Mobile money is fast blossoming in Africa, boosted by rising mobile adoption across the continent, but in Zimbabwe—which is battling a severe financial crunch—the most common cash-in and cash-out functionalities have just been killed off as the government battles to contain the country’s economic crisis. Cash-out is process of converting mobile wallet balances into hard cash Read more about Zimbabwe shuts down mobile money because cash is being sold at a premium of 50%: basically two competing currencies with the same label[…]

We love containers. And, for most of us, containers means Docker. As RightScale observed in its RightScale 2018 State of the Cloud report, Docker’s adoption by the industry has increased to 49 percent from 35 percent in 2017. All’s not well in Docker-land There’s only one problem with this: While Docker, the technology, is going Read more about ​Docker has a business plan headache, another showcase for FOSS money making failure[…]

A cybercrime data center that was shut down by German authorities was housed inside a former NATO bunker in a sleepy riverside town, police revealed on Friday. More than 600 law enforcement personnel including Germany’s elite federal police unit, the GSG 9, were involved in an anti-cybercrime operation that took place in the town of Read more about Darknet cybercrime servers hosted in former NATO bunker in Germany busted in 600 policemen operation[…]

The United States House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee is launching an antitrust investigation into Apple and its anti-competitive behavior. Part of the investigation will focus on Apple’s repair monopoly, which for years has given the company control over the useful life of its products. In a letter to Apple, the committee asked Apple to turn Read more about Congress Is Investigating Apple’s Repair Monopoly[…]

Logius is absolutely minting it, considering that almost every interaction with the government, locality, insurance company is done through DigiID. Unbelievably, this price is down from EUR 3,50 in 2006, but up from last years’ 12 cents per login. So now we know why government IT projects cost such an inane amount of money – Read more about Logging into NL gov costs in incredible 14 cents per time![…]

New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced Friday she is launching a multistate investigation into Facebook for possible antitrust violations. Facebook shares were down about 0.5% in Friday’s premarket, but did not seem to react to James’ announcement. Attorneys general of Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and the District of Columbia Read more about New York attorney general launches a multistate antitrust probe into Facebook[…]

The study suggests that marketers can use this understanding of local identity versus global identity to shape consumers’ price perceptions and behavior. UTA and three other universities contributed to the study. “Consumers tend to use price to judge a product’s quality when their local identity is most important to them,” Janakiraman said. “When promoting high-priced Read more about Study shows how consumers rely on price and locality to determine quality of products[…]

The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that “more than half of the nation’s state attorneys general” have signed on to and are preparing an antitrust investigation against digital titan Google, with the paper writing the inquiry is “scheduled to be announced next week, marking a major escalation in U.S. regulators’ efforts to probe Silicon Valley’s Read more about More Than Half the Nation’s State Attorneys General Could Sign on to Antitrust Inquiry Against Google[…]

Ultimately, the rider paid $65 for the half-hour trip, according to a receipt viewed by Jalopnik. But Dave made only $15 (the fares have been rounded to anonymize the transaction). Uber kept the rest, meaning the multibillion-dollar corporation kept more than 75 percent of the fare, more than triple the average so-called “take-rate” it claims Read more about Uber And Lyft Take A Lot More From Drivers Than They Say[…]

A judge in Oklahoma on Monday ruled that Johnson & Johnson had intentionally played down the dangers and oversold the benefits of opioids, and ordered it to pay the state $572 million in the first trial of a drug manufacturer for the destruction wrought by prescription painkillers. The amount fell far short of the $17 Read more about Johnson & Johnson Ordered to Pay $572 Million in Landmark Opioid Trial[…]

The state attorneys in more than a dozen states are preparing to begin an antitrust investigation of the tech giants, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reported Monday, putting the spotlight on an industry that is already facing federal scrutiny. The bipartisan group of attorneys from as many as 20 states is expected Read more about States to launch antitrust investigation into big tech companies, reports say[…]

Amazon constantly scans rivals’ prices to see if they’re lower. When it discovers a product is cheaper on, say, Walmart.com, Amazon alerts the company selling the item and then makes the product harder to find and buy on its own marketplace — effectively penalizing the merchant. In many cases, the merchant opts to raise the Read more about Amazon Squeezes Sellers That Offer Better Prices on Walmart[…]

America’s trade watchdog has officially told millions in the US not to apply for the $125 it promised each of them as part of the deal it struck with Equifax – and instead take up an offer of free credit monitoring. In a memo on Wednesday, FTC assistant director Robert Schoshinski said the regulator has Read more about FTC blames applicants for getting hacked by Equifax, won’t pay out settlement figure because they fined Equifax too little[…]

The U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday it was opening a broad investigation of major digital technology firms into whether they engage in anticompetitive practices, the strongest sign the Trump administration is stepping up its scrutiny of Big Tech. The review will look into “whether and how market-leading online platforms have achieved market power and Read more about Big Tech faces broad U.S. Justice Department antitrust probe[…]

Tinder joined a growing backlash against app store taxes by bypassing Google Play in a move that could shake up the billion-dollar industry dominated by Google and Apple Inc. The online dating site launched a new default payment process that skips Google Play and forces users to enter their credit card details straight into Tinder’s Read more about Tinder Bypasses Google Play, Revolt Against App Store “Fee” (30% monopolistic arm wrench)[…]

Microsoft Corp. agreed to pay $25 million to settle U.S. government investigations into alleged bribery by former employees in Hungary. The software maker’s Hungarian subsidiary entered into a non-prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice and a cease-and-desist order with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Microsoft said in an email to employees from Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith that Read more about Microsoft Bribes U.S. gov with $25 Million to End U.S. Probe Into Bribery Overseas[…]

Faced with continued rumbles of discontent from its reseller network on the eve of its Inspire conference, Microsoft has climbed down from plans to pull free software licences from its channel chums. Doubtless fearful of a keynote sabotaged by a baying mob of angry resellers, Microsoft corporate veep for commercial partners Gavriella Schuster was tasked Read more about Microsoft tells resellers: ‘We listened to you, and we have acted’ (PS: Plz keep making us money)[…]

More than 2,500 resellers and integrators have signed a petition opposing Microsoft’s intention to remove free software licences granted to members of the channel to run their business.The changes are described here:Effective July 1, 2020, we will retire the internal use rights (IUR) association with the product licenses partners receive in the Microsoft Action Pack Read more about Microsoft Action Pack software no longer for all sellers of MS products, reseller rebellion[…]

Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), [is] a trade group representing the likes of Walmart, Target, Dollar General, Coca Cola and other world-swallowing corporations […] RILA, as it turns out, is feeling just as freaked out by the dominance of a handful of tech giants as the rest of us, and in a letter today to Read more about RILA (big retailers) Calls to Break Up Big Tech[…]

3 July 2019: The CMA has launched a market study into online platforms and the digital advertising market in the UK. We are assessing three broad potential sources of harm to consumers in connection with the market for digital advertising: to what extent online platforms have market power in user-facing markets, and what impact this Read more about UK Gov launches study into Online platforms and digital advertising market and possible monopolies antitrust[…]

However, I recently met other open source developers that make a living from donations, and they helped widen my perspective. At Amsterdam.js, I heard Henry Zhu speak about sustainability in the Babel project and beyond, and it was a pretty dire picture. Later, over breakfast, Henry and I had a deeper conversation on this topic. Read more about Software below the poverty line – Open Source Developers being exploited[…]