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Now that a US District Court judge has ordered Apple to loosen its restrictions on apps that direct users to pay for goods and subscriptions using non App Store billing, a growing number of developers are starting to update their apps to let users find other ways to pay. Patreon, and Proton are among those who are already planning to do so, and Spotify’s updated app is already available.
So that might save US customers some money. You know what might cost you money? Buying stuff that ships from China or Hong Kong. Up until today items valued under $800 were able to be shipped tariff-free to the US from those locations. But now that the exemption has been eliminated, tariffs over well over 100 percent apply to some items… if they’re available at all.
Internet retailers like Temu, Shein, and AliExpress are no longer showing some items to customers in the US, and charging fees that are higher than the price of the item itself for others. Folks at /r/AliExpress are sharing pictures of their final hauls, and engaging in what basically looks like a group therapy session.
Here’s a roundup of recent tech news from around the web.
The de minimis exemption on goods shipped from China or Hong Kong to the US valued at $800 or less has ended, which means that the total cost of cheap stuff from Shein, Temu, and AliExpress has more than doubled in some cases. www.cnn.com/2025/05/02/e…
— Liliputing (@liliputing.bsky.social) May 2, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Apple has updated App Store guidelines that makes it clear that developers can include links, buttons, and calls to action directing users in the US to external forms of payment. This comes in response to a US court ruling that Apple plans to appeal. 9to5mac.com/2025/05/01/a…
— Liliputing (@liliputing.bsky.social) May 2, 2025 at 8:08 AM
First look at the “desktop experience” coming to Google Pixel phones (most likely sometime after Android 16). It includes a taskbar, status bar, app launcher button, and the ability to run multiple apps in resizable windows. www.androidauthority.com/android-desk…
— Liliputing (@liliputing.bsky.social) May 2, 2025 at 2:04 PM
ReactoS is an open source operating system working toward Windows compatibility. So far it’s mostly only compatible with really old software, but now there’s experimental support a discrete GPU… an old one (3dfx Voodoo 5). www.phoronix.com/news/React-O…
— Liliputing (@liliputing.bsky.social) May 1, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 gets a price cut. The 4GB model is now $5 cheaper, starting at $45, and the the 8GB model is $10 cheaper, starting at $70. www.raspberrypi.com/news/lower-p…
— Liliputing (@liliputing.bsky.social) May 1, 2025 at 11:15 AM
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