Tag: trial

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Health

Moderna says it plans to develop trial for teenagers 5 to 11

Moderna says it plans to expand trial for kids 5 to 11

With her husband Stephen by her side Erin Shih hugs her children Avery 6, and Aidan, 11, after they got their second Moderna COVID-19 vaccines at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center on Friday, June 25, 2021.

Sarah Reingewirtz | MediaNews Group | Getty Images

Moderna plans to expand the size of its clinical trial testing its Covid-19 vaccine in kids ages 5 to 11, the company confirmed to CNBC on Monday.

The U.S. drugmaker is expanding the trial, which began in late March, to increase the likelihood of detecting potential rare side effects, the company said, declining to say how many children it ultimately hopes to enroll. The Food and Drug Administration last month added a warning label to the Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines to list a rare risk of heart inflammation, which was reported in young people, as a potentially rare side effect.

“It is our intent to expand the trial and we are actively discussing a proposal with the FDA,” the company told CNBC in a written statement. “At this point, we expect to have a package that supports authorization in winter 2021/early 2022, should the FDA choose to use the authorization avenue.”

The New York Times reported earlier Monday that the FDA asked both Moderna and Pfizer to include 3,000 children in the 5- to 11-year-old trials, citing unnamed sources. One source described that as double the original number of study participants envisioned, according to the Times.

In a statement to CNBC, Pfizer said it has not provided any updates to the previously stated timelines or details for its trial.

The update comes as parents in the U.S. patiently wait for their children to be eligible to get vaccinated. In May, the FDA permitted the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine for kids ages 12 to 15. Moderna’s vaccine is expected to be authorized for children as young as 12 any day now.

Vaccinating children is seen as crucial to ending the pandemic. The nation is unlikely to achieve herd immunity — when enough people in a given community have antibodies against a specific disease — until children can get vaccinated, scientists say.

Federal health officials will need to balance the risk of potentially rare side effects from the shots against the risks of getting Covid.

In June, health officials said there had been more than 1,200 cases of a myocarditis or pericarditis mostly in people age 30 and under who received the shots. Myocarditis is the inflammation of the heart muscle and pericarditis is the inflammation of the tissue surrounding the heart.

There have been just 12.6 heart inflammation cases per million doses for both vaccines combined, officials said at the time. They added the benefits still outweighed the risks.

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Politics

Chief Guantánamo Prosecutor Retiring Earlier than Sept. 11 Trial Begins

Chief Guantánamo Prosecutor Retiring Before Sept. 11 Trial Begins

WASHINGTON – The army general who led a decade of war crimes charges in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, is retiring and turning the trial of the five men charged with conspiracy in the September 11, 2001 attacks on a not yet elected successor.

Brig. General Mark S. Martins of the Army served as chief prosecutor for military commissions across the Obama and Trump administrations.

His decision to step down came as a surprise as he had received an extension until January 1, 2023. Instead, he will retire on September 30th, according to a statement from a public prosecutor’s office, Karen V. Loftus, to the families of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the 9/11 attacks.

General Martins, a graduate of Harvard Law School at West Point, had served as the public face of the military commissions for many years. During his early years in office, he ran a public speaking campaign to promote the hybrid form of justice established by the Bush administration after the invasion of Afghanistan.

The Obama administration made some changes to the system and decided to pursue the 9/11 case against Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four accused accomplices in Guantánamo rather than in federal court. A death penalty case that has sunk in pre-trial proceedings since the indictment in May 2011 as the sites deal, among other things, with issues relating to the torture of the defendants in CIA prisons prior to their 2006 transfer to Guantánamo Bay.

Although no military judge is currently assigned to the case, Pentagon officials are preparing for its first hearings since February 2020, due to take place in the first two weeks of September, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the attack.

General Martins filed his annuity papers Wednesday after repeatedly arguing with lawyers from the Biden administration in Guantánamo court over positions of his office on applicable international law and the Convention against Torture, according to senior government officials who knew about the disputes. General Martins did not respond to a request for comment.

A major point of contention was General Martins’ recent decision to give a testimony to the CIA while tortured by a man accused of orchestrating the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000 while he was being tortured to speak to the military judge, who presided over this case to take a stand is also a death sentence. Defense lawyers for prisoner Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri from Saudi Arabia are appealing the admissibility of this evidence.

On the same day that General Martins opted to retire, he filed a brief asking the U.S. Court of Justice to review the Military Commission for additional time to respond to the appeal.

“Has he been asked to resign or has he resigned in protest?” Said Navy Capt. Brian L. Mizer, Mr. Nashiri’s senior military defender. “I dont know.”

Ms. Loftus said General Martins had chosen to retire “in the best interests of the ongoing cases”. Military commission hearings are slated to resume next week for the first time since the pandemic began, in a case involving an Iraqi man accused of commanding armed forces that committed war crimes in Afghanistan in 2003 and 2004.

Ms. Loftus called the point in time “an ideal window for identifying a successor”, since proceedings “after the pandemic-related break are finally in sight for all of our cases”.

General Martins made an impressive figure in court with a height of six feet and a chest full of medals on his blue army uniform. As a former Rhodes Fellow, he had made it an important part of his job to meet and brief the families of the victims and to connect with some of them through social opportunities in Guantánamo Bay. In an effort to bring the 9/11 case to court, he had repeatedly received extensions of his term.

“My first thought is that only the defendants and family members will be left,” said Joel Shapiro, whose wife Sareve Dukat was killed in the World Trade Center and has since worked as a guide at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in New York. “Almost everyone else involved in this case took the opportunity to get on with their lives.”

“I was shocked that Mark was stepping down,” said Adele Welty, whose firefighter son Timothy was killed on September 11th. “I thought he was very committed to pulling it off. But who can blame him? The whole Guantánamo enterprise is almost comical in its ridiculous turns – judge after judge step down, and now General Martins. “

Chief Defense Counsel, Brig. General John G. Baker of the Marines, will leave his post on November 1st. The process of replacing him with a new one-star military attorney – to put him on a par with General Martins – was already underway as a potential candidate.

Defense officials said a panel would likely be put together to select a new chief prosecutor who could match the rank of Army Colonel rather than a one-star general. In the meantime, Ms. Loftus said, General Martins’ civilian deputy, Michael J. O’Sullivan, will serve as assistant chief defender.

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Health

John Carreyrou predicts Elizabeth Holmes trial final result

John Carreyrou predicts Elizabeth Holmes trial outcome

The writer of “Bad Blood” has not finished telling the Theranos story.

Three years after his bestseller was published, John Carreyrou is releasing a new podcast to uncover the final chapter of former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes. “Bad Blood: The Final Chapter” follows the upcoming trial against Holmes.

