Blocked

In a surprising turn of events, the highly anticipated sequel to the Oscar-winning animated film, 'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,' titled 'Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,' has hit a roadblock in its release plans for the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The movie, directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson, and featuring a script by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Dave Callaham, failed to pass local censorship laws, according to sources familiar with the situation. 'Spider-Man:…

A US judge late on Tuesday granted the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) request to temporarily block Microsoft's acquisition of video game maker Activision Blizzard and set a hearing next week.US District Judge Edward Davila scheduled a two-day evidentiary hearing on the FTC's request for a preliminary injunction for June 22–23 in San Francisco. Without a court order, Microsoft could have closed on the $69 billion (about Rs. 5,68,008 crore) deal as early as Friday.The FTC, which enforces antitrust law, asked an…

The US Federal Trade Commission will file an injunction blocking Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, a source familiar with a planned court filing said on Monday.Microsoft is seeking to acquire the Call of Duty videogame maker in a $69 billion (nearly Rs. 5,68,800 crore) deal.The EU approved the Activision deal in May, but British competition authorities blocked the takeover in April.The FTC, which enforces antitrust law, initially asked a judge to block the transaction in early December, arguing it would give…

If you're restoring your iPhone today there's only one version of iOS for you — iOS 16.5 is now the one version of iOS that you can install.That news comes after Apple stopped signing iOS 16.4.1, a move which prevents people from installing it afresh on iPhones that are either still running older versions of iOS 16 or are being downgraded from iOS 16.5.Apple is of course already testing iOS 16.6 with developers as well as those who are on the public beta program, but it isn't yet ready for primetime and is unlikely to be…

The Steam launch of Dolphin, an open-source emulator for the Wii and the GameCube, has been delayed indefinitely (via PC Gamer). A blog post by the developers says that’s due to a Nintendo “cease and desist citing the DMCA” (an earlier version of the blog post simply said “issued a DMCA” but it has since been updated) after they’d announced plans for a Steam launch in March.It is with much disappointment that we have to announce that the Dolphin on Steam release has been indefinitely postponed. We were notified by Valve…

Google made a big splash at I/O 2023 earlier this month, removing the waitlist for its ChatGPT AI rival called Bard. The company also made it available in more than 180 countries. What Google conveniently left out of the keynote was a key detail about the markets in which Bard wouldn’t be available. China and Hong Kong are two such markets, although they’re unsurprising given that Google isn’t present in the country. But the entire European Union can’t access Google Bard yet either, at least not officially.…

PLANETARY SCIENCE Mars rover spots signs of big river NASA’s Perseverance rover has snapped images indicating a river on Mars once flowed fast and furiously, scientists said last week. The waterway was part of a network that flowed into Jezero crater, which the rover has been exploring since landing in February 2021. The new clues include rows of rocks that may be remnants of sandbars or shifting banks, in an area dubbed Skrinkle Haven (mosaic image, above). A…

Apple says that the App Store managed to stop more than $2 billion in fraudulent transactions in 2022, a figure that happens to be a record.The news comes as Apple comes under increasing scrutiny for the way it deals with developers and their sales. Fortnite continues to be absent from the App Store thanks to a spat with Epic Games over in-app purchases, and some developers want to be able to distribute their apps outside of the App Store entirely.Now, Apple has issued a tubthumping press release outlining the impact of…

Instant messaging platform WhatsApp has banned as many as 36 lakh mobile connections to check scam calls fraud. This was revealed by Union telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw during the pan-India launch of the Department of Telecom's (DoT) Sanchar Saathi website. The minister said the same when he was asked about the measures that the government is taking to check fraud through calls on WhatsApp. Vaishnaw replied that the Meta-owned app has agreed to deactivate services linked to any mobile phone number engaged in…

Google Play is a popular app store for Android devices but it has often been targeted by malicious actors who create fake or malicious apps that can harm users’ devices or steal their personal information. The company has taken several steps in the past to combat this. In its recent effort, Google has prevented 1.43 million policy-violating apps from being published on Google Play. This was made possible in part due to new and improved security features and policy enhancements, as well as continuous investments in machine…