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The Competition Commission of India (CCI) imposed a Rs 1,337 crore fine on tech giant Google in 2022. India’s market competition watchdog cited the company’s control over the Android platform and even made some demands. Google requested the country’s apex court to revoke the penalty and block the demands made by CCI. The Supreme Court has recently passed its decision and has upheld CCI’s demands over the company. According to Supreme Court’s order, Google will not only have to pay the imposed fine but will also have to allow third-party app stores in the Play Store within the coming week. Reacting to Supreme Court’s order, Google claimed this move will “hurt consumers” and “stall growth” of the Android platform.
CCI demands enforced on Google
As per the CCI’s demands, Google will no longer be allowed to force phone makers to pre-install the company’s apps on Android devices to use the Play Store. The ruling also force’s the tech giant to enable access to the Play Store on Android “forks,” which is a heavily customised version of the platform.
Apart from this, CCI has also asked Google to host third-party app stores on its Play Store. The company also cannot make Android restrict sideloading apps “in any manner.” The Supreme Court has also mentioned that the company has seven days from the point of the ruling to comply with the orders.

How third-party developers have reacted to this ruling
According to a report by Reuters, some Indian developers have reacted to this ruling with content. MapmyIndia is a mapping service that had to compete with Google Maps since 2004. The company’s CEO has said that they were “elated” at the news. Another third-party Android app store platform Indus OS also deemed happy with the decision. CEO of Indus has called the move a “watershed moment” and has claimed that this move will promote the use of its apps. Google has not declared any official statement about how the company will implement these changes within the coming week.
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The semiconductor shortage of the past few years has significantly hindered production for all big players in the tech industry. Gaming giant Nintendo had also dialled down its production of Switch consoles. However, now with the chip crisis on the wane, the company is readying itself to boost Nintendo Switch production, as per a Bloomberg report.
The report states that, back in November, Nintendo had decreased its sales projection for Switch consoles. However, there may have been a change in the Japanese firm’s plans as it now prepares to boost manufacturing instead.

Nintendo expects demand for Switch to stay strong another year
The six-year-old device may be in its twilight years but sales of around 21 million units, during FY 2022-23, have apparently given assurance to Nintendo. The company reportedly expects the demand for Switch to stay strong for at least another year. In fact, insider information claims that the Mario creator has intimated to suppliers of its plans to increase production – although there’s no specific target at the moment.
Despite a clear intention to ramp up manufacturing, a change down the middle isn’t out of the question either and will depend on buying trends among gamers.

Analysts don’t see a sustained demand for Switch, expect sales to dwindle
Given the console’s ageing hardware, analysts don’t rate its appeal to stay intact throughout the year. The report cites USB Securities analyst Kenji Fukuyama saying, “Sales in the recent holiday season were not that strong even with improved supply.” He added, “People will soon start speculating about next-generation hardware and are likely to refrain from buying the old system. A slowdown in Switch sales momentum is unavoidable.”
Hideki Yasuda, Toyo Securities analyst, noted that trying what worked in the past would help Nintendo improve sales. Last year, the firm rolled out a special ‘Splatoon 3’-themed Nintendo Switch and attracted more buyers. According to Yasuda, a special edition themed around ‘Legend of Zelda’ – whose highly anticipated sequel ‘Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’ is set to release in March – would improve sales.

You might have thought just about every aspect of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S23 phones had leaked at this point, but not so – the rumor mill keeps coming up with more information about these flagship devices ahead of their February 1 launch.

Today we’ve got another tidbit of information from well-known provider of leaks Ice Universe (opens in new tab) (via GSMArena (opens in new tab)), who has taken to Chinese social media platform Weibo to give us some details of the portrait video mode on the Galaxy S23 Ultra.

Twitter is yet to offer compensation to a majority of employees Elon Musk fired soon after his acquisition of Twitter in late October. It was reported that even those who got severance were not happy with what they received. In the latest development, media reports suggest that about 800 ex-employees are seeking damages for the compensation Musk promised.
The Verge’s Alex Heath says that 800 laid off employees are seeking damages for the compensation that was promised but wasn’t given. He also notes that “Twitter is on the hook to pay the fees for these individual arbitration cases, which combined could total tens of millions of dollars.”

