The Madras High Court has reportedly dismissed 14 of the 16 pleas filed by Indian startups against Google‘s app billing policy. The court said in its ruling that it was a matter falling under the jurisdiction of the Competition Commission of India (CCI). Industry body Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF) led the appeals against Google’s Play Store’s billing policy. Some of these companies include Matrimony.com, Shadi.com and Unacademy. The two pleas that have not been rejected so far have been filed by streaming player Disney+ Hotstar and exam preparation app Testbook. What the court order says In its order Justice S Sounthar observed that the Competition Act was enacted as a special law to deal with abuse of dominant position by enterprises in the Indian economy. “Special law will prevail over the general law,” Justice Sounthar said. Section 61 of Competition Act expressly barred the jurisdiction of a civil court in respect of the matters which fall within the jurisdiction of the CCI, the judge said.The court however rejected Google’s contention that the cases should be filed in California. The court noted that “Competition Act enacted by Indian legislature with the sole aim of preventing practices having adverse effect on competition will be of no use (if such a request is entertained). The preamble to Competition Act reads that it is an Act to ensure freedom of trade carried on by participants in the Indian market. Freedom of trade is a fundamental right available to Indian Citizens under Article 19 of the Constitution of India.”Why these startups had approached the courtThe companies had approached the high court after Google asked them to either adopt the company’s mandated billing route or face the risk of being removed from the Play Store. All the startups had filed complaints that Google’s actions are against the Payments and Settlements Act and Contracts Law. In May this year, Google announced that Google Play’s payments policy is compliant with the Indian watchdog’s order and it is moving ahead with plans to enforce the policy in the South Asian market, weeks after some developers sought to suspend Google’s in-app billing fee system alleging it was not compliant with the watchdog’s directive.“In 2020, we clarified the requirements of our Payments policy and developers in India have had considerable time to make the necessary changes to their apps. We’re respectfully following the CCI’s October 2022 order, and in compliance with that order, we expanded user choice billing to all developers in India and updated our policy that went into effect starting April 26, 2023,” the company wrote in a blog post.What the count decision means for these startupsThe court decision leaves these companies without the protection of the interim injunction from the court that had prevented Google from delisting their apps from its app store, Google Play. Also, these startups are apprehensive that both authorities (CCI and RBI) will be able to grant appropriate relief where a conjoint reading of all the laws is required.

In short, the tentacles of US tech firms are everywhere—vaccines, food, cancer research, psilocybin centers, criminal justice reform, homelessness—the list could reach the moon. (Speaking of the moon, how could we forget commercial spaceflight?) And the AI boom is likely to further expand tech firms’ power and riches. Yet on Capitol Hill, some powerful Republicans are focused on one goal: ensuring American AI dominance. On this front, Rubio generally sees any new regulation as a needless-to-harmful constraint on US technology giants and their AI experiments. One near-universal takeaway from the briefings is that America can’t afford to be number two. “You’re dealing with a technology that knows no national borders, so even if we write laws that say a company can’t do that in America, it doesn’t mean some company in some other part of the world or some government in other parts of the world won’t innovate that, and use it, and deploy it against the US,” Rubio says. Senator Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican and one of four senators who spearheaded the all-senators briefings, echoes this sentiment. “AI is gonna advance regardless of whether it happens here in the United States or elsewhere. We have to be advancing faster than our adversaries,” he says. “We have to advance it, but we also want to put in appropriate safeguards.” Specifics remain impossible to pin down in most corners of the Capitol. Lawmakers are still taking in the potential of new language learning models, like ChatGPT and Google’s Bard, even as AI laps us all. Rounds maintains an openness to nebulous new parameters, on the one hand, but in a critical, fatherly way, he also faults Americans for signing over our data privacy. “Here’s the deal, we voluntarily give it away,” Rounds says. “People don’t seem to realize that when they sign these agreements, they’re giving up a lot of their personal information.” Recklessly handing over our data might be fine if it’s American tech companies that are grabbing it. But Rounds, like most lawmakers, decries the idea of giving our private data to Chinese-owned TikTok. It’s the one privacy matter everyone can agree on—excluding, perhaps, the 150 million US-based users the company claims to have. “There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of concern about it by a significant amount of the American public, which is unfortunate because that’s helping to create the databases that eventually may be used against us,” Rounds says. While Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the others tried to steer the conversation around artificial intelligence clear of politics, AI now seems lodged in the age-old partisan debate that pits laissez-faire capitalism against Big Brother, which New Mexico Democrat Martin Heinrich says is regrettably shortsighted. “We failed to regulate the internet when it was regulatable, and Republicans and Democrats today—for the most part—are going, ‘Holy cow, we subjected our entire teenage population to this experiment, and it’s not serving us well.’ So I just don’t think it’s helpful to get hardened,” Heinrich says.