In an interview with CNBC, Carreyrou shared his bold predictions about her criminal fraud trial due to begin in August after several delays due to the coronavirus pandemic and her unexpected pregnancy. Despite the postponements, Carreyrou predicts Holmes will be convicted of wire fraud and said a guilty verdict in her trial will be a “big shot across the bow for Silicon Valley entrepreneurs”.

“The message will be that you can’t really do what you want, you can’t completely ignore rules and regulations. You can’t shake your nose at regulators and authorities,” Carreyrou said.

He warns that a not guilty verdict will set a dangerous precedent among startup CEOs. “Young entrepreneurs will say, ‘Look what Elizabeth Holmes got away with and she didn’t go to jail for it.'” Carreyrou adds, “In this case, it takes a guilty verdict to correct course.”

Holmes and Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani ran the now defunct start-up Theranos together as CEO and President – and at times also as girlfriend and boyfriend.

The two are facing separate criminal jury trials over allegations they lied to patients and doctors while pushing investors for hundreds of millions of dollars. Holmes and Balwani have both pleaded not guilty.

Carreyrou tells CNBC that a large part of Holmes’ defense strategy could be blaming Balwani. He predicts that Holmes will take a stand and tell the jury that Balwani “kept her in his psychological grip, that he was an abusive friend”.

CNBC reached out to Holmes and Balwani attorneys. They did not respond to calls for comment.

Holmes plans to call a psychologist who specializes in relationship trauma as a witness. Carreyrou, who has spent years reporting on Holmes and the events in Theranos, says he is not buying the defense.

“Based on all of the interviews I did for my book and other interviews I did for the podcast, it’s clear that they ran this company and allegedly committed this fraud together as a couple,” he said.

“If they couldn’t agree, she had the last word,” said Carreyrou. “That’s why I find it hard to believe that she was under his psychological grip and had no will of her own.”

Watch the video to learn more from Carreyrou about his trial predictions, new evidence he’s received, and his upcoming podcast.

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World News

A French Teenager’s Anti-Islam Rant Unleashed Demise Threats. Now 13 Are on Trial.

A French Teenager’s Anti-Islam Rant Unleashed Death Threats. Now 13 Are on Trial.

PARIS – The 16-year-old French woman shared very personal details about her life, including her attraction to women, on a livestream on Instagram. Just no black or Arab women, she said.

When in January 2020 her Instagram account received insults and death threats in response to her comments, some of which said it was an affront to Islam, teenage Mila dug in and quickly posted another video.

“I hate religion,” she said. “The Koran is a religion of hatred.” She also used profanity to describe Islam and the crudest of images to refer to God.

The subsequent onslaught of threats after the video went viral brought 13 people to justice for online harassment.

The case has put the spotlight on the heated French debate over freedom of expression and blasphemy, especially when it comes to Islam. It is also a landmark test of recent legislation expanding France’s definition of cyber-harassment in relation to attacks on the internet, where vitriol is abundant but less modulated debate.

“We set the rules for what is acceptable and what is not,” said Michaël Humbert, the presiding judge, at the hearing.

Some looked back into history to capture the brutality of what Mila was witnessing online. Mila’s attorney said she had been digitally stoned. The prosecutor spoke in the case of a “Lyncherei 2.0”.

More than a year after Mila – the New York Times withholds her last name for being the subject of harassment – posted her videos, her life remains in a turmoil. She lives under police protection and no longer goes to school in person.

The 13 accused, some of whom are teenagers themselves, are on trial in Paris, most of them charged with death threats. You face jail time. The verdict is expected on Wednesday.

Most defendants have regretted the tone of their online comments – but the case has taken on a life of its own.

It exposed the deep polarization in French society over freedom of expression following the terrorist attacks on Charlie Hebdo, the satirical newspaper that published the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, and the decapitation last year of a teacher who showed similar cartoons during a class Discussion about freedom of expression.

Some of the defendants said they had no intention of harassing or threatening Mila. They were just kidding, venting, or trying to attract followers, they said.

But many of the comments were extremely snappy. The process only affects messages sent in November after Mila posted another video describing her continued online harassment – and reiterating some of her own crude imagery that sparked a flurry of new digital attacks.

When the presiding judge read some of them out loud at the trial, they made them gasp.

One of an 18-year-old psychology student named N’Aissita said: “It would be a real pleasure for me to tear your body apart with my finest knife and let it rot in the forest.” Another of a 19-year-old aspiring customs officer named Adam said, “Someone is going to come to your home, someone is going to tie you up and torture you.”

(A court clerk refused to fully identify the defendants to the Times; it is customary in France, especially in cases involving juveniles, not to publish the names of defendants unless they are public figures. )

Mila has repeatedly said that she does not want to be co-opted by politicians of any ideology. But many conservatives have stood up for her cause, and she says she feels abandoned by feminist and LGBTQ advocacy groups, accusing them of being afraid to defend their right to criticize religions for fear of offending Muslims.

“I am being abandoned by a fragile and cowardly nation,” she said.

For Mila’s defenders, the virulence directed against them shows that France’s model of secularism and freedom of expression is under attack.

“We went crazy,” said President Emmanuel Macron in an interview last year when asked about Mila. In France any religion could be criticized, “and because of this criticism we must not tolerate violence”.

Mr Macron himself was at the center of the violent tug-of-war over French values ​​and the treatment of its Muslim citizens. He has vowed to defeat Islamist “separatism” or the undermining of French values ​​of secularism and freedom of expression. Several terrorist attacks in the past year have hardened the mood in French society towards extremists in their midst and aroused fear among some French Muslims that they would be unjustly stigmatized.

In a television interview several weeks after her first video, Mila said that she was targeting Islam as a religion, not those who practice it in peace, and she apologized for hurting these people with her comments.

That’s an important difference in France, which criminalizes some hate speech but doesn’t prohibit blasphemy. The law distinguishes between ridiculing a religion and vilifying its believers. On this basis, prosecutors quickly closed an investigation they had opened against Mila on suspicion of incitement to racial hatred.

Instead, based on the Cyber ​​Harassment Act passed in 2018, the police opened an investigation into those who followed them online. The law allows prosecutors to seek convictions against molesters who knew they were contributing to a wider wave of abuse, even if they didn’t coordinate with each other and even if they only posted or sent a comment.

In a recent book, Mila went back on some of her regrets, saying that at the time of the television interview, she was desperate to calm the situation but should not apologize for the legal use of her freedom of speech.

The defendants were charged with online harassment, which resulted in a prison sentence of up to two years and a fine of € 30,000, or nearly $ 36,000. Those charged with death threats face up to three years in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros.

