For customers in the Asia-Pacific region, Google is marking its birthday a bit differently this year and using the occasion as an opportunity to promote its upcoming flagship phone. Purchasing something this weekend from one of three Google Stores will net you a discount when buying the Pixel 6 later this year.
This weekend offer is for Google Store customers in Australia, Japan, and Taiwan, i.e. the Asia-Pacific countries where the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro will be sold later this year.
Google Store Australia
Buying anything this weekend, including using a 15% promo code that works on almost everything (see below), will save you “$70 [AUD] off the upcoming Pixel 6 phones.” The company has yet to reveal how much the Pixel 6 costs, but the Pixel 5 started at $999 (AUD).
You have to place your order by September 27 to be eligible. Customers will then receive a promotional code (via email by November 30) to use when ordering the Pixel 6 or Pixel 6 Pro. That code expires on the afternoon of December 31, with Google also noting how “only one code will be sent for each unique e-mail address used.”
“BDAYSURPRISE” — enter without the quotation marks when ordering — gets you 15% off on everything except the new Nest Cam or Doorbell (battery). The Pixel 4a, 4a 5G, or 5 are no longer in stock, but the discount does work on the Pixel Buds A-Series, Nest Hub Max, and Chromecast with Google TV.
Meanwhile, Google is offering deeper discounts with the following codes:
NESTITUP23 — 23% off Nest Wifi
STREAMON23 — 23% off Chromecast (regular, non-Google TV)
MINIBUTMIGHTY — 50% off Nest Mini
Google Store Japan
In Japan, the Pixel 6 discount is ¥5,500. You can use the same four codes listed above, while the 15% offer notably works on the new Pixel 5a 5G — you save ￥7,755 on the ￥51,700 phone.
We’ll update this post with details of the Taiwan deals in the coming hours.
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People shop for toilet paper at a Costco store in Novato, California on March 14, 2020.
Josh Edelson | AFP | Getty Images
Costco Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti said Thursday the company wants to make sure it has essential items at stores, even as shipping delays and truck driver shortages make it hard to keep them on shelves.
During an earnings call, he said the retailer is “putting some [purchase] limitations on key items.” Those include toilet paper, paper towels, bottled water and high-demand cleaning products. He did not specify how many of each item customers will be able to buy.
The product limits are being prompted by a different cause than in earlier phases of the pandemic, when stores saw unusually high demand for paper products and antibacterial wipes as customers stockpiled those goods.
“A year ago there was a shortage of merchandise,” Galanti said. “Now they got plenty of merchandise but there’s two- or three-week delays on getting it delivered because there’s a limit on short-term changes to trucking and delivery needs of the suppliers so it really is all over the board.”
The membership-only warehouse chain beat analysts’ expectations on Thursday for the fiscal fourth quarter, which ended Aug. 29. Yet like other retailers, Galanti said the pandemic has challenged Costco’s supply chain and increased its costs.
Costco is placing earlier orders to get what it needs, Galanti said. He added the company has chartered three ocean vessels for the next year to transport containers between Asia and the U.S. and Canada. Each ship can carry 800 to 1,000 containers at a time, he said.
As early as August, there had been some social media posts about product limitations for some of its private-label products. This week, the retailer warned some customers that they may see delays when they placed an online order for toilet paper — a household item that become synonymous with stockpiling. That delay was first reported by Fox Business, which saw it mentioned in a purchase order confirmation email.
Galanti said on Thursday that demand was strong for jewelry, home furnishings, pharmacy and sporting goods during the latest three-month period. He said the retailer — best known for big and bulky — “sold a couple of rings in the $100,000 range.”
Costco’s shares were up less than 1% on Thursday evening. As of the market’s close, the stock had gained 20% this year, bringing its market value to $200.16 billion.
Apple will finally let developers tell users about purchase options available outside the iOS App Store. The iPhone maker agreed to this and other concessions—including $100 million in payments to developers—in a proposed settlement of a class-action lawsuit filed by two app developers in 2019.
Apple and the developer plaintiffs who sued the company filed motions today urging a federal judge to approve the settlement. The case is in US District Court for the Northern District of California.
