Away from parents and in-laws, many couples find themselves unprepared for parenthood in a digital age. Nikita Puri explores apps that can ease the way.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Wednesday declined an interim relief order that would restrain Google from levying service fees on app developers until a final decision is made by the regulator. The CCI also said the Director General (DG) would continue its investigation as ordered by the commission in its March 15 order. "The Commission is of the considered opinion that no case whatsoever has been made out by the informants which warrant the grant of interim relief. Resultantly, the applications stand dismissed," said the CCI while rejecting the plea by app developers in its order.
The directions follow a report by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, which has seen a new pattern of transnational cyber-enabled financial fraud and investment scam, impersonating as stockbrokers and company executives.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Friday ordered a detailed probe against technology major Apple for alleged unfair business practices with respect to its App Store. In a 20-page order, the watchdog said that Apple's App Store is the only channel for app developers to distribute their apps to iOS consumers which is pre-installed on every iPhone and iPad.
For many developers, it may not be a sufficient saving to make it worth creating and maintaining alternatives.
Google on Friday announced that third-party 'in app' billing system pilot will be extended to India and some other markets, allowing non-gaming developers to offer users the choice of an alternative billing mechanism alongside that of Google Play. A reasonable service fees will continue to apply in order to support investments in Android and Play, according to Google. However, specifics of what the reasonable service fees will be, have not been disclosed.
Tech giant Alphabet on Monday launched a privacy feature on its app marketplace Google Play Store that will require developers to give people more information about how apps collect, share and secure users' data. Users will start seeing the data safety section in Google Play on Tuesday, and developers are required to complete this section for their apps by July 20. As app developers update their functionality or change their data handling practices, they will show the latest in the apps' data safety section.
An internet-calling application, which was developed and hosted on anonymous servers by a team in Pakistan for the Inter Services Intelligence, is now being used by the LeT, IB sources said.
Several Indian banks have alerted their customers not to download apps from any source other than official app stores. Banking customers are being targeted by a new type of mobile banking malware campaign using SOVA Android Trojan. This malware captures the credentials when users log onto their net-banking apps and access bank accounts. The new version of SOVA appears to be targeting more than 200 mobile applications, including banking apps and crypto wallets.
Slapped with a second hefty fine for anti-competitive practices, Google India on Wednesday said it remains committed to users and developers and is reviewing the antitrust body's order to evaluate next steps. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Tuesday slapped a Rs 936 crore fine on Google for "abusing" its dominant position on its Android mobile app store and ordered it not to prevent app developers from using third-party billing or payment processing services in India. That penalty came just days after a Rs 1,337.76 crore fine was imposed on it for abusing the dominant position of its Android smartphone operating system. Commenting on Tuesday's CCI order, a Google India spokesperson said Indian app developers have benefited from the technology, security, consumer protection, choice and flexibility that Android and Google Play provide.
Infosys claims it can deliver a full-fledged applications store within 6-8 weeks, with its application platform Flypp.
Scrutiny of Google's code of conduct in the Indian Android ecosystem is far from over with several start-ups preparing to appeal against the company's revised policies of service fee on in-app purchases and subscriptions, according to sources in the know. This comes days after the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) granted partial relief to the tech giant, reversing four of the 10 key non-monetary directives that would have forced Google to allow uninstalling of its pre-installed apps on Android devices. Paytm, BharatMatrimony, and ShareChat are among the start-ups that are likely to file grievances against the tech major for alleged non-compliance with the Competition Commission of India's (CCI's) cease-and-desist order on Play Store policies.
Borrowing from a fraudulent loan app subjects the borrower to a variety of risks.
This year will be the one when GenAI becomes a part of the daily lives of people around the world.
Instagram, owned by the tech giant Meta, on Wednesday, unveiled its new app called 'Threads' a new app designed to directly compete with Elon Musk's Twitter. According to The Hollywood Reporter, a US-based media house, Meta Platforms Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the launch, framing Threads as "a new, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations." Threads will be linked to users' Instagram profiles, making it simple to connect with followers, prominent personalities, or brands.
An online company would show a particular price to the customer and then quickly increase the cost after analysing consumer behaviour or detecting any kind of desperation.
Google is going ahead with a policy revision mandating 30% charge on in-app purchases across all apps on Play Store. This has left developers' community worried about tighter squeeze on their earnings, says Yuvraj Malik.
'Banning a game is not the solution, rather, there should be laws that restrict the number of hours spent a week playing a game.'
The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) has arrested a person who the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) said has emerged as the mastermind of the racket of incorporating a large number of shell companies with Chinese links in India.
Indian industry snubbed Google Play's decision to cut by half its commission for developers when they make $1 million in annual revenue for in-app purchases, saying the US tech giant may continue its "abrasive & monopolistic abuse" as it owns the Android system. Google Play said Tuesday that beginning July 1 it would slash its 30 per cent billing fee to 15 per cent for developers globally when they make the first $1 million of their annual revenue.
