortcuts. Even so, the Share button often feels undervalued, with some apps even hiding it out of sight. I know this because when I first wrote this column for my Advisorator newsletter subscribers, I got a bunch of emails from folks who never realized how useful the Share button can be. Lets take a few minutes, then, to appreciate everything it can do and optimize it for maximum efficiency. Share button basics Spot the Share buttons in Plexamp, Ivory, and Amazon [Screenshot: Jared Newman] No matter which app youre using, think of the Share button as a way to send data elsewhere. Just tap the button, and youll get a menu of other apps (or even people) to share with. Finding the Share button isnt always so simple, though. In some apps, the button appears as a box with an arrow pointing outwards, while in others it may resemble a set of dots with interconnected lines. You might also just see the word Share instead. Certain apps even hide the full Share menu out of sight. In Instagram, for instance, you must hit the paper airplane icon at the bottom of a post, then hit the “Share via” button. Bluesky does something similar, making you hit a secondary “Share via” button after tapping the Share icon in a post. Just know that if an app has shareable infowhether its a link, a photo, or a filetheres likely a Share button hiding somewhere. Know what to share Share menus on Android (left) and iPhone (right) [Screenshot: Jared Newman] The Share buttons most basic use is sending photos or links to friends. From your photo gallery, for instance, hitting the Share button underneath an image lets you share it through other apps such as Messages or Facebook. But beyond that, the Share button serves as a hub for all kinds of time-saving shortcuts. Some of my favorite examples: Saving links from a web browser to a bookmarking app such as Raindrop, or to a read-it-later app such as Instapaper Using the Contacts app on iOS or Android to pass along someones contact info in a text message Sending an emailed PDF file to Notability for annotation Copying shareable playlist links from music apps such as Spotify Sending a file directly from email to a cloud storage service such as Dropbox or OneDrive Using the iOS Files app or Googles Android Files app to send multiple files as email attachments The possibilities are only limited by the apps youve installed on your phone, so try experimenting with the Share button in different apps to see what you can do. Android users: Note that the full list of options may not appear when you first hit the Share button. Depending on your device, you may have to scroll through the list and hit More to see all of your apps. Pin your favorites Pinning favorite apps on Samsung, Google Pixel, and iPhone [Screenshot: Jared Newman] Once youve found some favorite apps to use with the Share menu, you can pin them to the beginning of the menu for faster access. On iOS: Scroll to the end of the horizontal icon list, hit the More button, then hit Edit. Hit the + button next to any app to add it to your favorites, then use the button to reorder them. On Android: If necessary, hit the More button until you see a full list of icons. Depending on the phone, you can either long-press an icon to pin it, or (on Samsung phones, for instance) hit the pencil icon and drag your favorites to the top. Hide suggested contacts (iPhone only) By default, the iOS share sheet includes a row of people to share with at the very top. If youre bothered by these suggestionsas I amyou can hide specific contacts or remove this section altogether. Hide a contact: Long-press their pofile picture, then hit Suggest Less. Hide all contacts: Head to Settings > Siri & Search (or Apple Intelligence & Siri), then look under Suggestions from Apple, and disable Show when Sharing. Discover extra actions Extra actions in the Share menuincluding a print function. [Screenshot: Jared Newman] The Share menu isnt just a way to send data to other apps. It can also provide useful actions within the app youre already using. For example: In Safari for iOS, the Share button is where youll find important browser features such as Find in Page and Add Bookmark. Both iOS and Android let you print documents from the Share menu. Just look for the Print button when sharing from your web browser or apps like Google Docs. Hitting Share in Chrome for Android lets you take a full-page screenshot. Hitting Share in iOS Photos brings up options to turn an image into a wallpaper or Apple Watch face, or assign it to a contact. On iOS, you can expand the Share menu even further with Shortcuts. For instance, installing CmlCmlCml adds an option to the Share menu on Amazons app to check an items price history, while this Shortcut takes the current web page and reads it aloud. Explore the Gallery section of the Shortcuts app for more ideas. Note that on iOS, these additional actions can be reordered as well. Just scroll to the bottom of the list and hit Edit Actions, and you can pin your favorites to the top. Faced with so many options, its tempting to just tune out the Share button entirely. But if you take some time to explore its intricacies, you might wonder how you ever got by without it. This story first appeared in Jared’s Advisorator newsletter. Sign up to get more advice every Tuesday.
Category:
E-Commerce
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