offbeat Web app turns your old phone into a new smart display ScreenWall's creator tells El Reg he doesn't want those obsolete devices going to waste
Applications EU waves through open source age-check tool to keep kids safe online 'Online platforms can rely on our app,' says Commish, 'there are no more excuses'
On-Prem UK justice system unplugs from ancient datacenters after five-year slog 37 court applications shifted off failing kit, though some are camping in a temporary hosting facility
AI + ML Apple, Google pulled into Grok controversy as campaigners demand app store takedown The chatbot's challenges no longer just Elon Musk’s problem, as campaigners call on tech giants to step in
Personal Tech Apple’s new 15% mini-app deal finally gets Tencent to cut Cupertino in When is an app not an app? When it’s a mini app inside another app
Public Sector UK's digital hospital plan meets analog reality check Experts ask: Where will staff come from, and what about gran's flip phone?
Applications Rethinking application delivery for the hybrid world Why bake apps into your OS when you can deliver them as a side dish?
AI + ML Vibe coding platform Anything arrives, our hands-on suggests caution Making apps is as easy as selling t-shirts, claims vibe coding startup
Offbeat Want to play billionaire for a day? This app lets you rent your own armed goon squad Black Escalade motorcade sold separately - of course
Personal Tech Garmin Connect outage leaves folks unable to share their fitness virtue signaling RUN/STOP
Bootnotes Biz Daemon is too cool to respond to fans of his big screen work If only all Android apps were so effortlessly stylish
SaaS China's tech giants buy into Indonesia – just like US tech giants did in India GoTo commits to the Alibaba Cloud, and Alibaba promises not to sell its stake
OSes The Windows Control Panel joins the ranks of the undead As users wail, Microsoft tweaks its text to drop the word 'deprecated'
Offbeat China's rideshare champ Didi gives users the option to report stinky cars Also testing allowing women to chose female drivers
Public Sector China starts testing national cyber-ID before consultation on the idea closes Eighty-one apps signed up to pilot facial recognition and real name ID system
Security Japan mandates app to ensure national ID cards aren't forged First delays, then data leaks – now fraud detection needed at point of use
SaaS Ridesharing makes new and unique mess in Japan's taxi industry Minister accuses cab drivers of gaming algos to score more lucrative fares
Public Sector China's internet cleanup campaigns are going so well it needs a new one to protect kids Years of crackdowns haven't stopped some revolting stuff
On-Prem Founder of Indian ride-share biz Ola calls for 70-hour work week 'A generation will have to do penance' says Bhavish Aggarwal
AI + ML Figma pulls AI design tool for seemingly plagiarizing Apple's Weather app AI is 'like the fast food of creativity'
Public Sector Like Uber, but for rainy days: Japan eases its ridesharing restrictions Nation turns once again to technology to help with declining population
Public Sector Tokyo takes on Tinder by developing its own dating app it hopes will arrest population decline We're from the government and we want you to find love and procreate
Public Sector Indonesia's president orders government to stop developing new applications Nation of 17,000 islands operates 27,000 bits of software
Personal Tech Oh Sonos! App update borks users' favorite features and worse Blind customers complain they've been forgotten in rollout of latest UI
Software Imagine if Uber offered car loans, not just rides. Its Indonesian analog will do this soon Superapp GoTo has an angle on everything – even taming TikTok
Software Japanese and Singaporean devs battle over gamified crowdsourced telco maintenance app You read that right – it's a bit like Pokémon Go, but for telephone poles
Personal Tech India's Uber clone Ola Cabs hails ride out of the international market Australian drivers given two days' notice, UK and New Zealand services also shuttered
Cyber-crime Execs in Japan busted for winning dev bids then outsourcing to North Koreans Government issues stern warning over despot money-making scheme
Personal Tech India's competition regulator orders Google Play payment probe Choice of alternative payment providers labelled 'illusory' – because none existed
Public Sector India celebrates rapid adoption of its internet of livestock Latest piece of digital public infrastructure is positively beastly
Software Grab shrank its superapp by a quarter in order to survive Large APKs and disk footprints spell doom in a developing market
Software Superapp Gojek fine-tunes each new error message for a week. What? Why? Multilingual service spans five nations and finds fancy graphics improve engagement
Software Singapore finally deletes its COVID-era contact tracing data Except for the data used for a controversial murder investigation. That stays. Forever
Science Elon Musk's brain-computer interface outfit Neuralink tests its tech on a human Controling prostheses? Mr X imagines an app for that
Personal Tech Bricking it: Do you actually own anything digital? From ebooks, to videos and software, the answer is increasingly no
Software Beijing demands government apps must shed their bureaucratic skins Its hard to disagree with a mandate to make government digital services fit for people, not box-tickers
Applications Scribbling limits in free version of Evernote set to test users' patience Deckchairs continue to be rearranged on the jotting platform?