This is not the first time that reports of laid-off people using Twitter made rounds on the internet. In fact, the social media company is facing multiple cases, including for the way Musk handled the company after deal completion and many conference rooms at Twitter office being converted to bedrooms.
Twitter has also been sued by the building owners for non-payment of rent where the company’s San Francisco office is located. Recently, its Singapore office was also vacated for non-payment of rent.
Ex-employees told to drop lawsuit
Earlier this week, Twitter secured a ruling that allowed the social media company to force several laid-off workers who sued the company over their termination to pursue their claims via individual arbitration rather than a class-action lawsuit.

Five former Twitter employees accused the company of failing to give adequate notice before laying them off after Musk’s acquisition. However, a court asked these ex-employees to pursue their claims individually, citing agreements they signed with the company.
Twitter’s revenue is down
Earlier this week, a senior executive reportedly informed the company employee that the company’s daily revenue on January 17 was 40% lower than the same day a year ago. Siddharth Rao, an engineering manager overseeing the engineers working on Twitter’s ad business, also said that over 500 of Twitter’s top advertisers have paused spending on Twitter since Musk took over in late October, reports The Information.

Meta has been fined again – this time for violating EU data protection regulations with its instant messaging platform WhatsApp. Ireland’s regulator has imposed a penalty of 5.5 million euros on the social media giant, according to multiple online reports.
The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) found the group acted “in breach of its obligations in relation to transparency,” the watchdog said, adding that the company relied on an incorrect legal basis “for its processing of personal data for the purposes of service improvement and security. The DPC has given the Facebook-parent company six months to comply.
The Irish regulator also said that the recent fine was considerably less because of a 225 million euros fine imposed on WhatsApp for “breaches of this and other transparency obligations over the same period of time”.

What Meta has to say
“We strongly believe that the way the service operates is both technically and legally compliant. We disagree with the decision and we intend to appeal,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said.
It is to be noted that Meta announced earlier this month that it would appeal the January 4 decision against two of its other apps Facebook and Instagram. It said that the company will appeal the substance of the decision and also plan to challenge the size of the fines imposed.

Facebook, Instagram fines
In the beginning of this year, Ireland DPC fined Meta and asked to pay 390 million euros, 210 million euros for violating European Union privacy rules with Facebook’s practices and 180 million euros over similar violations with Instagram.
A fine imposed on the company might potentially put parts of its ad business at risk.
In 2018, both Facebook and Instagram released new terms of service that essentially allowed the company to process user data for target advertising. Complaints alleged that users were forced to accept the new guidelines, which is in violation of the privacy rules in the EU.

iQoo is set to launch the next smartphone in the Neo series, the Neo 7, on February 16, after it brought the Neo 6 last year. The iQoo Neo 7 series was introduced in China last year, including the Neo 7 and Neo 7 SE.
The Indian variant of the iQoo Neo 7 is confirmed to come with the Mediatek Dimensity 8200 processor, which is based on the 4nm process node of TSMC. The Dimensity 8200 processor comes with high frame rate gaming, MTK hyper engine 6.0, AI processor, MTK Imagiq 7.0, MTK MiraVision 785 Display and faster performance.
iQoo Neo7 to come with Dimensity 8200 in India
This confirms that the iQoo Neo 7 launching in India would be different from the iQoo Neo 7 that retails in China as the Dimensity 9000+ chipset powers it. Also, confirming that the Indian variant of iQoo Neo 7 is the iQoo Neo 7 SE, which comes with the Dimensity 8200 processor in China. The company says that the Neo 7 will have the highest AnTuTu score in its price segment of more than 8,90,000.
iQoo has also confirmed that the Neo 7 will come with a 6.78-inch Samsung E5 120Hz AMOLED display and 120W fast charging. Further, the company confirmed that the Neo 7 will come in two colours – black and blue.
The smartphone could come with up to 512GB of internal storage and up to 12GB RAM. The iQoo Neo 7 would come with FunTouch OS based on Android 13.
As for cameras, the iQoo Neo7 can be seen having a triple camera setup, which could include a 64MP primary camera, 2MP macro and a 2MP depth sensor. On the front, the smartphone might come with a 16MP camera for selfies.
We will have to wait for the prices until February 16, but the company has confirmed that the smartphone will be retailing through Amazon India and iQoo online store.

