Victoria Song, writing for The Verge:

The DOJ also notes that Apple limits third-party messaging apps like WhatsApp, Signal, and Facebook Messenger in comparison to iMessage. For example, you have to dive into permissions to let these apps operate in the background or access the iPhone’s camera for video calls. They also can’t incorporate SMS, meaning you have to convince friends to download the same apps if you want to use them. iMessage, however, does all this natively.

And while Apple recently agreed to support RCS to make cross-platform messaging better, the DOJ isn’t buying it. It notes that Apple not only hasn’t adopted it yet but that third-party apps would still be “prohibited from incorporating RCS just as they are prohibited from incorporating SMS.” The DOJ also takes issue with the fact that Apple only agreed to adopt a 2019 version of RCS. Unless Apple agrees to support future versions, it argues “RCS could soon be broken on iPhones anyway.”

Did the Justice Department find the most technology-illiterate, incompetent, stupid lawyers in the United States to file this lawsuit against the world’s largest corporation? “For example, you have to dive into permissions” to “access the iPhone’s camera for video calls.” I trust Song’s reporting — I know she isn’t editorializing here and this is purely how the Justice Department’s lawsuit is written. This is such a ridiculous argument — so ridiculous that I truly don’t even know where to begin to refute it.

Requiring permissions, in the words of the Justice Department, is “abusing monopoly power?” It is one dialog box that a user is faced with once to protect their privacy. It does not result in a single penny for Apple, no matter what the user selects. If the Justice Department aims to remove permission prompts — prompts that I have not heard a single American ever complain about — it is an absolute disgrace to this country.

And the Justice Department, for some reason, “isn’t buying” Apple’s adoption of Rich Communication Services because it has opted to adopt a 2019 version. That is just incorrect — the last published version of the standard by the body that controls it was published in 2019. The “latest” version, according to the Justice Department, is the one Google published. And Google participates in the duopoly. What is the Justice Department’s goal here, to push Apple to adopt Google’s standards just to sue Google for the same thing? It’s technology illiteracy at its finest.

Song continues:

While the Apple Watch can maintain a connection if a user accidentally turns off Bluetooth on the iPhone, third-party watches can’t. As with third-party messaging apps, users have to dive into separate permissions to turn on background app refresh and turn off low power mode if they want the most stable and consistent Bluetooth connection. This impacts passive updates, like weather or exercise tracking.

Does Google allow Wear OS smartwatches to connect with iOS devices in the first place? Continuing:

With digital wallets, the DOJ’s beef with Apple is that the company blocks financial institutions from accessing NFC hardware within the iPhone. (Though, Apple will begin allowing access in much of Europe because of new regulations in the EU.) That, in turn, limits them from providing tap-to-pay capabilities and, again, funnels iPhone users into Apple Pay and Apple Wallet.

Doing so means banks also have to pay 0.15 percent for each credit card transaction done through Apple Pay. Conversely, it’s free for banks using Samsung or Google’s payment apps. The result is that Apple got nearly $200 billion in US transactions in 2022, according to a US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau report. The same agency estimates that digital wallet tap-to-pay transactions will increase by over 150 percent by 2028.

Apple is not the Mint; it has no obligation to let anyone use its technology to make near-field communication payments. It does not funnel “iPhone users into Apple Pay and Apple Wallet” because these users can continue to pay for things with regular currency. Using Apple Pay is a feature — a selling point — of the iPhone. Apparently selling products with features is against the law according to this brain-dead Justice Department. President Biden should fire Attorney General Merrick Garland, a failure of an attorney general who hasn’t even been able to prosecute a rapist for stealing confidential government secrets, then lying to the government about those secrets.