On Monday, Apple introduced a subscription mechanism for apps that required companies to offer customers the possibility of buying content like magazines or music through its payment system, with Apple taking a 30 percent cut. The rules also bar companies from offering a better deal to customers if they pay for a subscription elsewhere, say on a company’s own Web site. Apps that do not comply may not be used on Apple devices.
The US Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission have begun looking into Apple's new iOS subscription plan, according to sources speaking to the Wall Street Journal. The investigation is said to be in the early stages and may not go anywhere. European regulators are also saying they are keeping an eye on the situation.
Neither the DoJ nor the FTC would officially confirm the investigation, but people familiar with the matter said that Apple's subscription rules had at least landed on the radar of the two regulatory agencies. The European Commission didn't dance around the topic though—a spokesperson acknowledged that the Commission is "carefully monitoring the situation."
Apple has allegedly built a jailbreak checker into iOS version 4 and above to see if someone's iPhone has been jailbroken with a hack known as greenpois0n, according to the Web site Social Apples. If the hack is found, then Apple reportedly blocks access to content in the latest version of the iBooks e-reader app.