Defense lawyers asked why these 13 were chosen when thousands of people attacked Mila online.

The prosecutor said he expected to hold others accountable as well.

“Social media is not a lawless wild west,” said prosecutor Grégory Weill, who heads a new office that deals with hate speech and online harassment across France.

Nevertheless, Mr. Weill requested only short suspended sentences for 12 of the defendants, all of whom were first-time offenders. (He recommended that the charges against the 13th be dropped.) The court could be more severe in all of the sentences it imposes.

For two long days last month, the case against the 13 unfolded in a crowded courtroom.

Mila’s mother said her daughter experienced an endless “tsunami” of news that caused nightmares, depression and trauma. Mila fought vigorously against critics, but also in tears.

“I feel like I have rows of knives in my back all the time,” she said.

She turned down suggestions to leave social media, where she still clashes with critics, but also posts typical teenage content, like videos of herself lip-syncing songs.

“I see it like a woman who was raped on the street and who is told not to go out again so that she doesn’t get raped again,” said Mila. She added that she doesn’t like all religions, not just Islam.

Richard Malka, Mila’s attorney, castigated the defendants as easily offended, but slow to realize the consequences of their actions.

“You made them all radioactive,” said Mr. Malka. “You condemned her to loneliness.”

Although some of the defendants claimed to be Muslim, some of them claimed to be atheists. Some said Mila’s comments pissed them off because they had Muslim friends or found their videos disrespectful, which made them stop thinking.

“I reacted in the heat of the moment,” said Axel, a 20-year-old from southwest France, in court. “I don’t pay attention to religion, but all religions should be equal and respected.”

One of the defendants, Corentin, a 23-year-old school observer, said he could not understand religious intolerance. In his Twitter post wishing Mila would die, Corentin said he was not a criminal offense because he was “knowledgeable and an unbeliever”.

And when Mila’s attorney argued that religions deserve no respect and that respecting religious beliefs “leads to horror,” disagreed with N’Aissita, the psychology student who wrote about Mila’s knife.

“If religious beliefs had been respected, we wouldn’t be here,” she replied.

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Health

CureVac to ‘plow ahead’ with Covid vaccine regardless of trial outcomes     

CureVac to 'plow forward' with Covid vaccine despite trial results     

An employee of the German biopharmaceutical company CureVac will demonstrate research on a vaccine against the coronavirus (COVID-19) disease in a laboratory in Tübingen on March 12, 2020.

Andreas Gebert | REUTERS

LONDON – CureVac plans to continue work on its Covid-19 vaccine despite disappointing results from clinical studies showing the vaccine is only 48% effective.

The German biotech company released its final analysis of the clinical trials of its coronavirus vaccine – known as CVnCoV – on Wednesday, confirming that the vaccine was 48% effective against Covid of all degrees of severity in all ages and 15 variants.

Pierre Kemula, CFO of CureVac, however, defended the vaccine on CNBC Thursday, saying the clinical trials were conducted at a time when several new strains of the virus were spreading around the world.

“We have to speak to the EMA now [European Medicines Agency] and want to make sure we have an open dialogue and share any data we have to assess the way forward, “he told CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe on Thursday.

When asked if it is worth developing the vaccine further when other successful vaccines are already in use in Europe and elsewhere, Kemula said the company had contractual obligations to meet.

“We have a contract with the European Commission to supply 225 million doses of the drug, so I think we need to move forward on that,” he said.

“There are a lot of vaccinations, there are a lot of people under 60 who haven’t had access to the vaccine before. So if we can contribute to the fight – in the short term in the pandemic, but also in the medium term with these other ways of [multivalents] … we are continuing to work on that. “Multivalent or polyvalent vaccines should immunize against more than one virus strain.

The results of the CureVac study, which enrolled 40,000 participants in ten countries in Latin America and Europe, showed that the vaccine was more effective in younger participants. The effectiveness rate among 18 to 60 year olds was 53% for diseases of any severity and increased to 77% for moderate and severe diseases in the same age group.

However, given that Covid-19 carries a higher risk for the elderly, the study results are disappointing, not least because two other vaccines made with messenger RNA (mRNA) – those from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna – have an efficacy greater than 90 % of have been shown to prevent Covid-19 infection. CureVac’s shares fell as much as 13% in Thursday’s pre-trading session.

Dr. Franz-Werner Haas, CEO of CureVac, defended the results in a statement on Wednesday, saying the vaccine “shows strong public health value” for those aged 18 to 60 and will be an “important contributor to tackling Covid.” -19 pandemic and the dynamic distribution of variants. “

He also cited “the current context of an increasingly diverse environment of Covid-19 variants”.

Several variants have emerged over the course of the pandemic, some of which are more virulent than others – like the alpha variant first discovered in the UK and the delta variant first identified in India – and Kemula said he believed mutations would continue to occur.

“As more and more people become infected with coronavirus, we are prepared for the disease to continue to develop as it progresses and has more and more variants,” said Kemula. The industry must think ahead, “how we can cope better with the current vaccines, but also possibly with various boosters (booster vaccinations),” he added.

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Health

CureVac’s Covid Vaccine Carried out Badly in Trial, In Half As a result of Variants

CureVac’s Covid Vaccine Performed Badly in Trial, In Part Due to Variants

German company CureVac on Wednesday delivered disappointing preliminary results from a clinical trial of its Covid-19 vaccine, tarnishing hopes of meeting the world’s great needs.

The study, which included 40,000 volunteers in Latin America and Europe, estimated that CureVac’s mRNA vaccine was only 47 percent effective, one of the lowest ever reported by any Covid vaccine manufacturer. The study will continue as researchers monitor volunteers for new cases of Covid, with a final analysis expected in two to three weeks.

“We’re going into full swing for the last reading,” said Franz-Werner Haas, CEO of CureVac, in an interview. “We are still planning to submit the permit.”

CureVac plans to first apply to the European Medicines Agency for approval. The European Union reached an agreement last year to purchase 405 million doses of the vaccine if the agency approves it.

However, independent experts said it would be difficult for CureVac to recover. Natalie Dean, a biostatistician at the University of Florida, said the vaccine’s effectiveness could improve somewhat by the end of the study. However, since most of the data are already available, the vaccine is unlikely to offer high protection. “It’s not going to change dramatically,” she said.

And with such a low rate of efficacy – far less than the roughly 95 percent of competing mRNA vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna – the results aren’t a good sign that CureVac’s vaccines will be adopted.

“It’s pretty devastating for them,” said Jacob Kirkegaard, a vaccine supply expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Washington think tank.

