Meta thinks there's no reason to carry on with its defense after the Federal Trade Commission closed its monopoly case, and the company has moved to end the trial early by claiming that the FTC utterly failed to prove its case.

"The FTC has no proof that Meta has monopoly power," Meta's motion for judgment filed Thursday said, "and therefore the court should rule in favor of Meta."

According to Meta, the FTC failed to show evidence that "the overall quality of Meta’s apps has declined" or that the company shows too many ads to users. Meta says that's "fatal" to the FTC's case that the company wielded monopoly power to pursue more ad revenue while degrading user experience over time (an Internet trend known as " enshittification" ). And on top of allegedly showing no evidence of "ad load, privacy, integrity, and features" degradation on Meta apps, Meta argued there's no precedent for an antitrust claim rooted in this alleged harm.

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Meta thinks there's no reason to carry on with its defense after the Federal Trade Commission closed its monopoly case, and the company has moved to end the trial early by claiming that the FTC utterly failed to prove its case.

"The FTC has no proof that Meta has monopoly power," Meta's motion for judgment filed Thursday said, "and therefore the court should rule in favor of Meta."

According to Meta, the FTC failed to show evidence that "the overall quality of Meta’s apps has declined" or that the company shows too many ads to users. Meta says that's "fatal" to the FTC's case that the company wielded monopoly power to pursue more ad revenue while degrading user experience over time (an Internet trend known as " enshittification" ). And on top of allegedly showing no evidence of "ad load, privacy, integrity, and features" degradation on Meta apps, Meta argued there's no precedent for an antitrust claim rooted in this alleged harm.

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Meta thinks there's no reason to carry on with its defense after the Federal Trade Commission closed its monopoly case, and the company has moved to end the trial early by claiming that the FTC utterly failed to prove its case.

"The FTC has no proof that Meta has monopoly power," Meta's motion for judgment filed Thursday said, "and therefore the court should rule in favor of Meta."

According to Meta, the FTC failed to show evidence that "the overall quality of Meta’s apps has declined" or that the company shows too many ads to users. Meta says that's "fatal" to the FTC's case that the company wielded monopoly power to pursue more ad revenue while degrading user experience over time (an Internet trend known as " enshittification" ). And on top of allegedly showing no evidence of "ad load, privacy, integrity, and features" degradation on Meta apps, Meta argued there's no precedent for an antitrust claim rooted in this alleged harm.

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Volkswagen provided flights from Los Angeles to Bozeman, Montana, and accommodation so Ars could drive the new Tiguan. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

In the modern era, cars keep getting bigger and bigger between generations. Or at least, they're certainly not getting smaller. That's especially true in America, where bigger is always better and the vehicles in the current crop of "compact" crossovers are now nearly as large as full-size SUVs from a decade ago. Don’t ask about curb weights, either, as more powerful drivetrains, including widespread adoption of hybrid-electric components, add significant mass, as highlighted by the new BMW M5 "sport sedan."

Within that fray, however, the new Volkswagen Tiguan stands apart. VW purposefully refined the third-gen Tiguan to cater better to American consumer needs, which meant dropping the third row to create more interior volume for the front and rear seats. The wheelbase still measures the same length at 109.9 inches (2,791 mm), but shorter overhangs mean the overall length actually shrinks by nearly two inches. Yet more efficient packaging on the inside also results in a marginal passenger volume increase of about two percent.

To help keep pricing attractive at below $30,000 to start, VW also decided to skip out on a hybrid variant, but the new EA888evo5 2.0 L turbocharged-four nonetheless delivers more power and improved fuel economy. And all of the above actually contributes to the Tiguan losing weight while evolving from the second to third generation, shaving about 160 lbs (72.5 kg), depending on trim.

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Volkswagen provided flights from Los Angeles to Bozeman, Montana, and accommodation so Ars could drive the new Tiguan. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

In the modern era, cars keep getting bigger and bigger between generations. Or at least, they're certainly not getting smaller. That's especially true in America, where bigger is always better and the vehicles in the current crop of "compact" crossovers are now nearly as large as full-size SUVs from a decade ago. Don’t ask about curb weights, either, as more powerful drivetrains, including widespread adoption of hybrid-electric components, add significant mass, as highlighted by the new BMW M5 "sport sedan."

Within that fray, however, the new Volkswagen Tiguan stands apart. VW purposefully refined the third-gen Tiguan to cater better to American consumer needs, which meant dropping the third row to create more interior volume for the front and rear seats. The wheelbase still measures the same length at 109.9 inches (2,791 mm), but shorter overhangs mean the overall length actually shrinks by nearly two inches. Yet more efficient packaging on the inside also results in a marginal passenger volume increase of about two percent.

To help keep pricing attractive at below $30,000 to start, VW also decided to skip out on a hybrid variant, but the new EA888evo5 2.0 L turbocharged-four nonetheless delivers more power and improved fuel economy. And all of the above actually contributes to the Tiguan losing weight while evolving from the second to third generation, shaving about 160 lbs (72.5 kg), depending on trim.