Three different malware strains are using tricky methods to trap users on the internet. According to a report by Kaspersky, three malware strains — DarkGate, Emotet, and LokiBot are using “intricate infection tactics” to steal user data. The security research company has explained how the ever-advancing cybersecurity landscape is being affected by “DarkGate’s unique encryption, Emotet‘s robust comeback and LokiBot exploits”. DarkGate malware strainIn June 2023, Kaspersky’s researchers discovered a new loader named DarkGate that has multiple features that go beyond typical downloader functionality. Some of the notable capabilities include hidden VNC, Windows Defender exclusion, browser history stealing, reverse proxy, file management and Discord token stealing. DarkGate’s operation involves a chain of four stages, designed to lead to the loading of the malware itself. This loader has a unique way of encrypting strings with personalised keys and a custom version of Base64 encoding, which utilises a special character set.Emotet malware strainEmotet is a botnet that resurfaced after it was taken down in 2021. The report also mentions that this malware’s activity has been recently recorded. In this latest campaign, users who unwittingly open the malicious OneNote files trigger the execution of a hidden and disguised VBScript. The script then attempts to download the harmful payload from various websites until successfully infiltrates the system. Once inside, Emotet plants a DLL in the temporary directory and then executes it. This DLL contains hidden instructions, or shellcode, along with encrypted import functions. By decrypting a specific file from its resource section, Emotet gains the upper hand, ultimately executing its malicious payload. LokiBot malware strainKaspersky has also detected a phishing campaign targeting cargo ship companies that delivered LokiBot. It is an info stealer malware which was first identified in 2016. LokiBot is designed to steal credentials from various apps, including browsers and FTP clients. These emails carried an Excel document attachment which prompted users to enable macros. The attackers exploited a known vulnerability (CVE-2017-0199) in Microsoft Office, leading to the download of an RTF document. This RTF document subsequently leveraged another vulnerability (CVE-2017-11882) to deliver and execute the LokiBot malware.

If you’ve been eyeing on buying a new AirPods, then it may be a good time to get one as the AirPods 2nd-generation is currently selling at lowest-ever price during the ongoing Great Freedom Sale. AirPods 2nd-generation is cheapest right nowDuring the ongoing sale, the AirPods has received a discount of Rs 5,901. The AirPods usually retails at Rs 14,900 and right now it can be purchased under Rs 10,000. In addition to this, buyers will also have the option to get additional discounts on bank cards. AirPods 2nd-generation: Discounted priceAfter the discount, the AirPods 2nd-generation is available for purchase at Rs 8,999. But, it can be purchased for as low as Rs 7,499 during the sale period by using ICICI bank card discount of up to Rs 1,500. Here’s the list of all the bank offers applicable on the purchase:10% Instant Discount up to Rs 1250 on SBI Credit Card Non-EMI Trxn. Min purchase value Rs 500010% Instant Discount up to Rs 1500 on SBI Credit Card EMI Trxn. Min purchase value Rs 5000Apple AirPods 2nd-generation: Specifications Aspect Details Sensors – Dual beam-forming microphones – Dual optical sensors – Motion-detecting accelerometer – Speech-detecting accelerometer Chip – H1 headphone chip Controls – Double-tap to play, skip forward or answer a phone call – Say “Hey Siri” for various actions Size and Weight (Each) Height: 40.5 mm (1.59 inches) Width: 16.5 mm (0.65 inches) Depth: 18.0 mm (0.71 inches) Weight: 4 grams (0.14 ounces) Height: 53.5 mm (2.11 inches) Width: 44.3 mm (1.74 inches) Depth: 21.3 mm (0.84 inches) Weight: 38.2 grams (1.35 ounces) Charging Case – Works with the Lightning connector Battery AirPods: – Up to 5 hours of listening time with a single charge – Up to 3 hours of talk time with a single charge AirPods with Lightning Charging Case: – More than 24 hours of listening time – Up to 18 hours of talk time – 15 minutes in the case provides up to 3 hours of listening time or up to 2 hours of talk time Connectivity – Bluetooth 5.0 wireless technology In the Box – AirPods – Lightning Charging Case – Lightning to USB-A Cable – Documentation Accessibility – Live Listen audio – Headphone levels – Headphone Accommodations System Requirements – iPhone and iPod touch models with the latest version of iOS – iPad models with the latest version of iPadOS – Apple Watch models with the latest version of watchOS – Mac models with the latest version of macOS – Apple TV models with the latest version of tvOS

