Apple says it has begun piloting a new App Store feature called “contingent pricing” that will help developers lure in customers with cheaper subscriptions based on their other purchases. The contingent pricing model will let developers offer discounts to customers who already have subscriptions to other services, be it those developers’ own apps or participating partners’. It’s starting with a select group of participants before rolling it out to more developers “in the coming months.”

“Contingent pricing for subscriptions on the App Store — a new feature that helps you attract and retain subscribers — lets you give customers a discounted subscription price as long as they’re actively subscribed to a different subscription,” Apple wrote in a post on the Apple Developer website. “It can be used for subscriptions from one developer or two different developers.” Per 9to5Mac, Apple further explained that these bundled discounts will be highly visible to customers both on the App Store and “in off-platform marketing channels” so they can easily find and get in on the perks. 

It comes at a time of ongoing scrutiny into Apple’s practices with its App Store and how it handles in-app purchases, which came to a head in Apple’s battle with Fortnite owner Epic Games. Just this fall, Apple asked the Supreme Court to reverse its previous ruling that required it to allow developers to circumvent its 30 percent transaction fee by supporting outside payment systems. But it’s still looking for ways to get back in developers’ good graces. The company says it will release more information on the new program next month.

Correction, December 17, 2023, 3:30PM ET: This story originally stated that contingent pricing allowed developers to offer cheaper plans than competitors. It actually only works between participating parties. We apologize for the error.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-app-store-developers-contingent-pricing-for-subscriptions-222205906.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Apple is testing App Store discount packages so developers can pull users into more subscriptions

A proposed class action lawsuit has accused Apple of accepting a form of bribe from Visa and Mastercard to ensure their dominance over point-of-sale payment card services for Apple Pay transactions, according to Reuters. As a result, the lawsuit says merchants have been forced to pay higher fees.

The companies are being sued by beverage retailer Mirage Wine & Spirits in Illinois on behalf of “all merchants in the United States that accepted Apple Pay as a method of payment at the physical point-of-sale.” According to the complaint, Apple made an agreement with Visa and Mastercard that did away with any incentive for it to develop its own competing point-of-sale transaction payment network or allow other companies to make use of iPhone’s “tap to pay” NFC functionality with third-party wallet apps. On the iPhone, Apple’s own wallet app is the only option. All of this has led to inflated merchant fees, the suit argues.

“In exchange for agreeing not to compete with Visa and Mastercard in the Relevant Market, the two card networks offered Apple a very large and ongoing cash bribe,” the lawsuit states. This bribe came as a percentage of the two companies’ transaction fees for credit and debit card payments made with Apple Pay. “Even as Apple Pay was in its infancy, the Entrenched Networks and Apple understood that this bribe would amount to hundreds of millions of dollars per year.”

Apple has been accused of anti-competitive behavior with Apple Pay in the past for how it blocks third-party access to its contactless payment technology. But earlier this week, Reuters reported that Apple may open up NFC access in the EU to avoid a fine in a case that has been ongoing since 2020.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-visa-and-mastercard-sued-in-proposed-class-action-antitrust-case-over-apple-pay-card-fees-203445696.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Apple, Visa and Mastercard sued in proposed class action antitrust case over Apple Pay card fees

In an interview this fall following his return to Earth from the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio shared a little mission anecdote that had us gripped: after he’d harvested one of the first tomatoes grown in space and bagged it up for a presentation, the bag and its contents went missing. With no trace of the fruit, the other astronauts jokingly accused Rubio of eating it. Then, eight months later at the beginning of December, the lost tomato reappeared. A photo shared by NASA now shows there were actually two tomatoes in the rogue sample — and, all things considered, they don’t look half bad.

While a tomato left to rot on Earth isn’t a pleasant thing to come across, Rubio’s tomatoes just look a bit dried out. “Other than some discoloration, it had no visible microbial or fungal growth,” NASA wrote in a blog post.

NASA has for years been experimenting with ways to grow food on the ISS and studying how the space environment affects plant growth. The red dwarf tomatoes were grown as part of a program called the eXposed Root On-Orbit Test System, or XROOTS, which uses a combination of hydroponic and aeroponic techniques instead of soil. Rubio, who was on the ISS for a record-breaking 371 days before his return in September 2023, harvested a batch of the tomatoes in March to be sent back to Earth and examined for the VEG-05 study.

As for the sample Rubio hung onto, which he intended to show to schoolkids in an event a crewmember had planned, the astronaut said the tomatoes simply disappeared. “I was pretty confident that I Velcroed it where I was supposed to Velcro it, and then I came back and it was gone,” he said. Rubio said he spent “eight to 20 hours” looking for it, to no avail. Now that they’ve turned up (and since been thrown away), we’re just dying to know where they were hiding all that time. We’ve reached out to NASA and will update this story if we find out any more information.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/these-tomatoes-were-lost-on-the-international-space-station-for-almost-a-year-182601610.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – These tomatoes were lost on the International Space Station for almost a year