The news was disappointing to experts who had hoped the company could provide vaccines to low- and middle-income countries that don’t have nearly enough. CureVac had several advantages over the other mRNA vaccines, such as the month-long shelf life in the refrigerator. In addition, CureVac’s vaccine uses fewer mRNA molecules per injection compared to its competitors, reducing its cost.

The study results published on Wednesday were based on data from 135 volunteers suffering from Covid. An independent panel compared the number of people who had received a placebo with those who had received the vaccine. Although the vaccine appeared to offer some protection, the statistical difference between the two groups was not great, giving an effectiveness rate of 47 percent.

In comparison, annual flu vaccinations can be 40 to 60 percent effective. Both the World Health Organization and the Food and Drug Administration set a threshold of 50 percent effectiveness for considering Covid vaccines for emergency approval. If CureVac ended up staying at 47 percent, it wouldn’t meet that standard.

The results surprised the scientists. CureVac’s recordings have shown promising results in animal studies and early clinical studies.

“This is a bit of a head scratch,” said Dr. Dean.

Dr. Haas blamed the disappointing results on the high number of virus variants in the countries where the vaccine was tested. Of 124 of the Covid-19 cases that the company’s scientists have genetically sequenced, only one was caused by the original version of the coronavirus.

More than half of the cases were caused by variants that have been shown to be more transmissible or can make vaccines less effective. CureVac volunteers have also been infected by variants that have yet to be carefully investigated. Lambda, which has dominated Peru for the past few weeks, made up 21 percent of the samples.

Dr. Haas said the results should serve as a wake-up call to the threat that new variants can pose to vaccine effectiveness. “It’s a new Covid reality, that’s for sure,” he said.

Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech were tested last year before variants emerged, which could partly explain their much higher rates of effectiveness. However, studies have shown that their effectiveness in practice falls only moderately in view of variants.

Dr. Kirkegaard predicted that it would be challenging for CureVac to compete with others Covid vaccine under development, manufactured by Novavax. Novavax reported Monday that its non-frozen vaccine was 90 percent effective in a study in the United States and Mexico.

“I suspect that it will be difficult for them to really get a significant market for developing countries,” said Dr. Kirkegaard.

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Business

Apple’s Fortnite Antitrust Trial Ends With Pointed Questions

Apple's Fortnite Antitrust Trial Ends With Pointed Questions

Tim Cook took the position as CEO of Apple for the first time. The billionaire of one of the world’s most popular video games led a federal judge through what is known as the Metaverse. And lawyers in masks discussed whether an anthropomorphic banana without pants should be shown in a federal court.

For the past three weeks, Apple has defended itself in a federal courtroom in Oakland, California against allegations of abusing its power over the iPhone App Store in one of the largest antitrust proceedings in Silicon Valley history. Epic Games, the maker of the popular game Fortnite, sued Apple last year for allowing apps to avoid the 30 percent commission the iPhone maker takes on many app sales.

On Monday, the trial, which included esoteric definitions of markets as well as strange video game characters, ended with Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California urging companies to see what, if anything, should change in Apple’s business. The decision on the case as well as the future of the $ 100 billion market for iPhone apps is now in their hands. Judge Gonzalez Rogers said she hoped to reach a verdict by mid-August.

Yet even at a time of antitrust control over the world’s largest tech companies, the trial showed the difficulty of acquiring a corporate titan like Apple worth $ 2.1 trillion.

Epic spared little expense to sue Apple. The Cary, NC-based game maker sacrificed a valuable product when Apple ripped the Fortnite iPhone app from the App Store, which had sales of more than $ 1 billion. Epic also spent millions of dollars on lawyers, economists, and subject matter experts. Still, the trial started at a downside, as antitrust laws tended to favor defendants, according to legal experts prosecuting the case.

While Judge Gonzalez Rogers signaled openness to Epic’s arguments during the trial, a decision in favor of the video game maker could not lead to significant changes in the mobile app market. Any judgment is likely to be involved in appeal proceedings for years. At this point in time, rapid change in the technology industry could invalidate its impact.

“To start a credible antitrust campaign, you have to have a significant war chest,” said David Kesselman, a Los Angeles antitrust attorney who has prosecuted the case. “And the problem for a lot of smaller businesses and smaller businesses is that they don’t have the resources to fight that kind of battle.”

The case centered on how Apple exercises control over the iPhone App Store to calculate its commission on app sales. Businesses big and small have argued that the fee shows Apple is abusing its dominance, while Apple responded that the cut in sales is helping to fund efforts to keep iPhones safe. Regulators and lawmakers have looked into the issue and made it the center of antitrust complaints against the company.

Epic’s lawsuit was the biggest test of those claims yet – and the best shot for app developers looking to weaken Apple’s influence on the iPhone app market. Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic and a longtime opponent of large technology companies, said he is fighting “for open platforms and policy changes that benefit all developers equally”.

Throughout the process, lawyers, investors, and journalists analyzed Judge Gonzalez Rogers’ comments and questions for clues as to their thinking. When Epic brought its witnesses to the booth, they appeared to agree with Apple’s arguments in some places. But the perspective of their questions changed when Apple presented its witnesses, including Mr. Cook, last week.

In a sharp back-and-forth with the Apple CEO on Friday, Judge Gonzalez Rogers told Mr. Cook that it was clear that his company had made changes to the App Store fees due to public pressure. She then asked him why Apple didn’t want to give iPhone users more choices about where to buy apps. In response, Mr. Cook effectively admitted that Apple wanted to maximize its profits.

On Monday, Judge Gonzalez Rogers’ comments indicated that she believed Apple deserved to benefit from its innovations. But she also questioned some possibilities.

“The 30 percent figure has been around since it was founded. And if there was real competition, that number would move. And it didn’t, ”she said of Apple’s commission for the sale of apps. She also said it was anti-competitive for Apple to prohibit companies from telling customers that they could buy items outside of iPhone apps.

At other times on Monday, she seemed reluctant to force Apple to change its business. “Courts don’t do business,” she said.

Judge Gonzalez Rogers also suggested that the outcome requested by Epic in the case would require a substantial change in Apple’s business, questioning whether there is a precedent for that. “Can you give me an example that survived the appeals test when the court so restricted or fundamentally changed the economic model of a monopoly company?” she asked Epic’s lawyers.

The judge has announced that she expects her decision to be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. If so, a three-person jury in this court could review their decision. Apple or Epic could then try to appeal this ruling to the US Supreme Court.

If Judge Gonzalez Rogers stands up for Epic, Apple will most likely try to prevent her decision from taking effect until the appeals court weighs it up, and she would likely be open to that request, antitrust attorney Kesselman said. Courts are generally reluctant to force changes to companies that could then be overturned on appeal, so changes to the App Store could take years.

