AllYouCanTech

### Jesse Williams Joins the Cast of The Morning Show

In the wake of the recent news that Jeff Daniels will be part of the upcoming fifth season of Apple TV’s celebrated series *The Morning Show*, it has also been announced that Jesse Williams will be included in the cast. Williams, recognized for his role in *Grey’s Anatomy*, will take on the character of Vernon, the new Head of News at UBN, depicted as an audacious provocateur with a talent for engaging audiences.

Williams and Daniels will join an already stellar ensemble cast that features well-known actors such as Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, Nicole Beharie, Nestor Carbonell, Billy Crudup, Mark Duplass, Jon Hamm, and Karen Pittman. Billy Crudup notably earned Apple TV’s inaugural Emmy for his role in the series in 2020 and achieved the same honor again in 2024. The show has secured a total of three Primetime Emmys, including accolades for Outstanding Contemporary Hairstyling and Outstanding Contemporary Makeup (Non-Prosthetic) in 2024, and has garnered nearly 30 overall Emmy nominations.

The fourth season of *The Morning Show* wrapped up in November, and although Apple has yet to announce a premiere date for the fifth season, showrunner Charlotte Stoudt suggested a possible 2026 launch. She mentioned that the lack of a writers’ strike this year might permit a faster production schedule.

*The Morning Show* is accessible for streaming on Apple TV, which provides a subscription service for $12.99 per month, showcasing a variety of popular shows and films.

Apple has until the month’s end to address a series of technical and legal matters posed by CADE, Brazil’s competition authority, concerning purported anticompetitive practices related to the iPhone’s NFC. Here are the specifics.

## Apple’s NFC regulations still facing scrutiny in Brazil

Last month, Apple claimed that Brazilian banks were attempting to gain an “unfair advantage” in an anticompetitive investigation regarding contactless payments on the iPhone.

This inquiry began last year, following a request from Brazil’s central bank (Banco Central) and the banking association Febraban for CADE to examine whether Apple was unjustly restricting third-party payment providers’ access to the iPhone’s NFC compared to its own offerings.

Since then, Apple has contended that there is “no provision in Brazilian law that forbids [it] from imposing a fee for its services,” while highlighting that it possesses merely 10% of the nation’s smartphone market and that third-party developers have been utilizing the iPhone’s NFC since 2024.

Apple has also asserted that the Brazilian market is well-equipped with payment alternatives, arguing that Apple Pay is not “harmful to consumers, nor does it exclude competitors.” Nevertheless, thus far, these arguments have failed to convince regulators.

This week, as reported by Folha de S. Paulo (via MacMagazine), CADE has intensified its investigation:

> “On Tuesday (17), the agency issued a formal notification to the tech firm, asking for details regarding fees, technical specifications, and agreements made with developers in Brazil. The company has until March 30 to reply.”

As we reported last month, this investigation partially focuses on PIX, a domestic, cost-free, and instantaneous payment system introduced in 2020 that is by far the most popular payment method in the country:

> Last year, Banco Central introduced a contactless protocol for PIX, which Apple (unlike Google) has declined to implement, considering it a non-essential feature for Brazilians, who still predominantly use PIX payments via QR codes instead of the relatively new contactless option.

As noted by Folha de S. Paulo, Apple also appears to be attempting to evade classification as a so-called Payment Transaction Initiator, “a regulatory category overseen by the Central Bank that would impose requirements regarding interoperability and access.”

So far, Apple has not provided any commentary on CADE’s recent request.