WhatsApp has once again started rolling out the navigation bar on Android with the latest beta update. WABetaInfo, a platform that keeps track of all the updates and changes on WhatsApp, has reported that several users from across the globe have once again started rolling out the iOS-like bottom navigation bar on Android in beta. Navigation bar is making a comebackIt is important to note that this is not the first time WhatsApp on Android is getting the bottom navigation bar. A couple of months ago, WhatsApp rolled out the update in beta and then removed it in future updates. With the latest beta version 2.23.13.9, the bottom navigation bar has made a comeback. We also checked for the same and it is now available for several beta users in our team. What is this navigation bar?If you’ve seen the WhatsApp app on iPhone, then you must have noticed a bottom navigation bar instead of the top tabs on Android. The tabs have been replaced with the bottom navigation bar which includes options like Chats, Status, Communities and Calls. This looks interesting and modern. However, the redesign comes with a significant disadvantage. With this change, WhatsApp has also removed the swipe navigation gesture from the app. This means you can no longer swipe left or right to switch between different taps or options. AvailabilityWhatsApp has tested this new bottom navigation bar previously and then it went on to disable this for a while. Now that it has made a comeback, we expect that it will make the cut to the stable build soon. That said, WhatsApp hasn’t confirmed anything officially as of now and it may take a couple of updates to arrive on the stable version of the app.

India’s feature phone market witnessed notable growth in Q2 2023. According to a report by CyberMedia Research (CMR), the overall feature phone market shipments recorded 9% year-over-year (YoY) growth. The report also mentions that the growth of 2G feature phone shipments remained stable, while 4G feature phone shipments witnessed a sharp rise. As per the report, 4G feature phone shipments recorded a significant 108% YoY growth. This growth was primarily driven by feature phones, includingNokia 8000 4G, Nokia 106 4G and Itel Magic X Pro. The report also predicts India’s 4G feature phone market is expected to grow more in 2023. This growth is likely to be fueled by the introduction of phones like Reliance‘s JioBharat. Feature phone market leaders in IndiaItel led India’s feature phone market with a 35% market share, followed by Lava (30%), Nokia (11%), Karbonn (4%) and Samsung (3%). Karbonn saw a growth of 421% since Q2 2022 while Samsung’s shipments went down by 74%. The remaining brands saw similar growth in shipments in Q2 2023. Itel and Lava’s shipments grew by 29% while Nokia saw a 39% rise in its feature phone shipments.India’s overall smartphone market declines while the 5G segment grewThe report also mentions that the 5G smartphone shipment share in India has now increased to 47%. In Q2 2023, 5G smartphone shipments have also grown by 45% YoY while the overall smartphone market shipments reduced by 6%. India’s 5G smartphone market was dominated by Samsung. The South Korea-based tech giant was able to secure 24% of the market share. Samsung was followed by Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus which captured 20% market share. OnePlus beat Xiaomi (15%), Realme (12%) and OPPO (10%) to take the second position.The overall mobile market in India also shrunk by 2% YoY. With a 72% share, the value-for-money smartphone segment (Rs 7,000 – Rs 25,000), was the largest contributor to the market. However, due to slow demand, its shipments declined by 16%. The report also notes that the affordable smartphone segment (below Rs 7,000) also recorded a growth of 51% YoY, which was driven by models like Redmi A2 and Infinix 7 HD.