A win for Epic would still be a boost to the broader cartel war against Apple. The Justice Department is investigating Apple’s control of its app store, and some federal lawmakers have stated that app stores are monopoly and ripe for law enforcement. Apple is also facing two other federal lawsuits over its app fees – one from consumers and one from developers – both of which are seeking class action lawsuit status. Judge Gonzalez Rogers will also hear these cases.

Likewise, a win for Apple could undo these challenges. Regulators could be cautious about pursuing a case against Apple that has already been dismissed by a federal judge.

Judge Gonzalez Rogers can also make a decision that doesn’t make any company happy. While Epic wants to be able to host its own app store on iPhones, and Apple wants to continue to work as it has for years, they could order minor changes.

Former President Barack Obama appointed Judge Gonzalez Rogers, 56, to the federal court in 2011. Given her base in Oakland, her cases have often been tech-related, and she has overseen at least two cases in the past with Apple. In both cases, Apple won.

She closed the process on Monday with thanks to the lawyers and court officials who mainly used masks and face shields during the trial. Months ago, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, it was unclear whether the trial could be held in person, but Judge Gonzalez Rogers ruled that it was a sufficiently important case and ordered special rules to minimize health risks, including limiting it the number of people in court.

Epic chose to involve its managing director through an additional attorney, and Mr. Sweeney spent the trial in the courtroom, watching him from his attorneys’ table. Mr Sweeney, who is usually productive on Twitter, has not made any public comments in the past three weeks. On Monday, he broke his silence by thanking the Popeyes fried chicken restaurant next to the courthouse.

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Business

In Antitrust Trial, Tim Cook dinner Argues Apple Doesn’t Harm App Makers

In Antitrust Trial, Tim Cook Argues Apple Doesn’t Hurt App Makers

Tim Cook, who testified on Friday in a lawsuit that could undermine Apple’s efforts to stave off growing control of its power, defended his company on allegations that it harmed app makers looking to increase their profits.

Mr. Cook, who took the stand for the first time as CEO of Apple, answered friendly questions from an Apple attorney and faced targeted questions from both an opposing attorney and the federal judge who will rule the case.

The results of the study could maintain or improve Apple’s dominance in the $ 100 billion app market. Epic Games, creator of the popular game Fortnite, is suing Apple, claiming the iPhone maker created a monopoly on its App Store and is using that power to take an unfair cut from other companies that rely on the App Store to Reach customers.

An epic win would enliven a growing cartel war against Apple. Federal and state regulators are scrutinizing Apple’s control over the App Store, and the European Union recently accused Apple of violating antitrust laws over its app rules and fees. Apple is facing two more federal lawsuits over its App Store fees – one from developers and one from iPhone owners – that are seeking class action lawsuit status.

Mr. Cook’s testimony came towards the end of a three-week lawsuit in federal court in Oakland, Calif., Dealing with the performance Apple gets from its App Store and 30 percent commission on the sale of most digital goods and subscriptions.

He entered the courthouse on Friday morning from an underground parking garage rather than the main entrance, which enabled him to avoid photographers gathering in front of the building. At around 7:30 am, journalists noticed he was going through security checks and shouted questions. Mr. Cook, wearing a dark gray suit, white shirt, and gray tie, held up his hand in a peace sign.

For over an hour, an Apple attorney led Mr. Cook through complaints against Apple, allowing him to explain why Apple did business in certain ways – and why it did no harm to app developers.

Mr Cook testified that Apple faced stiff competition and said commissions Apple collected from app developers helped fund better security in the App Store. “There’s a conflict between what the developer wants and what the consumer wants,” he said. He added that Apple has cut app store fees for many developers who are much smaller than Epic.

In a cross-examination, an epic attorney targeted Mr Cook’s credibility and asked why Mr Cook said he was unaware of some of the details of Apple’s business, including the App Store profit margins, which an outside expert testified on behalf of Epic said , could be up to 80 percent.

Mr. Cook said that was wrong. He said the App Store was profitable, but Apple hadn’t tried to pinpoint exactly how profitable it was, partly because it would be difficult to structure Apple’s costs.

Epic’s attorney denied this claim, showing internal Apple documents from Mr. Cook showing that the company could calculate the profitability of the App Store. Mr. Cook countered that the documents showed incomplete figures.

Epic’s attorney then moved on to an issue affecting the lawsuit, but it seemed to illustrate Apple’s hypocrisy: The way the company operates in China undermines Apple’s public enthusiasm for consumer privacy. The New York Times reported this week that Apple had compromised its Chinese users’ data and supported the Chinese government’s censorship by proactively removing apps.

While Mr Cook said Apple must obey laws in China, Epic’s attorney noted that other companies dissatisfied with Chinese policies had left the country. “I don’t know anyone in the smartphone business who doesn’t sell to China,” replied Cook.

The most worrying moment for Mr. Cook and Apple was the end of his testimony when Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the US District Court for the Northern District of California participated in Mr. Cook’s questioning.

Throughout the trial, Judge Gonzalez Rogers posed specific questions to Apple and Epic witnesses, and her back and forth with Mr. Cook on Friday resulted in a particularly intense scrutiny of Apple’s arguments. Why couldn’t Apple allow iPhone owners to have more options to buy apps, she asked, especially if that meant lower prices for consumers?

“If you let people leak like this, we would essentially be giving up our total return on our intellectual property,” replied Mr. Cook.

The judge asked if Apple’s decision last year to reduce commission on app sales for developers making less than $ 1 million a year was aimed at distracting the review of Apple’s App Store policies. Mr Cook admitted that testing was a factor, but added that Apple primarily wanted to help small developers who were hit by a weak economy during the coronavirus pandemic.

Judge Gonzalez Rogers then launched a poll that found 39 percent of app developers were dissatisfied with Apple’s management of the App Store. “It doesn’t seem to me that you are again feeling any real pressure or competition to actually change the way you act to address developer concerns,” she said.

The judge’s biggest challenge in ruling the case may be to define the market that Epic and Apple are contending over.

Epic lawyers have argued that these are iPhone apps and that a game maker needs to walk through Apple’s “walled garden” to reach the more than one billion people who use the devices. This stifles innovation, Epic claims, and allows Apple to enforce strict rules and harm app developers by charging excessive fees. The company wants to host its own digital storefront within Apple.

Mr Cook said on Friday that “I am not a gamer,” but he argued that Epic distributes its games in a number of ways, including web browsers, game consoles and personal computers. Many of these platforms charge a commission similar to that of the App Store. If gaming is the market, Apple has argued, then there are a lot of competitors – like Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo – and Apple cannot have a monopoly.

