Apple turns post-lawsuit tables on Epic, will block Fortnite on iOS

ARS Technica

Weeks after Epic’s apparent “win” against Apple in the Epic Games v. Apple case, Apple issued a letter denying Epic’s request to have its developer license agreement reinstated until all legal options are exhausted. This effectively bans Fortnite and any other software from the game maker from returning to Apple’s App Store for years.

Epic was handed an initial victory when the US District Court for Northern California issued an injunction on September 10 ordering Apple to open up in-game payment options for all developers. At the time, the injunction was something of a moral victory for Epic—allowing the developer to keep its in-game payment systems in its free-to-play Fortnite intact while avoiding paying Apple a 30 percent fee that had previously covered all in-app transactions.

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Amazon assembles video streaming apps to fight with Netflix and Disney in India

Tech Crunch

Amazon has launched Prime Video Channels in India, allowing its customers to subscribe to eight streaming services including Discovery+ and Mubi from one hub (Prime Video website or app), the latest in a series of efforts by the U.S. giant to win customers in the South Asian nation.

The new offering makes it easier for users to login and pay for additional streaming services, the company said. To make things more enticing, Amazon said the services are available at discounted prices for the first year. Discovery+ costs $4 per year, Mubi $27, Hoichoi ($8.2), DocuBay $6.8, ErosNow $4, Lionsgate Play $9.5, manoramaMax $9.5, and ShortsTV $4.

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EU rules to force USB-C chargers for all phones

BBC

Manufacturers will be forced to create a universal charging solution for phones and small electronic devices, under a new rule proposed by the European Commission (EC). The aim is to reduce waste by encouraging consumers to re-use existing chargers when buying a new device.

All smartphones sold in the EU must have USB-C chargers, the proposal said. Apple has warned such a move would harm innovation.

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This new SMS smishing malware is targeting Android mobile users

TechRadar Pro

Security researchers from Proofpoint company Cloudmark have discovered a new piece of mobile malware strain spread via SMS that cybercriminals are using to target users across the US and Canada with Covid-19 lures.

The malware has been dubbed TangleBot because of its many levels of obfuscation and how it is able to control a multitude of entangled device functions including contacts, SMS and phone capabilities, call logs, internet access, camera and microphone.

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Mobile gaming will bring in $116bn in 2024 – Newzoo

Gamesindustry.biz

Newzoo is projecting the global mobile gaming market to surpass $116 billion in 2024.

The market intelligence firm today released its 2021 Global Mobile Market Report, saying direct consumer spending on mobile gaming around the world will see an 11.2% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2019 through 2024.

As the company has previously stated, its expectation for 2021 is that the mobile games market will total $90.7 billion.

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Identifying Mobile Ad Fraud Doesn’t Have To Be Painful

Forbes

Given all the changes digital advertising has undergone in the past year with Apple and Google announcing major platform changes, staying vigilant against ad fraud may have taken a back seat. Unfortunately, however, ad fraud is never going away. Digital advertising operates within a complex system that has many loopholes where fraud can infiltrate, but with some common sense and guidance, advertisers can mitigate fraud that makes it past prevention measures.

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Mobile payments and super apps in Latin America

The Paypers

Juan Pablo Ortega, Rappi: ‘Technology is changing how we do things every day and super apps are helping us save time that we can now spend doing what we like’

Mobile payments in Latin America have been evolving at an unprecedented rate in the last twelve months. For delivery apps like Rappi, cash is still a predominant payment method in most of the region but especially in Colombia and Mexico. Unlike its neighbours, Brazil is the only country where credit cards are widely used across customer segments – however, debit cards have been blocked by issuers for card-not-present transactions mostly due to high fraud levels.

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Conflicts between Lithuania and China escalate with a mobile boycott

Dealmakerz

The call follows a report from the Lithuanian state cybersecurity agency.

The agency found that the Xiaomi Mi 10T 5G phones have software with a built-in ability to detect and monitor the terms being searched on the phone – terms like “Free Tibet” and “Long live Taiwan independence.”

The function is disabled on phones sold within the European Union, but according to the survey, it can be easily activated remotely at any time.

“Our recommendation is not to buy new Chinese phones and to get rid of the ones you bought as soon as possible,” Lithuanian Deputy Defense Minister Margres Apokevicius said when he met with local media on Tuesday and presented the investigation. Reuters news agency reports.

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Planting The Seeds Of A Crypto Revolution: How Blockchain & Decentralized Finance Can Feed The Poor In Africa

Forbes

A cryptocurrency firm is aiming to tackle food poverty in Africa with an ambitious mobile voucher system that will give rural farmers better access to finance for growing crops.

KamPay will initially draw funding from a network of lotteries operated on its soon-to-be-launched digital wallet, before expanding into wider pools of decentralized finance, chief executive Chris Cleverly told me in an interview.

“There’s always been a culture in southern Africa – certainly in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi – around this voucher system,” he explained. “The government used to give out vouchers to individual farmers. The farmers would then take the voucher down to a store to get a subsidized price on their fertilizer.

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Number of connected IoT devices growing 9% to 12.3 billion globally, cellular IoT now surpassing 2 billion

IoT Business  News

IoT Analytics, this month launched the State of IoT – Summer 2021 and the updated Cellular IoT & Low-Power Wide-Area (LPWA) Market Tracker (Q3 2021), finding that the number of connected IoT devices is growing 9% globally.

Knud Lasse Lueth, CEO at IoT Analytics, says: “Initially, the chip shortage was a by-product of the COVID-19 impact on the supply chain. However, it has become its own issue; the supply capacity is not available to meet global chip demand. The chip shortage first impacted the automotive industry and then extended to other segments, such as smartphones, televisions, gaming, and IoT.”

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