“Apple has agreed to revise its App Store Guidelines to permit developers of all app categories to communicate with consenting customers outside their app, including via email and other communication services, about purchasing methods other than in-app purchase… This injunctive relief is extremely valuable. By informing customers of alternative payment options, developers can avoid paying Apple’s commissions and, moreover, exert competitive pressure on Apple to discipline its pricing,” the plaintiffs’ brief said.
The settlement term would not let developers tell users about non-App Store purchase options within apps themselves, requiring such communication to take place outside the apps. App makers would be able to contact customers using email addresses and phone numbers obtained within their apps and tell them how to purchase subscriptions and other digital content from the developers’ own websites or elsewhere.
Apple currently does not allow developers to “use contact information (emails, phone numbers, etc.) obtained within an app to contact their user base outside the app,” which effectively “prevents developers from alerting their customers to alternative payment options,” the plaintiffs’ brief said. “The proposed settlement lifts this restriction, and it does so for all app categories.”
It isn’t clear whether Apple will make the change in the near future or wait until the settlement is approved and implemented. There was no mention of the Mac App Store in the settlement motions.
Apple calls deal “a win-win”
Apple described the settlement in a press release, saying it will let developers “use communications, such as email, to share information about payment methods outside of their iOS app. As always, developers will not pay Apple a commission on any purchases taking place outside of their app or the App Store. Users must consent to the communication and have the right to opt out.”
Apple’s motion for approval called the settlement “a win-win situation” that benefits developers and Apple. The benefits for Apple are that the “class members ‘expressly agree to the appropriateness of Apple’s commission structure,'” and “release their claims against Apple, including ‘any claim, contention, argument, or theory that they were ‘overcharged’ during the Class Period by virtue of commissions charged by Apple on paid downloads or in-app purchases of digital content (including subscriptions) through the App Store.'” Apple said those concessions by developers “are important acknowledgments.”
Apple said it also agreed to “expand the number of price points available to developers for subscriptions, in-app purchases, and paid apps from fewer than 100 to more than 500.”
Apple said it is “confident” that it would win at trial and that the evidence “establishes that the practices challenged in this and other cases are both lawful and well-justified by business necessity—including the protection of Apple’s intellectual property, and protecting the security and privacy of Apple’s customers.” However, Apple said it “would rather work with developers than litigate against them,” and that the settlement “will avoid the expense and distraction of further litigation.”
Antitrust bill could force bigger changes
The concession takes place as Apple faces antitrust pressure, including legislation that could force Apple to allow sideloading of applications on iOS and third-party App Stores. That bill, the Open App Markets Act, was proposed by US Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).
Blumenthal issued a statement calling today’s settlement a “powerful sign that Apple and Google’s stranglehold over app store markets is purely self-serving.”
“This marks a significant step forward, but does not rectify the full and vivid range of market abuses and practices still widespread across app markets that [the] Open App Markets Act would address,” he said. “Today’s move only adds to the momentum and further exposes rampant anticompetitive abuses in the app markets. The fox-guarding-the-hen-house status quo will remain until there are clear and enforceable rules for Apple and Google to play by.”
Group that includes Epic Games calls it a “sham settlement”
Apple is also facing a lawsuit over the App Store filed by Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite. The Coalition for App Fairness advocacy group launched by Epic and other companies such as Spotify and Match Group called the Apple settlement a “sham.” The group’s statement said:
Apple’s sham settlement offer is nothing more than a desperate attempt to avoid the judgment of courts, regulators, and legislators worldwide. This offer does nothing to address the structural, foundational problems facing all developers, large and small, undermining innovation and competition in the app ecosystem. Allowing developers to communicate with their customers about lower prices outside of their apps is not a concession and further highlights Apple’s total control over the app marketplace. If this settlement is approved, app makers will still be barred from communicating about lower prices or offering competing payment options within their apps. We will not be appeased by empty gestures and will continue our fight for fair and open digital platforms.
67,000 developers eligible for payments
Apple agreed to pay $100 million into a Small Developer Assistance Fund for a settlement class consisting of about 67,000 developers who “earned proceeds in the App Store of no more than $1,000,000 in calendar years 2015 through 2021.” Developers will get payments based on their “historic proceeds” from selling apps on Apple’s App Store, apparently meaning their total sales since 2015.