Offbeat Italy seizes from Airbnb $836M in alleged unpaid taxes Biz says it's just following EU rules instead
On-Prem Overheating datacenter stopped 2.5 million bank transactions Running infrastructure in the tropics has its challenges – but so do failed disaster recovery plans
Software Big Tech offers free training courses on India's new digital skills platform Mobile-first service aims to bring e-learning to the masses, covering tech and plenty more
Cyber-crime Coffee Meets Bagel outage caused by cybercriminals deleting data and files Did you potentially miss the love match of your life in week-long blackout? Nope, nobody could access it
Software So you want to save energy? Ditch web apps and go native, boffins say Take up less CPU time and memory? What amazing tech is this?!
Applications Tokkers can Tok like Tweeters can Tweet – for now Scavenging for disgruntled former Twitter users? Fellow vulture, we honor thee.
Applications Users accuse Intuit of 'heavy-handed' support changes on QuickBooks for Desktop Customers either face update cliff edge or loss of access in licensing shift
Applications Buckle up for meetings on the road as Cisco brings Webex to Audi autos Have you considered taking up cycling?
Applications Most of UK agriculture dept's customer interactions are paper based Only 20% of biz apps directly supported, with 30% requiring 'hypercare' at farming org
Personal Tech Singapore tells its people: Go forth and block those ads As it preps to launch WhatsApp scam-shredder
Security Brit cops rapped over app that recorded 200k phone calls Officers didn't know software was saving personal data and neither did people on other end
Personal Tech Google: If your Android app can create accounts, it better be easy to delete them, too Awoogah, awooooogah, new policy coming for developers
Legal Google (sort of) loses in Indian antitrust appeal $161 million slap-on-the-wrist fine stands, but major restrictions are eased
Personal Tech SHEIN has the look of America's next tech-meets-geopolitics fit-up Chinese fast fashion vendor could be this season's TikTok thanks to alleged tax evasion, slave labour, toxic goods, and an outsized carbon footprint
Software Singapore admits it should have explained COVID app data could be used by cops Island nation reworks digital infrastructure found to have slowed down pandemic response
Personal Tech Beijing's done its sums and found a billion netizens watching short video services Meanwhile, TikTok analog Douyin cleans up 5,000 misbehaving e-commerce accounts
Networks Mozilla says 80 percent of Google Play's app safety labels are inaccurate Labelling scheme offers developers easy loopholes to play down personal info spreading
Personal Tech Ancient art of banning rideshare companies revived in India, this time on motorbikes Two-wheelers outnumber cars three to one in India, so promised licences mean Uber and Ola aren't off-road forever
Applications Singapore pulls plug on COVID tracking program Tells residents to turn in dongles and uninstall apps, but keeps registration system alive – just in case
Legal Google gives in to India Android antitrust verdict, kinda Tech behemoth says it will appeal 'certain aspects' of the decision
Software Beijing lifts restrictions on rideshare giant DiDi Chuxing After eighteen month exile, it's allowed to recruit new customers
Personal Tech Asia rules the mobile world: more users, more often, generating more cash Chinese developers are cashing in as the region buys in to TikTok and games
Software Here's something communism is good at: Making smartphones less annoying Beijing cracks down on undeletable pre-installed bloatware and dodgy apps
Software China bins its COVID tracking app Tracked location and kept records of phone calls, and determined ability to travel. Which China will keep doing with other tech, for other reasons
OSes MacOS9.app: A tour de force of emulation and integration The 'Infinite Mac' is an astonishing demonstration of emulation and integration between some of the best tech of the '90s and the '20s
Software Japan's LINE shutters crypto exchange to focus on less controversial blockbiz Decision is unrelated to recent crypto crashes, presages pivot to some kind of tokenised chat
Software Apple to end policy that charged South Korean devs higher App Store commissions Korea's antitrust org to develop a platform to respond to Big Tech’s sneaky ways
Applications Apple finds way to squeeze social network apps until pips squeak And get over here, NFT slingers, Cupertino wants a word, too
Applications Russia's Facebook-like VK removed from Apple App Store Apps still available on Google Play, digital ministry says it's investigating
Security Indian court directs chat app Telegram to disclose details of copyright infringers Judge says that servers being located in Singapore is not a get-out clause
PaaS + IaaS Deploying disaster-proof apps may be easier than you think When the next cloud datacenter fails, will your software go with it?