Judge Gonzalez Rogers expressed frustration with the market semantics. “One side will say it’s black, the other say it’s white – usually it’s somewhere in the gray,” she said last week.

At the beginning of the study, Trystan Kosmynka, Apple’s senior director, testified that the company rejected 40 percent of all app submissions in 2020. Apple cannot effectively monitor which apps get onto iPhones when Epic has its own app store. Said Kosmynka.

Epic responded with a flurry of internal Apple emails showing times when malicious apps got past Mr. Kosmynka’s team. An app released during the summer protests against Black Lives Matter was a game that allowed users to shoot cannons at protesters.

Apple tried to show why allowing an app store on an app store can be problematic. Lawyers criticized Epic’s digital business for not keeping controls tight enough, saying companies managed to use it to sell games they described as “offensive and sexualized.”

In an attempt to tie Epic to inappropriate content, Richard Doren, an Apple attorney, brought up Peely, a comic banana in Fortnite who is sometimes wearing a tuxedo and sometimes naked. Mr Doren implied that it would have been inappropriate to show Peely in federal court without a tuxedo. Matthew Weissinger, Vice President Marketing at Epic, made it clear that Peely, naked or suitable, wasn’t scandalous.

“It’s just a banana man,” he said.

The battle between the companies began in August when Epic broke Apple’s rules by bypassing Apple’s payment system in the Fortnite app. Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store, and Epic immediately sued the company and launched an advertising campaign around the suit.

On the first day of the trial, Epic’s chief executive Tim Sweeney testified that his company filed a lawsuit because he wanted to show the world the consequences of Apple’s policies. Judge Gonzalez Rogers cut him off and asked if Mr. Sweeney knew of another developer lawsuit against Apple.

Mr. Sweeney said he did.

“And you just ignored that and went alone,” replied the judge.

The trial will complete on Monday, but Judge Gonzalez Rogers said a decision would likely take months. “Hopefully before August 13th,” she said. She also said her decision would likely be challenged, meaning the process could only be the first chapter of a lengthy battle.

Categories
Business

Epic trial reveals Apple negotiations with Netflix, Fb, Microsoft

Epic trial reveals Apple negotiations with Netflix, Facebook, Microsoft

Apple und Epic Games stehen sich seit Jahren in einem der am genauesten beobachteten Kartellverfahren in der Technologiebranche gegenüber.

Epic Games hat diese Woche seinen Fall vorgestellt, und Apple wird seinen Fall in den kommenden Wochen vorstellen. Schließlich wird Richterin Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers eine Entscheidung treffen, ob Apple Epic erlauben muss, einen eigenen App Store auf iPhones zu installieren und die 30% App Store-Gebühr von Apple zu umgehen.

Als Teil von Epics Argument, dass Apples App Store wettbewerbswidrig ist, hat die Studie viele interne Apple-Überlegungen zu Verhandlungen ergeben – Gerichtsausstellungen, einschließlich E-Mail-Threads füllen Dokumente im Wert von 60 Ordnern – mit einigen seiner wichtigsten Partner.

Die Dokumente zeichnen ein Porträt eines Unternehmens, das sich seiner umsatzstärksten und wichtigsten Apps sehr bewusst ist und regelmäßig Verhandlungen mit Unternehmen wie Netflix, Microsoft, Facebook und sogar Epic Games selbst führt, deren Fortnite-Spiel eine der Top-Apps bei Apple war Appstore.

Während die E-Mails nicht zeigen, dass das App Store-Team Kompromisse bei den Apple-Regeln bezüglich der zulässigen Inhalte im Store eingeht, haben sie andere Zugeständnisse gemacht, darunter die Platzierung auf der Titelseite im App Store, Koordination und Werbung durch Apple-Produkteinführungen sowie Zugriff auf exklusive Programme Funktionen und Versuche, leitende Angestellte einzuschleifen, um Kompromisse zu finden.

Apple hat Netflix Kompromisse angeboten

Im Februar 2018 traf sich ein Apple-Manager mit Mitarbeitern von Netflix und schrieb anschließend eine E-Mail an seine Kollegen, in der er das Meeting zusammenfasste.

Er schrieb, dass der Video-Streamer besorgt über die “freiwillige Abwanderung” oder die Anzahl der Netflix-Abonnenten war, die über Apple zahlten und beschlossen, das Abonnement einzustellen. Infolgedessen wollte Netflix in einigen kleinen Märkten einen Test durchführen, um zu sehen, was passieren würde, wenn keine In-App-Käufe mehr akzeptiert würden, von denen Apple eine Kürzung um 15% bis 30% vornimmt.

Der Apple-Manager schrieb, dass der geplante Test von Netflix Fragen für Apple aufwirft, einschließlich der Frage, ob “Strafmaßnahmen” ergriffen werden sollen, z. B. die Einstellung der Werbung für Netflix im App Store oder die Eskalation von Bedenken gegenüber Netflix-Führungskräften.

Die E-Mail löste bei Apple-Managern ein Durcheinander aus. Zu dieser Zeit gehörte Netflix zu den erfolgreichsten Apps im App Store von Apple.

Pete Distad, ein Apple-Vizepräsident, der sich auf das Streaming-Geschäft von Apple konzentrierte, entsandte Mitarbeiter, um mit seinem früheren Arbeitgeber Hulu über ähnliche Themen zu sprechen. Ein Apple-Mitarbeiter sagte, dass Eddy Cue, Apples Chef für Onlinedienste, mit Reed Hastings, CEO von Netflix, sprechen wollte.

In den nächsten zwei Monaten trafen sich Apple-Mitarbeiter mit Netflix, um über den Test zu sprechen, und aktualisierten ihre Vorgesetzten über die Pläne von Netflix, als Apple laut E-Mails versuchte, ein Executive Meeting zu planen.

Bis Juli 2018 hatten Apple-Mitarbeiter eine Präsentation zum Netflix-Problem erstellt. Das Dia-Deck enthielt “Pie in the Sky-Ideen”, die nicht genehmigt worden waren, warnte ein Apple-Mitarbeiter.

Auf dem Dia-Deck stand, dass Apple Netflix bereits “benutzerdefinierte APIs” oder nicht öffentliche Software angeboten hatte, mit denen es Systeme erstellen konnte, mit denen Apple-Abonnements geändert, kostenlose Testversionen durchgeführt oder Daten für die automatische Verlängerung verlängert werden konnten. Es würde auch Funktionen erstellen, die direkt auf Netflix-Anforderungen basieren.