The smallest minimum payouts of $250 each would go to developers who made $100 or less on the store, which consists of 51 percent of the 67,000-member class. Minimum payments will go up to $30,000 for developers who earned over $1 million during the class period, but about 95 percent of the class would receive minimum payments of between $250 and $2,000.
Those really are “minimum payments,” the developers’ brief said. “They would apply only if every member of the Settlement Class submits an approved claim,” the brief said. The proposed deal requires the settlement administrator to send notices by email and mail to the 67,000 class members. However, the proposed settlement administrator “estimates a claims rate of 35 percent in this matter,” and “minimum payment amounts will increase proportionally in each tier” to distribute money that would have gone to developers who are eligible but don’t make claims.
Apple also agreed to maintain some of its current policies for at least three years after the settlement. That includes the small-business commission pricing that lets businesses earning under $1 million annually pay 15 percent of App Store proceeds to Apple instead of 30 percent. Apple said it also “agreed that its Search results will continue to be based on objective characteristics like downloads, star ratings, text relevance, and user behavior signals,” and to “maintain the option for developers to appeal the rejection of an app based on perceived unfair treatment.”
on Monday defended the electric-vehicle maker’s purchase of SolarCity Corp. in court, telling a Delaware judge that he didn’t act improperly during the negotiating process.
The case dates back to 2016, when Mr. Musk was chairman of both the then-unprofitable companies. His solution to improve their outlook: combine them in a roughly $2.1 billion tie-up to establish a single clean-energy business. Plaintiffs, which include several pension funds that owned Tesla stock, have characterized the deal as a scheme to benefit himself and bail out a home-solar company on the verge of insolvency.
Mr. Musk was the opening witness called in Delaware Chancery Court in a nonjury trial that is expected to run about two weeks. The attorneys for Mr. Musk have framed the acquisition as an opportunity to realize his long-held goal of creating a vertically integrated sustainable energy company.
A primary question in the case is whether Mr. Musk, who owned roughly 22% of Tesla at the time, controlled the transaction. Proving that claim is a challenge because Mr. Musk was a minority shareholder of Tesla and the company’s shareholders approved the acquisition. Lawyers for Mr. Musk have said that SolarCity was worth more than Tesla paid for it and the electric-vehicle maker’s board members, who included Mr. Musk’s brother, Kimbal Musk, acted independently.
Other issues before the judge include whether Tesla board members were conflicted and whether vital information about the deal was withheld from shareholders. Mr. Musk said Monday that an independent director handled the negotiation and that Tesla’s directors even overruled his proposal that Tesla provide temporary financing to SolarCity before the deal went through.
Members of the media on Monday gathered outside the justice center in Wilmington, Del., where Elon Musk testified in a nonjury trial.
Photo:
Matt Rourke/Associated Press
An attorney for the plaintiffs,
Randall Baron,
later questioned Mr. Musk, asking why SolarCity’s performance varied significantly from the projections that Tesla gave to shareholders in 2016. Mr. Musk blamed the decline in solar-panel installation and market share to Tesla’s pressing need to focus on developing its Model 3 car in 2017 and 2018. Tesla at the time was struggling to bring the car to market.
More recently, Mr. Musk said, the coronavirus pandemic impacted Tesla’s ability to get permits for residential solar installations.
If Mr. Musk loses, he could be asked to make Tesla whole. That payment could equal the value of the SolarCity transaction if the presiding judge finds that the solar firm wasn’t worth anything when Tesla agreed to buy it.
The trial has been delayed for more than a year because of the pandemic. Mr. Musk is the lone board member being sued. Tesla’s other board members at the time of the SolarCity tie-up agreed to settle last year for a combined $60 million, paid by insurance. The board members, some of whom had interests in both Tesla and SolarCity, denied wrongdoing.
Mr. Musk has built a reputation as an unusual and sometimes combative chief executive. He has already flashed some of that in the case, making for a confrontational witness in a 2019 deposition, repeatedly goading Mr. Baron, whom he called “reprehensible” for “attacking sustainable energy.”
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“SolarCity I think would have done just fine by itself and Tesla would have done fine by itself, but in the long-term, they are better together. And that is what the future will show,” Mr. Musk said in the deposition.