Applications South Korea's Kakao removes external payment method amid Google Play standoff Google gets its way after meeting with internet company and Korea Communications Commission
Offbeat China finds and kills 42,000 counterfeit apps – many of them investment scams Constant crackdowns on bad online behavior don't seem to deter crims
Applications Telegram adds paid tier as it cracks 700 million users Without so much as a mention of encryption, but with a pastel-hued emoji-heavy nod to ‘sustainable monetization’
Software Singapore's Grab enters maps-as-a-service market Takes on global players with data sourced from customers, plus paid contributions from delivery drivers
Personal Tech Big Tech's maps led ride-sharing giant Grab astray It now builds its own and says it has become the largest contributor to OpenStreetMap in Southeast Asia
Legal Beijing reverses ban on tech companies listing offshore Announcement comes as Chinese ride-hailing DiDi Chuxing delists from NYSE under pressure
Applications Apple to bin apps that go three years without updates Developers will be given 90 days to get them up to code, or face banishment
Security Skyhigh Security rises from McAfee-FireEye’s SSE CEO chats to us about zero trust, data protection, and more
Software ServiceNow preps mobile apps for real-time transformation tracking Shifting to measuring results of its trademark workflows, not just building 'em. And it comes with a 'bat-phone'
Security Swipe left: Snoops use dating apps to hook sources, says Australian Five Eyes boss Warns that foreign interference needs more attention than terrorism
Software Microsoft offers 'open' app store to draw regulators away from Activision takeover Windows giant will say anything at this point to protect $69bn deal – and stick boot into Google, Apple
Personal Tech Will I inhale coronavirus at this restaurant? There’s an app for that Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward measures ventilation quality so diners can breathe easy
Legal China: Bars app that often hosted dissenting conversations Also China: This one guy sent feedback to the government online, it was adopted, that shows we’re a democracy
Security Beijing twirls ban-hammer at 84 more apps it says need to stop slurping excess data Online lending apps and more given fifteen days to ‘rectify’ behaviour
Security Google Play to require privacy labels on apps in 2022, almost two years after Apple Developers want to do this, says Google. Ummm ... guys, you do remember the thousands of malware nightmares you’ve hosted and sold?
Security What not to expect when you're expecting: Fertility apps may be selling intimate health secrets Majority aren't GDPR compliant and Google Play categorises them badly, leading to lax practices
Applications NHS COVID-19 app update blocked by Apple, Google over location privacy fears New version for England dead on arrival just as UK eases lockdown rules
Applications Google binned two apps by China’s Baidu, which says researchers got it wrong by linking it to personal info leaks Palo Alto Networks spotted subscriber IDs and MAC addresses on the move
Applications China reveals audit of 320,000 local apps, with 34 booted from app stores and hundreds of devs warned they could suffer same fate Privacy crackdown in the land of ubiquitous surveillance, where 5G now blankets all cities
Applications What is your 'intent'? Google Assistant opens door to chatting with third-party apps But as ever, users, you don't need to yell into the phone... it's not the 1970s
Applications NHS COVID-19 launch: Risk-scoring algorithm criticised, the downloads, plus public told to 'upgrade their phones' So... totally seamless then
Applications China lashes India’s app ban, calls for return to ‘win-win cooperation’ Nice economy you’ve got there. It’d be a shame if the World Trade Organisation got involved
Applications NHS tests COVID-19 contact-tracing app that may actually work properly – EU neighbors lent a helping hand Not just Germany stepping up to the plate – Ireland, too, we're told
Applications India bans 59 apps it says have privacy, national security problems. In a massive coincidence, they’re all Chinese
Applications NY Attorney General warns Apple, Google to police COVID-19 tracing apps in their souks – or she will herself
Applications Google India says Play store policy, not geopolitics, behind removal of Chinese-app-deleting app
Applications Switzerland 'first' country to roll out contact-tracing app using Apple-Google APIs to track coronavirus spread
Applications Rabobank security cert expires and gives its Australian Android app a case of internet-blindness
Applications Revolut-won: British banking app gets half a billion bucks in backing, seeks to subvert today's market incumbents
Applications Yo, Imma let you finish, but for the 6,000 people still using that app on a daily basis ... we have a question: why?
Applications Iowa has already won the worst IT rollout award of 2020: Rap for crap caucus app chaps in vote zap flap
Applications UK parcel firm Yodel plugs tracking app's random yaps about where on map to snap up strangers' tat
Applications Facebook iOS app silently turns on your phone camera. Ah, relax – it's just a bug, lol!?
Applications 40 million emoji-addicted keyboard app users left with $18m bill – after malware sneaks into Play Store yet again
Applications Here's that hippie, pro-privacy, pro-freedom Apple y'all so love: Hong Kong protest safety app banned from iOS store
Applications Generous Google gives Chrome users Inbox Zero: Sign-in outage boots own browser out of webmail, services
Applications Hey criminals, need a getaway vehicle? There's an app for that... Car share tool halts ops amid crime wave, arrests
Applications 'Sharing of user data is routine, yet far from transparent' is not what you want to hear about medical apps. But 2019 is gonna 2019
Applications We don't want to be Latch key-less kids: NYC tenants sue landlords for bunging IoT 'smart' lock on their front door
Applications Furious Apple revokes Facebook's enty app cert after Zuck's crew abused it to slurp private data
Applications Security? We've heard of it, say web-app devs. 31 in 33 codebases have at least one big bad vuln
Applications Grindr: Yeah, we shared your HIV status info with other companies – but we didn't charge them!
Applications Uber, quit shoveling money into the fire for one second and explain that hack – US senators
Applications Super Cali goes ballistic, Gatorade app is bogus: Even the sound of it is something quite atrocious
Applications Woman makes app that lets people rate and review you, Yelp-style. Now SHE'S upset people are 'reviewing' her
Applications Cram my freebies into Android phones and get a royalty discount, says Microsoft (allegedly)
