Apple's appeal for an emergency hold on app fees denied by court
Earlier this year, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Apple violated her 2021 ruling on Epic's lawsuit against Apple. The judge originally ordered Apple to allow developers to direct users to other payment systems that would let them bypass the App Store's usual 30 percent commission fee. However, Apple still took up to a 27 percent cut for external purchases while showing users a "scare screen" warning that paying they'd lost the company's protection if paying outside the app store.
As part of the ruling, Gonzalez Rogers ordered Apple to stop collecting fees for external payments in the US immediately. She also prohibited Apple from creating rules that would prevent developers from presenting customers with buttons and links for external payments. Apple complied with the order but immediately filed an appeal for an emergency hold on the ruling so it could resume collecting fees on external app purchases — and that appeal has now been denied.
"The long national nightmare of the Apple tax is ended," Epic CEO Tim Sweeny wrote on X in response to the ruling. "May next week's WWDC be the Apple-led celebration of freedom that developers and users have long deserved." Apple has yet to comment on the matter.
Other companies with a large presence on iOS like Amazon and Spotify have already moved quickly to establish external payment methods for their apps. Epic itself resubmitted Fortnite to the App Store but was denied, calling Apple's actions "blatant retaliation." However on May 20th, Fortnite finally returned to the App Store in the US.
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Forbes
11 minutes ago
- Forbes
How ‘Vibe Coding' Is Creating A New AI Economy
In early January, 18‑year‑old Justin Jin launched Giggles — an AI-powered social entertainment app that's reportedly attracted over 120,000 waitlist sign-ups and generated 150 million impressions — all without a venture capital war chest, a marketing budget, or a traditional engineering team. Instead, he and his team of young co-founders leveraged AI to build an app for Gen Alpha and Gen Z, where users interact through AI-generated content, digital collectibles and gamified social engagements. A few weeks later, another startup arrived on the scene — Base44, founded by a non-technical creator who used AI to 'vibe code' a no-code development platform. Within six months and under ten people, it reached profitability, pulled in 300,000 users and sold to Wix for $80 million in cash, according to TechCrunch. Suddenly, a new archetype emerged: Companies not founded on traditional engineering teams, but shaped by creativity, culture and AI orchestration. This is the story of the moment. AI is redefining entrepreneurship, allowing people with a vision and cultural understanding — but not necessarily computer-science degrees — to ship platform-level products. But questions are mounting: Can this new model of entrepreneurship scale beyond prototype success without deeper engineering muscle? The Rise Of Vibe Coding Two years ago, the phrase 'vibe coding' barely existed. Today, it's everywhere. The term — coined by Andrej Karpathy, former AI lead at Tesla and cofounder of OpenAI — describes writing with AI by simply speaking ideas. 'You fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials and forget that the code even exists,' Karpathy tweeted in February. It's shorthand for a new era, where programming is done through a natural language like English. According to Garry Tan, CEO of Y Combinator, many startups now use AI to generate up to 95% of their codebase — achieving results that once required teams of 50 to 100 engineers with fewer than ten people. Meanwhile, in a recent article for Business Insider, Alistair Barr highlighted how 'non‑traditional, AI‑native developers' are turning natural language into apps, fundamentally altering SaaS economics. This shift is democratizing entrepreneurship. Product managers, artists, even high-schoolers can now ship products faster than ever before, all without technical expertise. But it also comes with some problems. As Nigel Douglas, head of developer relations at Cloudsmith, cautioned in the Financial Times, 'If you're creating an app in your spare time, a 'DIY disaster' might just mean an ugly interface. But in a business setting, the wrong tool can do real damage and result in data breaches, service outages, or a compromised software supply chain.' GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke echoed this warning at the just-concluded VivaTech in Paris: 'A non‑technical founder will find it difficult to build a startup at scale without developers,' adding that tools like vibe coding don't provide the depth needed to justify serious investment. Even AI-native founders acknowledge the model's limitations. 'There's a need to build technical depth. We know that's important and are expanding engineering operations and bringing on advisors,' said Edwin Wang, co-founder of Giggles. 'The future, however, must be a community-governed and decentralized future where there's a balance between creativity and coding.' When Creativity Replaces Code: The Giggles Test Case Giggles is a microcosm of this transformation. Jin, alongside co-founders Edwin Wang and music artist Matthew Hershoff, built a system where users are rewarded for digital expression through game-like interactions — including AI-generated videos, collectible content, and daily quests. The result was a storytelling-centric platform developed without a traditional coding team — a structure that reflects the emerging blueprint behind many Gen Z–led apps. Jin previously founded Mediababy, which sold for $3.8 million, according to Reuters. That experience, he said, shaped his belief that platforms thrive when they prioritize user expression and fluid engagement over rigid structure. At Giggles, that belief translated into a product anchored in prompt-driven creativity, gamified feedback loops, and community-led interaction. As Wang noted, the company positions itself not just as an alternative to TikTok, but as a platform tailored for a generation it believes is increasingly disengaged from traditional social formats. And according to Hershoff, 'creators aren't limited to just posting