High-profile or large sporting and entertainment events, especially those in increasingly connected venue environments, are now being targeted by hackers at increasing rates, a report by Microsoft has said. Microsoft released its fifth instalment of Cyber Signals – a cyber threat intelligence brief – which states that such large events can introduce cyber risk for organisers, regional host facilities and attendees. Read Also Xbox exploit allows hackers to ban accounts: Here’s what the company has to say Microsoft’s gaming division, Xbox, has denied the recent reports that an exploit in its console may let hackers permanently ban other user accounts, stated Kim Kunes, Xbox GM of trust and safety. Third-party apps or tools cannot impact player enforcements, and only accurate reports, violating the HackerOne lays off 12% workforce: Read CEO’s message to employees HackerOne has announced that it is reducing 12% of its workforce due to economic slowdown. More than 50 employees based in the US, Canada, UK, Netherlands, and other countries will be impacted. Affected employees will receive severance packages that include cash and non-cash benefits. While Hackers may have a Barbie movie ‘invitation’ for you Scammers are using the buzz around the much-awaited movie releases for Barbie and Oppenheimer for phishing scams to steal users’ money and sensitive information, according to cybersecurity experts at Kaspersky. One fake page offers limited-edition Barbie dolls and an exclusive discount for the What information is at riskThe report highlighted that sports teams, major league and global sporting associations, and entertainment venues house a trove of valuable information desirable to cybercriminals. The information on players’ and teams’ athletic performance, competitive advantage and personal information is a lucrative target. “Unfortunately, this information can be vulnerable at-scale, due to the number of connected devices and interconnected networks in these environments,” the report noted. “Often this vulnerability spans multiple owners, including teams, corporate sponsors, municipal authorities, and third-party contractors. Teams, coaches, athletes, and fans are also vulnerable to data loss and extortion,” it said. Key findings from the reportThe Microsoft report said that cyberattacks against sports organisations are increasing. As the pressure to deliver a smooth, safe experience on the world stage introduces new stakes for local hosts and facilities, a single misconfigured device, exposed password, or overlooked third party connection can lead to a data breach or successful intrusion. Microsoft says that it delivered cybersecurity support to critical infrastructure facilities during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. “It performed over 634.6 million authentications while providing cybersecurity defences for Qatari facilities and organisations between November 10 and December 20, 2022,” the company said.According to the report, there are threats from nation-states and cybercriminal groups. As large global events continue to be desirable targets for threat actors, there are a variety of motivations from nation-states for broader geopolitical interests. “Furthermore, cybercriminal groups looking to leverage the vast financial opportunities that exist in sporting and venue-related IT environments will continue to see these as desirable targets,” the report noted. How to safeguardMicrosoft recommends having an additional set of eyes monitoring the event around the clock to proactively detect threats and send notifications. “Cybersecurity threats to sporting events and venues are diverse and complex. They require constant vigilance and collaboration among stakeholders to prevent and mitigate escalation, and with the global sports market valued at more than $600 billion, the target is rich,” the report said. Identifying potential threats specific to the event, venue, or nation where the event occurs is also an important step to keep cyberattacks at bay.

