| Hi there, readers, and welcome to the latest edition of Yahoo Finance's Week in Tech. I'm your host, Dan Howley, and this week we're talking about the coming AI smartphone wars.
Whether you like it or not, Apple, Samsung, Google, and others are preparing for an all-out brawl to get your attention and dollars with new AI features for their next-generation phones. The companies are pitching it all as a massive shift in how we'll use our devices and, importantly for them, a fresh reason for you to go out and buy their latest and greatest smartphones.
But before we get to that, here are some other major tech stories you should be watching this week.
⚖️ Social media giants get temporary Supreme Court win: The Supreme Court handed social media giants Meta and Google's YouTube a temporary reprieve in their battle over state laws out of Florida and Texas that seek to prevent the companies from moderating their platforms based on users' speech.
The court, however, didn't say whether the states couldn't keep the social media firms from taking down users' posts but rather sent the case back down to lower courts to further analyze the laws. Social media companies argue that they should be able to regulate their platforms as they see fit, and any law that prevents that violates their First Amendment rights.
But the states say those rights don't apply, and legislation should be able to limit what some users say over others. This will likely be the kind of thing that continues to wind its way through the courts for some time, so get ready to hear plenty more about it in the months ahead.
📺 Free streaming channels gain power: Streaming services are getting more expensive, which means consumers are looking for new ways to stay entertained without breaking the bank. And that's a boon for ad-supported streaming services like The Roku Channel, Tubi, and Pluto TV.
I'm a regular Roku Channel viewer because it's one of the only places I can find one of my favorite shows ever, Peep Show. Sure, the ads can be annoying and often break into the stream at odd times, but if it means I can watch one of the funniest comedies around, I'm willing to put up with it. And it seems like plenty of other people feel the same way when it comes to ad-supported streaming channels.
Sure, it feels counterintuitive, given that one of the original promises of streaming content was to get away from commercials, but hey, free is free.
🇨🇳 Apple's China issues could hamper iPhone sales in 2025: After a rough start to 2024, Apple's shares are on the rise again, jumping on hopes that the company's Apple Intelligence generative AI platform will be a boon for future iPhone sales. But according to UBS Global Research analyst, Apple is still facing a big challenge in China: Huawei. The homegrown smartphone maker has gained market share over the last few years after it was nearly wiped off the map by US export regulations in 2019.
And while Apple has seen year-over-year sales increase by 50% and 40% in April and May, respectively, according to Bloomberg, Huawei's market share increases could put a governor on Apple's growth potential in its third-largest market by revenue. | 