Mr. Musk brought the proposed deal to Tesla’s board in early 2016, court records show. The plaintiffs describe SolarCity as having been in severe financial distress leading up to the deal, at risk of tripping a debt covenant and without other fundraising options. Shareholders weren’t fully informed of the company’s condition, they say.
Founded in 2006 by Mr. Musk’s cousins, SolarCity generated net losses of $769 million and $375 million in 2015 and 2014, respectively.
Attorneys for Mr. Musk have said SolarCity was solvent and could have pursued other fundraising options.
When Mr. Musk testifies, he is likely to be asked about how much involvement he had in the deal with SolarCity, said Lawrence Hamermesh, executive director of the Institute for Law and Economics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Carey Law School. “One of the things the plaintiffs are going to want to show is whether he had his fingers all over the negotiations and development and timing of the deal,” Mr. Hamermesh said ahead of the trial.
Electric car maker Tesla Motors Inc. says it has reached a deal to acquire solar-energy company SolarCity, which is also chaired by Tesla chairman Elon Musk. The WSJ’s Lee Hawkins discusses the details. Photo: Getty (Video from 8/1/2016)
That information will help the court decide whether the Tesla chief executive controlled the company’s consideration of the merger, as will testimony about some directors’ conflicts of interest and whether they made their decisions independently.
If Vice Chancellor Joseph Slights III, the presiding judge, finds Mr. Musk didn’t control the deal, the case is likely over for the plaintiffs, Mr. Hamermesh said. Case law in Delaware generally defers to the business judgment of independent and properly motivated directors. On the other hand, if the evidence points to control, the court would assess whether the deal process and price were fair and, if not, whether Mr. Musk should be ordered to pay money back to Tesla, Mr. Hamermesh said.
“The theory would be that Tesla has been damaged and Musk is the responsible party,” he said. “He would have to make Tesla whole.”
For Mr. Musk, who now ranks among the wealthiest people on the planet, the optics of a loss likely would be more meaningful than any court-ordered financial judgment, said
Seth Goldstein,
an analyst for Morningstar Research Services LLC.
“You could see the board become extra diligent with regard to acquisitions that aren’t in Tesla’s current, existing industries,” Mr. Goldstein said.
Mr. Musk is no stranger to court appearances. In 2019, he was called to the stand in a case in which a British cave explorer accused him of defamation. The jury found him not guilty.
The prior year, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Mr. Musk and Tesla over claims that he misled investors through his tweets. Mr. Musk and Tesla settled the lawsuit by each paying $20 million, and Mr. Musk agreed to have certain of his tweets reviewed by Tesla’s lawyers before publishing them.
Tesla’s SolarCity Deal: From the Archives
Write to Dave Michaels at dave.michaels@wsj.com and Rebecca Elliott at rebecca.elliott@wsj.com
Technicians in China have reportedly succeeded in upgrading the memory and storage of the M1 chip, suggesting that Apple’s integrated custom silicon for the Mac may be more flexible than previously thought.
Reports of maintenance technicians being able to expand the memory and storage of M1 Macs began circulating on Chinese social media over the weekend, but now international reports have started to clarify the situation.
Technicians in Guangzhou, China have discovered that it is possible to detach the RAM from the M1 chip and its nearby SSD module and replace them with larger capacity components, which are correctly recognized by macOS, without breaking the device.
As proof, a large number of images showing the process of a base model M1 MacBook Air with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage being upgraded to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, and this change being correctly shown in macOS Big Sur, have been shared online.
The RAM and SSD components on Apple’s M1 Macs are soldered in place, making the procedure extremely challenging, and there is reportedly a high chance of failure. This invasive unofficial upgrade also undoubtedly breaches Apple’s warranty.
Apple has made it increasingly challenging for users to upgrade their own Macs over the years, and it was thought that the M1 Mac represented a final solidification of this move, with all of the M1 Mac’s computing components being heavily physically integrated. The possibility of upgrading the memory and storage of M1 Macs, albeit in an invasive and risky procedure, therefore seems to be a significant discovery.
Due to the difficulty of upgrading the RAM or SSD, almost all M1 owners will likely still have to rely on the memory and storage configuration that they chose at the point of purchase, with upgrades being confined to a minority of enthusiasts, although it has been suggested that M1 Mac memory and storage upgrades in Asia will be available through unofficial channels.