Es wurde auch auf die Leistungsfähigkeit von Apples App Store-Inhalten hingewiesen, die Downloads fördern können. Es führte seine eigenen Tests durch und stellte fest, dass die Download-Conversions bei der Werbung für Netflix in seiner App Store-App um 6% bis 7% zunahmen. Netflix erhielt mehr App Store-Placements als jeder andere Partner und erzielte 330.000 Downloads oder eine Conversion von 2% Bewertung. Apple berechnet keine Gebühren für “redaktionelle” Platzierungen von App Store-Inhalten.

Schließlich schlug das Dia-Deck vor, dass Apple seine Partnerschaft mit Netflix vertiefen könnte, einschließlich der Verwendung der von Apple gesammelten Netflix-Provision, um App Store-Suchanzeigen zu kaufen, um Downloads zu fördern oder Netflix zusammen mit Apple-Diensten zu bündeln. Eine andere Möglichkeit bestand darin, Netflix “Vorteile für Videopartnerprogramme” anzubieten, was einem Vertrag ähnelt, den Apple mit Amazon Prime Video abgeschlossen hat, mit dem Kunden direkt belastet werden können.

Trotz der offensichtlichen Bemühungen von Apple hat Netflix im Dezember 2018 neue Abonnements über Apple eingestellt, um die Kürzung von In-App-Käufen durch Apple zu umgehen. Die Netflix iPhone-App öffnet derzeit die Meldung: “Sie können sich in der App nicht für Netflix anmelden. Wir wissen, dass dies problematisch ist.”

Facebook und Apple hatten eine Geschichte von Konflikten

Facebook hatte einen langen Konflikt mit Apple wegen seines Wunsches, soziale Spiele in seine Apps aufzunehmen, was im Widerspruch zu den Apple-Regeln für das Vorhandensein von Sammlungen von Apps oder Software in Apps steht. Im vergangenen Jahr hat Facebook seine Kritik verstärkt und erklärt, dass Apple seine Kontrolle über seine Plattform nutzt, um Entwicklern und Verbrauchern Schaden zuzufügen.

In einem E-Mail-Austausch von 2011, der im Rahmen der Testversion in einem Dokumenten-Repository veröffentlicht und anschließend entfernt wurde, diskutierten Apple-Führungskräfte, darunter der frühere CEO Steve Jobs, einen Kompromiss in Bezug auf Spiele in der Facebook-iPad-App, nachdem der frühere Software-Chef Scott Forstall mit dem Facebook-CEO Mark Zuckerberg gesprochen hatte.

Die Dokumente enthalten nicht die Bedingungen des Kompromisses. Als die Facebook iPad-App im Jahr 2011 herauskam, enthielt sie webbasierte Spiele wie Farmville, mit denen Apples Regel gegen App Stores im App Store verstoßen wurde. IPhone- und iPad-Nutzer konnten jedoch nicht mit der Spielewährung Credits von Facebook bezahlen.

Interne Facebook-Beratungen, die im Rahmen der Epic Games-Studie veröffentlicht wurden, zeigen, wie sich diese Verhandlungen in den Jahren seitdem auf die Unternehmensbeziehungen ausgewirkt haben.

In einer E-Mail aus dem Jahr 2017, die als Teil von Gerichtsdokumenten eingereicht wurde, fügte ein Facebook-Mitarbeiter vor dem Treffen eines Facebook-Geschäftsführers mit Apple auf der jährlichen Geschäftskonferenz von Allen and Company in Sun Valley eine kurze Analyse hinzu.

Bis dahin wollte Facebook Klarheit oder Anleitung zur Entwicklung von “Sofortspielen” in seiner Facebook Messenger-App, die durch den Überprüfungsprozess von Apple verlangsamt wurde. Der Kompromiss von 2011 war jedoch immer noch groß.

“Ende 2016 genehmigte Apple Facebook, die Einführung von ‘Instant Games’ in Messenger und der FB Blue App voranzutreiben”, schrieb der Facebook-Mitarbeiter. “”[Former Apple marketing chief] Phil Schiller zog eine E-Mail aus dem Jahr 2011 heraus, in der an eine Vereinbarung erinnert wurde, die wir getroffen haben, damit FB HMTL5-Spiele streamen kann, solange wir keinen App Store erstellen oder In-App-Zahlungen tätigen. “

Das Ergebnis des Sun Valley-Treffens ist aus Gerichtsdokumenten nicht ersichtlich, aber bis 2020 kämpfte Facebook erneut mit dem Überprüfungsprozess von Apple um eine eigenständige Gaming-App. Nach einer Ablehnung von Apple im März 2020 beschrieb ein Facebook-Mitarbeiter in E-Mails Frustration über den Prozess und sagte, dass es “eine Überraschung ist, da FB Gaming keine eindeutige Funktionalität enthält, die noch nicht auf der Registerkarte” Spiele “in der Facebook-App genehmigt wurde . “

Laut den E-Mails musste Facebook den gleichen Berufungsprozess wie jeder andere Entwickler durchlaufen, einschließlich der Berufung an eine Apple-Stelle namens App Review Board. Der Social-Media-Riese konnte jedoch Anrufe mit Trystan Kosmynka und Bill Havlicek, den Leitern der Apple-Überprüfungsgruppe, und später mit Ron Okamoto, dem für die Gruppe zuständigen Vizepräsidenten, planen, bevor er dieses Jahr in den Ruhestand ging.

Als Facebook Gaming Ende 2020 veröffentlicht wurde, war klar, dass Facebook und Apple keinen Kompromiss finden konnten.

“Leider mussten wir die Gameplay-Funktionen vollständig entfernen, um die Genehmigung von Apple für die eigenständige Facebook-Gaming-App zu erhalten. Dies bedeutet, dass iOS-Benutzer eine schlechtere Erfahrung als Android-Benutzer haben”, sagte Sheryl Sandberg, COO von Facebook, in einer damaligen Erklärung.

Microsoft verhandelte 2012 über Office für iPad

Ein E-Mail-Thread aus dem Jahr 2012 zeigt, dass Top-Führungskräfte von Apple, darunter Schiller und Cue, über den bevorstehenden Start von Microsoft Office für iPhones und iPads durch Microsoft informiert wurden.

Okamoto, der zu dieser Zeit Apple VP war und sich auf Entwicklerbeziehungen konzentrierte, traf sich mit Microsoft. In seiner E-Mail an seine Chefs heißt es, Apple wolle wissen, ob Microsoft an der jährlichen Entwicklerkonferenz WWDC teilnehmen könne. (Microsoft lehnte ab und sagte, es sei noch nicht bereit, über seine Pläne zu sprechen.)