photos and videos. They can vibe code a game, develop an app, create a whole virtual world and post it on Giggles.' Can AI-First Startups Scale? For all the momentum behind AI-native startups, there's a hard truth facing founders like Jin: culture can spark attention, but infrastructure sustains it. Platforms like Giggles, which thrive on virality and creator energy, eventually confront the same foundational question as any company with ambition. Can they scale securely, reliably, repeatedly and with technical discipline? At this stage, Giggles is less an anomaly and more a litmus test for how AI is transforming digital entrepreneurship. It's a living experiment in what happens when creativity, not technical expertise, drives product development. But to evolve from prompt-powered outfits into structured business ecosystems, these companies will need more than just vibes. They will need systems, safeguards and engineering depth. That's where founders must reckon with the limits of what vibe coding can achieve. Dohmke's warning at VivaTech isn't a dismissal of AI's potential, but a reminder of where the handoff happens. While AI can accelerate the zero-to-one moment, scaling responsibly requires the engineering rigor to turn a clever idea into a truly dependable platform. Jin and his team appear to recognize that. While Giggles was built without a traditional engineering stack, the company is now investing in its technical foundation. Wang, the platform's co-founder and lead developer, acknowledges that 'scaling creativity still requires coding discipline.' That doesn't diminish their AI-first origin; it refines it. The next test for Giggles — and others like it — isn't whether AI can launch a product. It's whether that product can become the infrastructure others depend on. A Hybrid Future For Founders What might the next decade yield? The trends point at a wave of hybrid founders: People with vivid creative vision and AI fluency who bring in veteran operators and engineers to solidify their product. That's the emerging blueprint: rapid prototyping, followed by structural discipline. Industry stalwart Reid Hoffman sees that promise, noting that 'bringing AI into your toolkit makes you enormously attractive.' But he and others caution that early AI advantage doesn't equal long-term lead. As AI-generated code gets better, so too must practices around testing, review, and security. In the end, the rise of vibe coding is real, but it's only half the story. Architecture, execution and human judgment are what matters most. While Giggles, Base44 and the rising 'AI-native' wave might be writing the prologue, the plot turns on whether these founders can turn vibe into real structure. 'In the end,' Jin told me, 'it's not just about who can build fast. It's about who can build something that lasts.'
an hour ago
All major Las Vegas Strip casinos are now unionized in historic labor victory
LAS VEGAS -- When Susana Pacheco accepted a housekeeping job at a casino on the Las Vegas Strip 16 years ago, she believed it was a step toward stability for her and her 2-year-old daughter. But the single mom found herself exhausted, falling behind on bills and without access to stable health insurance, caught in a cycle of low pay and little support. For years, she said, there was no safety net in sight — until now. For 25 years, her employer, the Venetian, had resisted organizing efforts as one of the last holdouts on the Strip, locked in a prolonged standoff with the Culinary Workers Union. But a recent change in ownership opened the Venetian's doors to union representation just as the Strip's newest casino, the Fontainebleau, was also inking its first labor contract. The historic deals finalized late last year mark a major turning point: For the first time in the Culinary Union's 90-year history, all major casinos on the Strip are unionized. Backed by 60,000 members, most of them in Las Vegas, it is the largest labor union in Nevada. Experts say the Culinary Union's success is a notable exception in a national landscape where union membership overall is declining. 'Together, we've shown that change can be a positive force, and I'm confident that this partnership will continue to benefit us all in the years to come," Patrick Nichols, president and CEO of the Venetian, said shortly after workers approved the deal. Pacheco says their new contract has already reshaped her day-to-day life. The housekeeper no longer races against the clock to clean an unmanageable number of hotel suites, and she's spending more quality time with her children because of the better pay and guaranteed days off. 'Now with the union, we have a voice,' Pacheco said. These gains come at a time when union membership nationally is at an all-time low, and despite Republican-led efforts over the years to curb union power. About 10% of U.S. workers belonged to a union in 2024, down from 20% in 1983, the first year for which data is available, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics. President Donald Trump in March signed an executive order seeking to end collective bargaining for certain federal employees that led to union leaders suing the administration. Nevada and more than two dozen other states now have so-called 'right to work' laws that let workers opt out of union membership and dues. GOP lawmakers have also supported changes to the National Labor Relations Board and other regulatory bodies, seeking to reduce what they view as overly burdensome rules on businesses. Ruben Garcia, professor and director of the workplace program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas law school, said the Culinary Union's resilience stems from its deep roots in Las Vegas, its ability to adapt to the growth and corporatization of the casino industry, and its long history of navigating complex power dynamics with casino owners and operators. He said the consolidation of casinos on the Las Vegas Strip mirrors the dominance of the Big Three automakers in Detroit. A few powerful companies — MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment and Wynn Resorts — now control most of the dozens of casinos along Las Vegas Boulevard. 