M1 Mac owners may be keen to see if the process behind these upgrades is refined over time and becomes a more viable option.
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The European Union has given Microsoft’s purchase of Bethesda the green light to go ahead.
The EU approved the deal between Microsoft and Bethesda over the weekend, writing that it “does not raise serious doubts as to its compatibility with the common market.” In other words, the EU doesn’t see Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda as creating a monopoly in the video games industry.
Just yesterday, Microsoft’s purchase of Bethesda was approved by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. While this wasn’t by any means the final hurdle for the deal to go through, it moved the deal one step closer to the finish line. Now, with the EU and SEC rulings having gone through and been approved, there’s little else standing in the way of Microsoft acquiring Bethesda.
Previously, Xbox boss Phil Spencer estimated that the deal would go through in the second half of 2021. When Microsoft announced the purchase of Bethesda last year in September 2020, there was some confusion as to whether Bethesda timed PlayStation exclusives like Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo would still be exclusive to Sony’s console, but Microsoft has pledged to uphold all previous deals.
As for Bethesda itself, the company will run “semi-independently” from Microsoft after the acquisition goes through. Additionally, the developer is apparently aiming to launch Starfield later this year in 2021, so this could be the first test of whether Microsoft will allow a Bethesda-made game to arrive on Sony platforms on day one.
For a complete look at all the games coming to Microsoft’s powerful next-gen console, head over to our upcoming Xbox Series X games guide for more.
Samsung’s latest Chrome OS laptop, the Galaxy Chromebook 2, is now available for purchase at Best Buy. The Chromebook 2 was first announced at CES in January and features a new QLED display, 360-degree hinge, and a striking red paint job. It starts at $549.99 for a Celeron model and goes up to $699.99 for a Core i3 version, putting it at the higher end of Chromebooks.
That price is the most significant thing about the Chromebook 2 because it’s considerably less than the Galaxy Chromebook that debuted a year ago. The older Chromebook had an 4K OLED screen and came with a stylus — neither of which you’ll fine with the new model — but it also cost just under $1,000 when it came out. In our review, we found despite the gorgeous screen and striking paint job, the original Galaxy Chromebook didn’t justify its cost, particularly thanks to abysmal battery life.
Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2
Prices taken at time of publishing.
The Galaxy Chromebook 2 is Samsung’s flagship Chrome OS laptop for 2021. It has a new QLED screen, either Intel Celeron or Core i3 processors, and comes in a striking red paint job.
We’ve yet to put the new Chromebook 2 through its paces, but we did get to see the machine in person back in January and it certainly seems like it will be competent. The QLED screen isn’t quite up to the marks of the OLED panel, but you’d be hard-pressed to notice without putting them side-by-side, and the rest of the Chromebook 2’s fit and finish are appropriate for the price Samsung is asking. Importantly, it still comes in that amazing red color, as well. You might notice the extra weight — the Chromebook 2 is about half a pound heavier — but it still falls under three pounds total and should be easily portable.
We will have a full review of the Chromebook 2 in the near future, but if you don’t want to wait and grab one yourself, you might be able to find one in stock at your local Best Buy right now. Let’s just hope Samsung improved the battery life over last time.
Several of LG’s 2021 Gram laptops are now available for purchase. LG announced the new lineup earlier this year but had not yet announced pricing or availability.
The models you can buy now are the Gram 14, the Gram 16, and the Gram 17. The company also has two convertible laptops — the Gram 14 2-in-1 and the Gram 16 2-in-1 — coming in mid-March.
The 14-inch convertible is coming in mid-March.Image: LG
The models are targeting the high-end ultraportable space, with Gram 14 configurations starting at $999. Gram 16 models start at $1,299, while the singular Gram 17 model is $1,799. This last model only comes in black, while the 16-inch and 14-inch counterparts come in white and silver as well.
Gram laptops are known for being unusually light: the Gram 17 is just 2.98 pounds, which is virtually unheard of for a 17-inch laptop. Gram models we’ve reviewed in the past have also featured excellent battery life and good, roomy displays. (All Gram models have 16:10 aspect ratios.) The new laptops all include Intel’s new 11th Gen processors and are certified through Intel’s Evo program (which means Intel thinks they’re top performers).
You can purchase available models now on LG’s website.
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