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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Since launching Google Play (nee Android Market) in 2008, Google has never made a change to the US store that it didn't want to make -- until now. Having lost the antitrust case brought by Epic Games, Google has implemented the first phase of changes mandated by the court. Developers operating in the Play Store will have more freedom to direct app users to resources outside the Google bubble. However, Google has not given up hope of reversing its loss before it's forced to make bigger changes. Epic began pursuing this case in 2020, stemming from its attempt to sell Fortnite content without going through Google's payment system. It filed a similar case against Apple, but the company fell short there because it could not show that Apple put its thumb on the scale. Google, however, engaged in conduct that amounted to suppressing the development of alternative Android app stores. It lost the case and came up short on appeal this past summer, leaving the company with little choice but to prepare for the worst. Google has updated its support pages to confirm that it's abiding by the court's order. In the US, Play Store developers now have the option of using external payment platforms that bypass the Play Store entirely. This could hypothetically allow developers to offer lower prices, as they don't have to pay Google's commission, which can be up to 30 percent. Devs will also be permitted to direct users to sources for app downloads and payment methods outside the Play Store. Google's support page stresses that these changes are only being instituted in the US version of the Play Store, which is all the US District Court can require. The company also notes that it only plans to adhere to this policy "while the US District Court's order remains in effect." Judge James Donato's order runs for three years, ending on November 1, 2027.

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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is getting ready to dump even more AI-generated posts into your social feeds. From a report: During an earnings call on Wednesday, Zuckerberg said the company will "add yet another huge corpus of content" to its recommendations system as AI "makes it easier to create and remix" work that gets shared online. "Social media has gone through two eras so far," Zuckerberg said. "First was when all content was from friends, family, and accounts that you followed directly. The second was when we added all of the Creator content." Though Zuckerberg stops short of calling AI the third era of social media, it's clear that the technology will be heavily involved in what comes next. Zuckerberg said that recommendation systems that "deeply understand" AI-generated posts and "show you the right content" will become "increasingly valuable." The company has already begun embedding AI tools across its apps and is now experimenting with dedicated AI social apps, too.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: The International Criminal Court will switch its internal work environment away from Microsoft Office to Open Desk, a European open source alternative, the institution confirmed to Euractiv. The switch comes amid rising concerns about public bodies being reliant on US tech companies to run their services, which have stepped up sharply since the start of US President Donald Trump's second administration. For the ICC, such concerns are not abstract: Trump has repeatedly lashed out at the court and slapped sanctions on its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan. Earlier this year, the AP also reported that Microsoft had cancelled Khan's email account, a claim the company denies. "We value our relationship with the ICC as a customer and are convinced that nothing impedes our ability to continue providing services to the ICC in the future," a Microsoft spokesperson told Euractiv.

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TypeScript overtook Python and JavaScript in August 2025 to become the most used language on GitHub. The shift marked the most significant language change in more than a decade. The language grew by over 1 million contributors in 2025, a 66% increase year over year, and finished August with 2,636,006 monthly contributors. Nearly every major frontend framework now scaffolds projects in TypeScript by default. Next.js 15, Astro 3, SvelteKit 2, Qwik, SolidStart, Angular 18, and Remix all generate TypeScript codebases when developers create new projects. Type systems reduce ambiguity and catch errors from large language models before production. A 2025 academic study found 94% of LLM-generated compilation errors were type-check failures. Tooling like Vite, ts-node, Bun, and I.D.E. autoconfig hide boilerplate setup. Among new repositories created in the past twelve months, TypeScript accounted for 5,394,256 projects. That represented a 78% increase from the prior year.

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Carmakers in the EU are "days away" from closing production lines, the industry has warned, as a crisis over computer chip supplies from China escalates. From a report: The European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) issued an urgent warning on Wednesday saying its members, which include BMW, Fiat, Peugeot and Volkswagen, were now working on "reserve stocks but supplies are dwindling." "Assembly line stoppages might only be days away. We urge all involved to redouble their efforts to find a diplomatic way out of this critical situation," said its director general, Sigrid de Vries. Another ACEA member, Mercedes, is now searching globally for alternative sources of the crucial semiconductors, according to its chief executive, Ola Kallenius. The chip shortage is also causing problems in Japan, where Nissan's chief performance officer, Guillaume Cartier, told reporters at a car show in Tokyo that the company was only "OK to the first week of November" in terms of supply.

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