'That consolidation can make things harder for workers in some ways, but it also gives unions one large target," Garcia said. That dynamic worked in the union's favor in 2023, when the threat of a major strike by 35,000 hospitality workers with expired contracts loomed over the Strip. But a last-minute deal with Caesars narrowly averted the walkout, and it triggered a domino effect across the Strip, with the union quickly finalizing similar deals for workers at MGM Resorts and Wynn properties. The latest contracts secured a historic 32% bump in pay over the life of the five-year contract. Union casino workers will earn an average $35 hourly, including benefits, by the end of it. The union's influence also extends far beyond the casino floor. With its ability to mobilize thousands of its members for canvassing and voter outreach, the union's endorsements are highly coveted, particularly among Democrats, and can signal who has the best shot at winning working-class votes. The union's path hasn't always been smooth though. Michael Green, a history professor at UNLV, noted the Culinary Union has long faced resistance. 'Historically, there have always been people who are anti-union,' Green said. Earlier this year, two food service workers in Las Vegas filed federal complaints with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing the union of deducting dues despite their objections to union membership. It varies at each casino, but between 95 to 98% of workers opt in to union membership, according to the union. 'I don't think Culinary Union bosses deserve my support,' said one of the workers, Renee Guerrero, who works at T-Mobile Arena on the Strip. 'Their actions since I attempted to exercise my right to stop dues payments only confirms my decision.' But longtime union members like Paul Anthony see things differently. Anthony, a food server at the Bellagio and a Culinary member for nearly 40 years, said his union benefits — free family health insurance, reliable pay raises, job security and a pension — helped him to build a lasting career in the hospitality industry. 'A lot of times it is an industry that doesn't have longevity," he said. But on the Strip, it's a job that people can do for '20 years, 30 years, 40 years.' Ted Pappageorge, the union's secretary-treasurer and lead negotiator, said the union calls this the 'Las Vegas dream.'
an hour ago
Asian markets are mixed after Wall St tumbles following poor US jobs report
BANGKOK -- Shares in Asia are mixed after Wall Street had its worst day since May following the release of weak U.S. jobs data. Markets in Asia had already reacted on Friday to U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement of sweeping tariffs on imports from many U.S. trading partners, posting moderate losses. The new import duties are set to take effect on Thursday. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index lost 1.6%, bouncing back from bigger losses, to 40,134.97. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong edged 0.2% higher, to 24,589.21, while the Shanghai Composite index was nearly unchanged at 3,562.18. In South Korea, the Kospi surged 0.7% to 3,140.92. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.2% to 8,643.00. Investors' worries about a weakening U.S. economy deepened after the latest report on job growth in the U.S. showed employers added just 73,000 jobs in July. That is sharply lower than economists expected. The Labor Department also reported that revisions shaved a stunning 258,000 jobs off May and June payrolls. 'The labor market, once a pillar of resilience, is now looking more like a late-cycle casualty, as soft data begin to replace soft landings in market discourse,' Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary. U.S. futures edged 0.3% higher, however, early Monday. On Friday, the S&P 500 fell 1.6%, its biggest decline since May 21 and its fourth straight loss. It closed at 6,238.01, posting a 2.4% loss for the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.2% to 43,588.58, while the Nasdaq composite fell 2.2% to finish at 20,650.13. Internet retail giant Amazon fell 8.3%, despite reporting encouraging profit and sales for its most recent quarter. Technology behemoth Apple fell 2.5% after also beating Wall Street's profit and revenue forecasts. Both companies face tougher operating conditions because of tariffs, with Apple forecasting a $1.1 billion hit from the fees in the current quarter. Trump's decision to order the immediate firing of the head of the government agency that produces the monthly jobs figures raised concern over whether there might be interference in future data. The surprisingly weak hiring numbers led investors to step up their expectations the Federal Reserve may cut interest rates in September. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.21% from 4.39% just before the hiring report was released. That's a big move for the bond market. The yield on the two-year Treasury, which more closely tracks expectations for Fed actions, plunged to 3.68% from 3.94% just prior to the report's release. The Fed has held rates steady since December. A cut in rates would give the job market and overall economy a boost, but it could also risk fueling inflation, which is hovering stubbornly above the central bank's 2% target. An update on Thursday for the Fed's preferred measure of inflation showed that prices ticked higher in June, rising to 2.6% from 2.4% in May. The Fed held rates steady again at its most recent meeting this week. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has been pressured by Trump to cut the benchmark rate, though that decision isn't his to make alone, but belongs to the 12 members of the Federal Open Market Committee. Businesses, investors and the Fed have been operating under a cloud of uncertainty from Trump's tariff policy. Companies have been warning investors that unpredictable policies, with some tariffs already in effect while others change or get extended, make it difficult to plan ahead. Walmart, Procter & Gamble and many others also have warned about import taxes raising costs, eating into profits and raising prices for consumers. In other dealings early Monday, U.S, benchmark crude oil lost 18 cents to $67.15 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 23 cents to $69.44 per barrel. The U.S. dollar rose to 147.80 Japanese yen from 147.26 yen. The euro weakened to $1.1577 from $1.1598.