Fire Boltt, an Indian smartwatch brand, has announced its expansion into the South East Asia market. The brand has begun operations in Singapore and Vietnam as part of its aggressive international growth plans. The brand recently also ventured into the UAE market.
To launch its operations in Singapore and Vietnam, Fire Boltt has partnered with SmartechSG Private Limited. The company plans to initially offer its top-selling smartwatches, including the Visionary, Invincible, Ring, and Talk 2, as well as watches from the Ninja Series, for sale on e-commerce platforms in both markets, with plans to expand into offline markets in the region gradually.
Speaking about the announcement, Arnav Kishore, Founder & CEO at Fire-Boltt said, “International expansion has always been one of the priorities of Fire-Boltt, especially now with the start of home-grown production under “Make in India” initiative”. This is a proud moment for an Indian brand to be available in international markets to serve consumers across the globe. The kind of response we have received from our customers is overwhelming which helps us work even more aggressively toward innovation and fulfilling the needs of the consumers. We look forward to achieving bigger milestones in the near future”
Adding to the excitement, Aayushi Kishore, Co-Founder, Fire-Boltt, said, “We are thrilled to announce our expansion into the South Asian market. We have handpicked our top-selling products like Visionary, Invincible, etc., in line with the research we carried out in these markets. We have also carried out changes to the display screen, language availability, marketing messaging & even packaging to be suitable for each of these markets. Going by the phenomenal response we have received so far; we are encouraged to expand further in the South East Asia and the APAC region. We are also working actively on consumer feedback for design principles from some of these markets to bring in the best for our customers in India and globally.”
Commenting on the launch, SmartechSG Pvt Limited said, “We are proud to be chosen by Fire-Boltt to launch its South-East Asia operations. This global smartwatch brand gives customers excellent options of feature-rich smartwatches at unbeatable price points.”

Cybercriminals have discovered a new way to potentially infect Android smartphones with malware by compromising WiFi routers in public places like cafes, airports, and hotels. Researchers from Kaspersky recently reported on the new domain name system (DNS) changer functionality used in the Roaming Mantis campaign. The Roaming Mantis campaign, first observed by Kaspersky in 2018, uses malicious Android package (APK) files to control infected Android devices and steal device information, as well as a phishing option for iOS devices and crypto-mining capabilities for PCs.
The new DNS changer functionality directs the device connected to a compromised WiFi router to a server under the control of cybercriminals instead of a legitimate DNS server. On the malicious landing page, the potential victim is prompted to download malware that can control the device or steal credentials. Currently, the threat actor behind Roaming Mantis is exclusively targeting routers located in South Korea and manufactured by a popular South Korean network equipment vendor.
However, Kaspersky researchers predict that the perpetrators may soon update the DNS changer function to target WiFi routers in other regions as well. In December 2022, Kaspersky observed 508 malicious APK downloads in South Korea. An investigation of malicious landing pages found that attackers are also targeting other regions using smishing instead of DNS changers. Smishing employs text messages to spread malicious links that direct the victim to a malicious site to download malware onto the device or steal user information via a phishing website.
Japan topped the list of targeted countries with nearly 25,000 malicious APK downloads, followed by Austria and France. Germany, Turkey, Malaysia, and India were also targeted. According to Kaspersky Security Network (KSN) statistics in September-December 2022, the highest detection rate of the Wroba.o malware was in France (54.4%), Japan (12.1%), and the U.S. (10.1%).
“When an infected smartphone connects to “healthy” routers in various public places like cafes, bars, libraries, hotels, shopping malls, airports, or even homes, Wroba.o malware can compromise these routers and affect other connected devices as well. The new DNS changer functionality can manage all device communications using the compromised WiFi router, such as redirecting to malicious hosts and disabling updates of security products. We believe that this discovery is highly critical for the cybersecurity of Android devices because it is capable of being widely spread in the targeted regions”, says Suguru Ishimaru, Senior Security Researcher at Kaspersky.
In order to protect your internet connection from this infection, Kaspersky researchers recommend referring to your router’s user manual to verify that your DNS settings haven’t been tampered with or contact your ISP for support. It also recommends changing the default login and password for the admin web interface of the router and regularly updating your router’s firmware from the official source. Additionally, refrain from installing router firmware from third-party sources and avoid using the third-party repository.