US chipmaker AMD last week said that it will invest around $400 million in India over the next five years to build its largest design centre in Bengaluru, highlighting the country’s importance as the emerging IT hub in the world. Now, AMD CTO Mark Papermaster has termed India as an important market for the company to keep up with the growing demand for its products. While talking to CNBC, Papermaster said AMD needs India to keep up with the growing demand for its products. “We have a global workforce. Our design efforts are global and doubling down on those investments, continuing our growth in India, are all part of what we need to stay pace with the growing demand for our products,” Papermaster was quoted as saying.The company’s largest design centre is expected to open before the end of 2023 and by the end of 2028, it is expected to add about 3,000 engineering roles. “We started with a small number of employees in Delhi in 2001. Today, we have over 6,500 full-time employees, and over 3,500 service contractors. So it’s with a population of about 10,000 people. And we’re really pleased to be growing our investment in India — a huge part of our portfolio and product development,” said Papermaster. AMD’s AI chipEarlier this year, AMD unveiled its flagship MI300 artificial intelligence (AI) chip and called it the most-advanced GPU for AI. The company CEO Lisa Su recently said that the company is now set to ramp up production of its flagship chips in the fourth quarter. She highlighted ‘very high’ customer interest in the MI300 series chips and AMD also expanded its work with “top-tier cloud providers, large enterprises and numerous leading AI companies” during the third quarter. She noted that the company is also looking to tap the Chinese market and is ready to modify its strategy. AMD aims to challenge market leader Nvidia that currently sells H100 chips.

Amazon was one of the first companies to have announced mass layoffs last year. It followed up with more layoffs and cost-cutting measures early this year. Reports suggested that Amazon laid off as many as 27,000 employees and took other cost-cutting measures. If Amazon’s quarterly earnings are to go by, the move seems to have paid off. Amazon reported revenue of $134.1 billion, which was an 11% increase year-over-year. Amazon has also seen its operating income improve. Brian Olsavsky, chief financial officer, Amazon, told investors on the earnings call that cost cutting has played a major role in it. “One of the largest drivers of this operating income improvement in the stores business has been reducing our cost to serve, with shipping costs and fulfillment costs continuing to grow at a slower pace than our unit growth,” he said. Andy Jassy, Amazon CEO, also spoke about cost-cutting measures in various units of the company. “We’re encouraged by the progress we’re making on several key priorities, namely lowering our cost to serve in our stores business,” he said. AI to lower costs Jassy also spoke about generative AI helping in lowering costs for Amazon. Every single one of our businesses inside of Amazon, every single one has multiple generative AI initiatives going right now, he said. “They range from things that help us be more cost-effective and streamlined in how we run operations in various businesses to the absolute heart of every customer experience in which we offer,” he added. Amazon, as per Jassy, is adding a lot more customers and optimising costs simultaneously. Talking about AWS’ revenue, he said, “To grow double digits on an $88 billion revenue run rate business, when you’re seeing that amount of cost optimization as every company in the world is trying to save as much money as they can in the last year, to still grow double digits on a base that size means that we’re acquiring a lot of new customers and a lot of new workloads.”

Action camera maker GoPro has announced a new desktop app for its users. The company’s CEO Nicholas Woodmanconfirmed during the Q2 earnings call that all GoPro paid subscribers will have access to the software for no additional charge. The company also mentioned that the app will also sync with the cloud and mobile apps. Users will also be able to import footage from third-party cameras using this app. In 2018, the company discontinued its GoPro Studio editor app to promote the simpler Quik app. This will be GoPro’s first desktop app since then. The company also declared that the GoPro subscriber count has gone up. From a 2.36 million user base in the last quarter, the company’s subscriber count has now increased to 2.44 million. How GoPro performed in Q2 2023 “In Q2, GoPro saw an immediate retail sales and GoPro subscription lift as a result of our mid-quarter go-to-market strategy shift that included a return to pre-pandemic pricing and a greater emphasis on retail sales. We exceeded our Q2 expectations for unit sales, revenue and subscriber growth, all positive indicators that our strategy shift is working,” said GoPro CEO Nicholas Woodman.The company’s CFO and COO, Brian McGee added: “In the second quarter, we repurchased $15 million of stock and improved working capital as we reduced inventory.” GoPro clocked a revenue of $241 million in Q2 2023, which was 4% lower than the revenue from Q2 2022. The company’s revenue from retail channels increased by 6% since last year to $165 million. Meanwhile, the revenue from its official website (which includes subscription and service revenue) was $76 million. The revenue generated from the company’s website was 31% of the total revenue and was down by 21% year-over-year.Earlier this year, GoPro surpassed 2,000 patents worldwide and was included for the 5th consecutive year in the Intellectual Property Owners Association.