Through Wednesday's antitrust settlement with Intel
People shop inside an Apple
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission settled an antitrust suit with Intel on Wednesday. The suit charged that Intel illegally stifled competition in the market for computer chips. Under the settlement, Intel will be prohibited from offering rebates and other benefits to computer makers in exchange for their promise to buy chips from Intel exclusively or to refuse to buy chips from others.
The FTC has also been keeping an eye on Google
Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple, which is cashing in on the immense popularity of its iPhones and iPads, has come under fire for restricting the options for downloading music and applications. Apple also decided not to support some external tools like Adobe's
In a statement released in April, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said Apple wants to insure the quality of the apps offered in its app store. In addition, the decision not to support Flash was technical, based in part on the fact that both iPads and iPhones use touch screens. Many Flash-based advertisements on the Web use "rollovers" - in which an advertisement pops up when the mouse cursor is over a specific spot. That would not work well with touch screens, which have no mouse.
E-book publishers have also come under scrutiny. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said this week that he is investigating agreements between the country's largest e-book publishers and two of the largest sellers -- Amazon.com