ChatGPT has surprised masses with its ability to generate text based on input provided to it. Technology giants like Google and Microsoft are talking about it, and it seems that Asia’s richest man Gautam Adani is also mesmerised by the prowess of the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) 2023 concluded on January 20, and soon after Adani wrote a LinkedIn post showering praise on AI chatbot and said that he was addicted to ChatGPT since he started using it.

Adani has ChatGPT ‘addiction’
Adani wrote that he observed the discussions at the WEF around advancements in AI or, “to be more precise, we should call it generative AI.”
“It was the buzzword at this year’s event. The recent release of ChatGPT (I must admit to some addiction since I started using it) is a transformational moment in the democratisation of AI given its astounding capabilities as well as comical failures. But there can be no doubt that generative AI will have massive ramifications,” the chairman of the Adani Group said.
Generative AI could be dangerous: Adani
He recalled how, nearly five decades ago, the pioneering of chip design and large-scale chip production put the US ahead of the rest of the world and led to the rise of many partner countries and tech behemoths like Intel, Qualcomm, TSMC, etc. He said that chipmaking also paved the way for precision and guided weapons used in modern warfare “with more chips mounted than ever before.”

Comparing generative AI with precision and guided weapons, Adani noted that “Generative AI holds the same potential and dangers, and the race is already on, with China outnumbering the US in the number of most-cited scientific papers on AI. This is a race that will quickly get as complex and as entangled as the ongoing silicon chip war.”
He also pointed out that in 2021, Chinese researchers published twice as many academic papers on AI as their American counterparts.
“Great Fracture” to help India, says Adani
Adani said that he was surprised to read about massive layoffs by the “infallible” tech industry and economists’ warnings about the global recession in the third quarter of 2023. He also pointed out that the ongoing geo-economic fragmentation and weaponisation of economic policies that the world is witnessing could be helpful for India.
“We are witnessing the Great Fracture (a term coined by the UN Secretary General) – the decoupling of China and the US, which has massive knock-on global consequences and will severely dilute economic globalisation,” he wrote in the LinkedIn post.

“All this means that conventional trade patterns will transform as the parts of the western world attempt to reduce their reliance on both Russia and China. Needless to say, this becomes an opportunity for India and other ASEAN countries to benefit from the diversification of supply chain risks that can be expected,” the businessman highlighted.
It is to be noted that several companies, including Apple and Google, have been exploring other options than China to establish their manufacturing plants due to geopolitical tensions.

Google has rolled out a new update for its Voice platform on the the Play Store and the Apple App Store. The latest Google Voice update has removed a feature from the app on both Android and iOS. Smart Reply suggestions is a feature that the tech giant introduced to the Google Voice app in February 2022. The release notes for Google Voice on the Play Store and App Store confirm the removal: “Smart reply is no longer supported.” Google has not provided any specific explantation for removing the feature and it seems to be a server-side change.
Google Voice Smart Reply: What is it
This feature has the ability to judge the last received message and suggest users with up to three contextual replies. The pills that contained the replies used to appear above the “Type a message” field in the Google Voice app. With the Smart Reply feature, users were able to send messages immeadtiatly by tapping on these pills.
Why Google may have removed the feature
Google may consider Voice as an enterprise calling service first that’s aimed primarily towards businesses. In such a case, texting might not be a priority as the app has continued to lack RCS support. This might be the reason for the company to remove Smart Reply from the Google Voice app.

Smart Reply suggestions: Avialabilty
Users can still access Smart Reply suggestions as part of notifications. However, this will primarily an Android capability. Google may see it as a system-level feature and may not implement it separately for each individual app. Users will still be able to access Smart Replies in Google Messages, Gmail and even Google Docs comments.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has said in a staff memo that the company will cut about 12,000 jobs, more than 6% of its global workforce. The layoffs will affect teams across the company including recruiting and corporate functions, as well as some engineering and products teams. Accpording to Bloomberg, Google has confirmed that these job cuts are global and will impact US employees immediately.
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