Installing a new app? Rediff.com's Ashish Narsale shows you how to do it safely.
A Judicial member of the appellate tribunal NCLAT has recused himself from hearing a petition filed by tech giant Google, appealing against Rs 936.44 crore penalty imposed by competition watchdog CCI for abusing its dominant position with respect to Play Store policies. On Monday, NCLAT bench Justice Rakesh Kumar and Alok Srivastava ordered Google's appeal to be listed before another bench of which Justice Rakesh Kumar is not a party. It has asked the registry of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) to place it before the chairman of the appellate tribunal for this.
Technology giant Apple has informed its customers in India that it will no longer store their card information on file and will not be accepting payments made by debit cards and credit cards for purchases or subscriptions on the App store or other Apple services. The decision has been taken by the US-based company in view of the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) card data storage guidelines, which will kick in from July 1. The deadline for implementing these norms was extended twice.
A new mobile banking 'Trojan' virus -- SOVA -- which can stealthily encrypt an Android phone for ransom and is hard to uninstall is targeting Indian customers, the country's federal cyber security agency said in its latest advisory.
Apple has removed hundreds of apps from its App Store over concerns that they gathered personal information from phones.
"The Government of India has issued an interim order for the blocking of 59 apps, including TikTok, and we are in the process of complying with it. We have been invited to meet with concerned government stakeholders for an opportunity to respond and submit clarifications," Nikhil Gandhi, head of TikTok India, said.
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal on Wednesday declined to grant interim relief to Google seeking a stay on competition watchdog CCI's penalty of Rs 936.44 crore on the tech giant for abusing its dominant position with respect to Play Store policies. The appellate tribunal has directed Google to deposit 10 per cent of the fine before its registry in the next four weeks. A two-member bench comprising Justice Rakesh Kumar and Alok Srivastava issued notices to the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and other respondents and posted the matter for hearing on April 17, 2023.
Google on Friday said it is deferring the deadline for developers in India to integrate with its Play billing system from March 2022 to October next year. In October last year, the company had announced March 31, 2022 as the deadline for developers in India to integrate with Play's billing system. A Google spokesperson on Friday said the extension has been done in view of the changes to India's recurring digital payments guidelines.
The move by the two Silicon Valley companies came the day when Twitter permanently suspended Trump's account due to "risk of further incitement of violence".
'We want to achieve overall profitability, and then we would go for an IPO.'
India's third largest network service provider, Reliance Communications (RCom), is close to signing an agreement with US-based GetJar to launch its own application store (app store, software modules to run specific tasks on own mobiles), sources said.
After failing to get a court order to block an antitrust ruling, Google on Wednesday said it will allow users in India to choose default search engine on Android-based smartphones. As part of the key changes the tech giant will make to its platforms and business in India in the aftermath of the landmark CCI ruling, OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) will be able to license individual Google apps for pre-installation on their devices. Google is also updating the Android compatibility requirements to introduce changes for partners to build non-compatible or forked variants, the company said in its blog.
Borrowers should be careful if the app promises too-quick disbursal, and doesn't provide adequate information on the terms of the loan, such as interest rate, repayment schedule, etc.
In September, BlackBerry had paused the global rollout of its instant messaging service BBM on rival phones, blaming the delay on issues caused by an unreleased old version of BBM (BlackBerry Messenger).
'We're seeing major Bollywood celebrities, fashion icons, and even movie studios all wanting to build Metaverse experiences'
Google has termed as "tainted" the investigations done against it by CCI, contending that the two informants on whose complaint the fair trade regulator has initiated the enquiry were working at the same office that was investigating the tech major. This was "against the principles of natural justice", Google said in the petition filed before the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), adding the Competition Commission of India (CCI) should have refrained from initiating an investigation based on a complaint filed by their own employees. "At the very least, the Commission could have debarred the Informants from working in the DG office while the investigation was ongoing, to ensure that the investigating officer was able to impartially assess the case without any influence, such that no concerns could arise on the independence of the investigation," said Google.
Google has removed indigenous social media app Bolo Indya from Playstore on a copyright complaint made by music company T-Series. Super Cassettes Industries Pvt Ltd, which operates under the brand name T-Series, has served an infringement notice to social media and video sharing platforms about a year ago to pay around Rs 3.5 crore in damages from using its copyrighted contents. While most of the companies have settled the row with T-Series, Bolo Indya is yet to come to terms with the music company.
The home ministry can notify Google of the Voice of Punjab app's hateful content and have the app taken down from the app store. The glorification of Beant Singh's assassination alone is enough to have the app taken down.
Winter Games in Beijing has glaring security problems that could expose sensitive data to interception, according to a report
The two apps had drawn millions of downloads in India as border tensions between India and China surged.