Read full article

Comments

Volkswagen provided flights from Los Angeles to Bozeman, Montana, and accommodation so Ars could drive the new Tiguan. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

In the modern era, cars keep getting bigger and bigger between generations. Or at least, they're certainly not getting smaller. That's especially true in America, where bigger is always better and the vehicles in the current crop of "compact" crossovers are now nearly as large as full-size SUVs from a decade ago. Don’t ask about curb weights, either, as more powerful drivetrains, including widespread adoption of hybrid-electric components, add significant mass, as highlighted by the new BMW M5 "sport sedan."

Within that fray, however, the new Volkswagen Tiguan stands apart. VW purposefully refined the third-gen Tiguan to cater better to American consumer needs, which meant dropping the third row to create more interior volume for the front and rear seats. The wheelbase still measures the same length at 109.9 inches (2,791 mm), but shorter overhangs mean the overall length actually shrinks by nearly two inches. Yet more efficient packaging on the inside also results in a marginal passenger volume increase of about two percent.

To help keep pricing attractive at below $30,000 to start, VW also decided to skip out on a hybrid variant, but the new EA888evo5 2.0 L turbocharged-four nonetheless delivers more power and improved fuel economy. And all of the above actually contributes to the Tiguan losing weight while evolving from the second to third generation, shaving about 160 lbs (72.5 kg), depending on trim.

Read full article

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When Nintendo took the wraps off the Switch 2 in early April, it announced that around a dozen first-party Switch games would be getting free updates that would add some Switch 2-specific benefits to older games running on the new console. We could safely assume that these updates wouldn't be as extensive as the $10 and $20 paid upgrade packs for games like Breath of the Wild or Kirby and the Forgotten Land , but Nintendo's page didn't initially provide any game-specific details.

Earlier this week, Nintendo updated its support page with more game-by-game details about what players of these older games can expect on the new hardware. The baseline improvement for most games is "improved image quality" and optimizations for the Switch 2's built-in display, but others include support for GameShare multiplayer, support for the new Joy-Cons' mouse controls, support for HDR TVs, and other tweaks.

The most significant of the announced updates are frame rate improvements for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet , the main-series Pokémon games released in late 2022. Most latter-day Switch games suffered from frame rate dips here and there, as newer games outstripped the capabilities of a low-power tablet processor that had already been a couple of years old when the Switch launched in 2017. But the Pokémon performance problems were so pervasive and widely commented-upon that Nintendo released a rare apology promising to improve the game post-release. Subsequent patches helped somewhat but could never deliver a consistently smooth frame rate; perhaps new hardware will finally deliver what software patches couldn't.

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When Nintendo took the wraps off the Switch 2 in early April, it announced that around a dozen first-party Switch games would be getting free updates that would add some Switch 2-specific benefits to older games running on the new console. We could safely assume that these updates wouldn't be as extensive as the $10 and $20 paid upgrade packs for games like Breath of the Wild or Kirby and the Forgotten Land , but Nintendo's page didn't initially provide any game-specific details.

Earlier this week, Nintendo updated its support page with more game-by-game details about what players of these older games can expect on the new hardware. The baseline improvement for most games is "improved image quality" and optimizations for the Switch 2's built-in display, but others include support for GameShare multiplayer, support for the new Joy-Cons' mouse controls, support for HDR TVs, and other tweaks.

The most significant of the announced updates are frame rate improvements for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet , the main-series Pokémon games released in late 2022. Most latter-day Switch games suffered from frame rate dips here and there, as newer games outstripped the capabilities of a low-power tablet processor that had already been a couple of years old when the Switch launched in 2017. But the Pokémon performance problems were so pervasive and widely commented-upon that Nintendo released a rare apology promising to improve the game post-release. Subsequent patches helped somewhat but could never deliver a consistently smooth frame rate; perhaps new hardware will finally deliver what software patches couldn't.

Read full article

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When Nintendo took the wraps off the Switch 2 in early April, it announced that around a dozen first-party Switch games would be getting free updates that would add some Switch 2-specific benefits to older games running on the new console. We could safely assume that these updates wouldn't be as extensive as the $10 and $20 paid upgrade packs for games like Breath of the Wild or Kirby and the Forgotten Land , but Nintendo's page didn't initially provide any game-specific details.

Earlier this week, Nintendo updated its support page with more game-by-game details about what players of these older games can expect on the new hardware. The baseline improvement for most games is "improved image quality" and optimizations for the Switch 2's built-in display, but others include support for GameShare multiplayer, support for the new Joy-Cons' mouse controls, support for HDR TVs, and other tweaks.

The most significant of the announced updates are frame rate improvements for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet , the main-series Pokémon games released in late 2022. Most latter-day Switch games suffered from frame rate dips here and there, as newer games outstripped the capabilities of a low-power tablet processor that had already been a couple of years old when the Switch launched in 2017. But the Pokémon performance problems were so pervasive and widely commented-upon that Nintendo released a rare apology promising to improve the game post-release. Subsequent patches helped somewhat but could never deliver a consistently smooth frame rate; perhaps new hardware will finally deliver what software patches couldn't.

Read full article

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