Microsoft hatte zwei Anfragen. Zunächst wollte Apple, dass Benutzer für In-App-Käufe auf die Microsoft-Website umgeleitet werden. Microsoft würde die Zahlung abwickeln und die 30% ige Gebühr von Apple für In-App-Käufe umgehen.

Zweitens wollten sie, dass Schiller und Cue sich mit Microsoft-Kollegen treffen, insbesondere mit Kirk Koenigsbauer, der derzeit Senior Vice President von Microsoft ist.

Schiller stimmte dem Treffen zu, goss aber in einer E-Mail kaltes Wasser auf den Zahlungsvorschlag von Microsoft. “Wir führen den Laden, wir sammeln die Einnahmen.”

Microsoft veröffentlichte Office erst 2014 für das iPad, nachdem Satya Nadella Steve Ballmer als CEO des Unternehmens übernommen hatte.

Epische Spiele und Marshmello

Bevor Apple Epics Shooter-Spiel Fortnite aus dem App Store entfernte, war es eine der erfolgreichsten Apps im Store, und Mitarbeiter beider Unternehmen arbeiteten daran, Cross-Promotion-Deals zu besiegeln, wie Gerichtsakten belegen.

Epic lieferte Demos bei Apple-Startveranstaltungen, in denen neue Technologien, Zitate zu Apple-Spielefunktionen und Heads-up zu den großen Veranstaltungen und Werbeaktionen in Fortnite vorgestellt wurden.

Im Gegenzug wurde Epic Games über den Apple App Store sowie über andere Apple Media-Eigenschaften wie Apple Music für Fortnite beworben. Es nutzte auch seine Beziehung zu Apple-Mitarbeitern, um eine Fortnite-Abzocke aus dem App Store zu starten.

Eine E-Mail von Epic Games 2019 enthält Mitarbeiter, die über ein Konzert 2019 im Fortnite-Spiel mit Marshmello, einem DJ, sprechen.

Apple wollte eine Partnerschaft eingehen – aber erst nachdem sichergestellt wurde, dass Marshmellos Mix keine Schimpfwörter enthält -, heißt es in den E-Mails und enthielt einen Vorschlag für eine Cross-Promotion mit Apples Marke Apple Music, einschließlich Werbetafeln in New York und Los Angeles, digitaler Werbung und Posts von Apples Social-Media-Konten.

Apple benötigte die Erlaubnis, den Namen Fortnite in seinen Apple Music-Wiedergabelisten und -Anzeigen zu verwenden, aber die Mitarbeiter von Epic waffelten. Man befürchtete, Apple würde nach Epic “kooptieren und zeichnen”.

Ein anderer Mitarbeiter wies auf die Vorteile von Epic Games hin, darunter, dass das Unternehmen wollte, dass Apple künftige Fortnite-Events sponsert, und dass sie eine große Chance für das Wachstum des Spiels bei den iPhone-Spielern sahen.

“Apple-Werbespots sind immer geschmackvoll und cool”, schrieb ein Mitarbeiter von Epic. “Sie würden damit nichts anfangen.”

Apple schien besonders daran interessiert zu sein, dass Epic Games ARKit unterstützt, eine Software für iPhones, die ihre 3D-Sensorhardware verwendet, um die reale Welt und Computergrafiken zu integrieren.

In epischen E-Mails aus dem Jahr 2017 wurde ein Treffen mit Apple besprochen, um die Gesichtsverfolgung des iPhones zu integrieren und animierte Charaktere zu erstellen.

Die Partnerschaft zwischen den beiden Unternehmen wurde bis 2020 verlängert. Kurz nachdem Apple ein High-End-iPad-Modell mit einem neuen 3D-Scanner herausgebracht hatte, bot ein Apple-Mitarbeiter Epic Games ein Treffen mit dem ARKit-Team von Apple an, das die Software dafür herstellte, und ließ später die Möglichkeit aufkommen Förderung auf seiner jährlichen Entwicklerkonferenz.

Im Jahr 2018, nachdem Fortnite veröffentlicht worden war und an Dynamik gewonnen hatte, antwortete Epic Games-Mitbegründer Mark Rein auf eine E-Mail und fragte: “[I]Können wir irgendetwas tun, damit Apple in erheblichem Maße hinter uns bleibt? “

Rein sagte, er habe bereits ein Treffen mit Apple im Februar geplant und Apple sei “SEHR” daran interessiert, die Smartphone-Version von Fortnite zu sehen.

Apple hatte Fortnite seit 2015 beworben, als auf der WWDC-Konferenz von Apple eine frühe Version des Spiels auf der Bühne auf einem Mac demonstriert wurde.

Die Beziehung zwischen den beiden Unternehmen bedeutete jedoch nicht, dass die Verhandlungen jemals das Niveau von Apple-CEO Tim Cook erreichten. Im Jahr 2015, Wochen nach der Präsentation von Epic Games auf einer Apple-Veranstaltung, schickte Tim Sweeney, CEO von Epic Games, eine E-Mail an Cook, in der er sich über die Regeln des App Store beschwerte.

Cook fragte seine Leutnants: “Ist das der Typ, der bei einer unserer Proben war?”

Categories
Health

They Have Alzheimer’s. This Scientific Trial Might Be a Final Hope.

They Have Alzheimer’s. This Clinical Trial May Be a Last Hope.

A few years ago, 73-year-old Michael Gross of Mahwah, New Jersey began to realize that something was wrong. “I was confused about words,” he said, “and it just got worse.”

But Mr Gross, the retired head of an advertising agency, was surprised when a doctor suggested a spinal tap to look for proteins that are a sign of Alzheimer’s. He couldn’t have this disease, thought Mr. Gross.

“I said, ‘No way, not me,” he said.

But he did.

He was crying, he was desperate.

Then he asked: What could he do about it?

He switched to the Mediterranean diet. He started exercising. He started doing crossword puzzles and signed up for a challenging brain training session. He found a study on mice that claimed a bright light on their heads helped with Alzheimer’s. He bought the light.

The disease continued. Now he cannot remember the details of a message while reading it.

Mr. Gross, a lifelong Yankees fan, was annoyed the day he forgot the name of the team’s former manager, Casey Stengel, and determined to remember it.

“Every day I wake up and say ‘Casey Stengel, Casey Stengel’,” he says.

Then he forgot the word “sardines”, a staple of his Mediterranean diet. “For a week I said to myself: ‘Sardines, sardines’,” said Mr Gross.

But what he really wanted was treatment strong enough to stop Alzheimer’s disease.

Mr. Gross saw an ad on Facebook for Lilly’s clinical trial. He came for a test that Friday morning to see if he was eligible. It consisted of a brain scan for a protein, tau, found in dead and dying brain neurons. If it had too little dew, it would not be eligible.