India’s antitrust watchdog has opened an investigation into Google for allegedly abusing the dominant position of its app store to promote its payments service in the world’s second largest internet market. From a report: In its Monday announcement about opening an antitrust case against Google, Indian watchdog Competition Commission of India (CCI) said it would review claims of whether the Android…
Tag: google play store
UK Ad Authority Bans Misleading Homescapes and Gardenscapes Ads
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: Two misleading ads for mobile games that bear little relation to the actual product have been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The ads, for the Homescapes and Gardenscapes games, both come from developer Playrix. They showed a game where users pull pins in a specific order to solve a puzzle…
Google Patches ChromeOS Update Bug That Caused 100% CPU Usage
“Hello Chrome OS Community,” posted one of Google’s community managers Wednesday. “Thank you for raising this issue, and for your patience as we work to resolve this. Our team has identified the issue and is rolling out a fix to affected devices.” The issue? ChromeOS users reported the latest updates “cause a Google Play Store service to utilize 100 percent of…
Google Is Building a Special Android Security Team to Hunt Bugs in Sensitive Apps
“Google is hiring to create a special Android security team that will be tasked with finding vulnerabilities in highly sensitive apps on the Google Play Store,” reports ZDNet: “As a Security Engineering Manager in Android Security… Your team will perform application security assessments against highly sensitive, third party Android apps on Google Play, working to identify vulnerabilities and provide remediation guidance…
Indian Startups Explore Alliance and Alternative App Store To Fight Google’s ‘Monopoly’
Google, which reaches more internet users than any other firm in India and commands 99% of the nation’s smartphone market, has stumbled upon an odd challenge in the world’s second-largest internet market: Scores of top local entrepreneurs. From a report: More than 150 startups and firms in India are working to form an alliance and toying with the idea of launching…
Google’s Epic Response: Android 12 Will Make It Easier To Install App Stores
Google today announced it will make it easier to install and use third-party app stores with the release of Android 12 next year. From a report: Google also reiterated its existing Payments Policy for in-app purchases of digital goods: Android developers who want to distribute apps and games on Google Play, must use Play’s billing system. Google is offering a 1-year…
Firefox Android Build That Caused Issues Is Working As Intended
Today, Mozilla launched the updated Firefox Android app with a version that many thought was a beta because it was full of bugs and UI issues. According to The Register, this was a deliberate software release and is the new version of Firefox for Android, which is set to hit the UK today, August 25, and the U.S. on the 27th….
Google Accused By Developer of Retaliation For Cooperating With House Antitrust Investigation
Google kicked an email app off its Play Store Friday, just days after its developers revealed they were cooperating with House lawmakers who questioned the tech giants’ chief executives during a landmark tech antitrust hearing earlier this week. From a report: The founders of Blix, the maker of the “BlueMail” app, say they believe the move was retaliation for their outspokenness…
Microsoft Worked With Google To Bring Progressive Web Apps To the Play Store
Microsoft has been collaborating with Google to ensure that their tools interoperate and can help developers get their Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) into the Play Store. From a report: “We’re glad to announce a new collaboration between Microsoft and Google for the benefit of the web developer community,” Microsoft’s Judah Gabriel Himango announced. “Microsoft’s PWABuilder and Google’s Bubblewrap are now working…
Google Removes 25 Android Apps Caught Stealing Facebook Credentials
Google has removed this month 25 Android apps from the Google Play Store that were caught stealing Facebook credentials. From a report: Before being taken down, the 25 apps were collectively downloaded more than 2.34 million times. The malicious apps were developed by the same threat group and despite offering different features, under the hood, all the apps worked the same….