Adobe threatened Microsoft with an antitrust lawsuit when Microsoft wanted to add PDF export functionality to Office 2007.

I can't imagine how Adobe would react if they built a whole PDF solution!

Thanks for the info.

Nothing happened when Microsoft added the PDF export functionality to Office, it's an empty threat after all.

Last year apparently OnlyOffice 8.1 has added PDF native editing in their software suites.

Are there still pedestrian crossings?

That's often overlooked with ideas like this.

This is only done when traffic is light enough so you can normally cross without any danger. But now that you mention it, there is one of these lights nearby with buttons for pedestrians, next time I'm there after 8 pm I could check if it comes back to life when you press a button...

American Express has always had stricter policies about adult content than Visa or MasterCard.

They don't allow their cards to be accepted by pornography sites.

The Online Safety Act enjoys high support with the UK public, because it targets a range of things that the average voter agrees should be restricted, to name just a few: online scams, pro-suicide content, cyberbullying, and allowing under-18s to access adult material.

There are issues with the legislation as it covers so many things, but many of the aims of it are popular.

The funny thing is that none of those aims will be achieved with this act. The only way to make the net safe is by turning it into a heavily-sanitized cage, where only government-approved players are allowed; an outcome that the average voter would likely not support (but who knows - fascism is back in fashion, after all).

All legislation will have "issues" until it's made physically impossible for a website to be accessible unless the government approves it. Until then, it's just a way to promote VPNs across the general public, which will have a bunch of collateral negative effects (since it will become much harder for the security services to actually monitor actual bad guys).

Brit here. I'm ambivalent about it. We'll have to see how it works in practice. I don't think the idea is that it's impossible to access harmful content, just that it's trickier so kids see less porn, self harm advice and so on.

So far the only thing I've noticed was Reddit asking how old I am. We've had a 'ban' on piracy sites for years which remains trivially circumvented.

We also ban online paedophile networks but I think all countries do that? That one you go to jail for.

> just that it's trickier so kids see less porn, self harm advice and so on.

how about making it harder for them to stop a nicotine addiction, or get support after experiencing sexual assault?

https://x.com/Menkvi/status/1948688664919245153

I can't think of a single retailer in the UK that takes card payments, but doesn't support contactless (including Google Pay and Apple Pay).

Ignoring very small shops that don't take cards at all.

Are the tap&pay NFC? -- I thought it was different tech under the hood.

What I meant is that I've not seen any other use for NFC apart from bus station adverts?

>Are the tap&pay NFC? -- I thought it was different tech under the hood.

Yes, it's a form of NFC!

Payments to your service from users in the UK could be blocked.

It's also possible for the owners or employees of the company to be held liable if they ever visit the UK.

> They don't care what the citizens want

Polling has shown that the Online Safety Act had 70+ % of the population supporting it.

Something like 60% don't think it goes far enough.

Is this a relevant topic?

Anyone who has purchased the item would be able to download it again for free - it's just new purchases that would be discontinued.

That's only until Apple introduces an incompatibility, then it will be unavailable with a certain iOS update or new phone.

Google forces old apps off their playstore because newer apps all have ads!

They make money on ads.

They don't want those 2016 era games occupying screen time because they don't serve up ads!

Have you tried playing a new game recently?! 1 minute of ads per minute of gameplay. I'm not exaggerating.

And the games are awful...you can't lose on half of them. They don't want you to get frustrated by losing and stop ad-watching.

RIP Android gaming.

Yep I think both smartphone platforms have done an horrific job as gaming platforms. There's a UK CMA (Competition Markets Authority) complaint accusing games of posing as suitable for all ages in app stores eg 4+, and then claiming they are only for 13+ in their privacy policies to serve ads to children. Both Google and Apple are cited. It's going to be very interesting because it seems quite blatant.

> It also claims that Apple and Google have a “special responsibility to protect consumers’ interests” due to their “effective monopoly” on app stores. Apple and Google’s lack of oversight “constitute abuses of their respective dominant positions,” it says.

https://mobilegamer.biz/apple-google-king-supercell-and-more...

It's really an on switch.

The feature is off by default in Windows 11 and was not offered in any previous non-beta Windows version.

But you could open the clock flyout and see it on demand. Now it's all-or-nothing (unless they changed it, again)

(Have I mentioned how much I loathe Windows 11?)

Governments (certainly in the UK) aren't willing to pay enough to make this work for vendors.

An escrow approach is quite common to protect the government in the event of a vendor going bankrupt or similar.