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India's CCI has launched an investigation into Ericsson's patent dispute with Micromax after the latter filed a complaint with the body.

Swedish firm Ericsson sued Micromax in March of this year alleging patent infringement, and confirmed that the dispute is now being reviewed by India's Competition Commission.

"The CCI has now decided to refer the case to the director general for an in-depth investigation," Ericsson said in a statement.

While Ericsson claims it has attempted on multiple occasions to reach a license agreement with Micromax on FRAND - fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory - terms, Micromax alleges that it is using its dominant position to impose "exorbitant royalty rates."

It claims that royalties demanded for Ericsson patents should be based on the value of the technology used, rather than the sale price of a smartphone.

Google's policy of combining personal data from its multiple online services violated Dutch data protection laws.

The Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) finds that the way in which Google pools users' data across its multiple services - such as GMail and YouTube - violates Dutch laws concerning data protection.

Ever since Google revamped its privacy policies in this way last year, many entities across Europe have been up in arms. Lawmakers and privacy advocates alike are concerned about individuals losing control of their personal information and how it is used, as much of it is stored outside of Europe.

In addition, the revelations about the scope of U.S. spying has raised even more concerns about data held by U.S. firms on European citizens.

"Google spins an invisible web of our personal data, without consent," said Jacob Kohnstamm, the chairman of the DPA. "That is forbidden by law."

Google feels that its privacy policy is in line with European laws and said it has cooperated with the Dutch group, and will continue to do so.

"Our privacy policy respects European law and allows us to create simpler, more effective services. We have engaged fully with the Dutch DPA throughout this process and will continue to do so going forward," Google said.

The U.S. Government has agreed to pay $50 million to a software company after it emerged that its software had been copied onto thousands of systems without licenses.

The software in question was provided by Texas-based Apptricity, which has provided logistics programs to the U.S. army since 2004. The company discovered in 2012 that its software had been copied onto thousands more systems than had been licensed for.

The software is used to track the movements of soldiers and key supplies. While the military could legally had the software used by around 500 users, Apptricity said there was an estimated additional 9,000 users beyond that.

During a presentation, a U.S. Army official had referred to the software as running on "thousands" of devices, which sparked Apptricity's curiosity.

The Texas firm sought $224 million but the U.S. has agreed to pay $50 million to settle the dispute.

"Apptricity is now incredibly energised to use the settlement resolution as a catalyst for aggressive investment in our team, our solutions and our untapped market opportunities," said Randy Lieberman, Apptricity's chief financial officer, reported the BBC News website.

Chinese giant ZTE has confirmed that the company is working on a smartwatch.

Lu Qianhao, the company's head of handset marketing strategy, made the announcement this week.

"We are focusing on the mainstream market," says Qianhao. The watch will be similar in feature set to the existing watches on the market, such as the Samsung Galaxy Gear and Sony Smartwatch 2, but will be significantly cheaper.

The watch will be unveiled in the Q1 and getting into consumer's hands in the Q2 of next year. The watch will only be compatible with ZTE smartphones, just like the Galaxy Gear only works with Samsung devices

As expected, ZTE will sell the device in China first, but eventually it is expected to make its way to the EU and U.S.

Kim Dotcom's cloud storage service Mega has made its way to iOS 7, five months after launching on Android.

The app allows users to manage any content they may have stored to their cloud locker.

Additionally, iOS users can preview and stream a multitude of supported media files, and you can send links and files directly from within the application.

If you don't already have it, you can subscribe to Mega's $11 per month premium tier via an in-app purchase and get 500GB of storage and 1TB of bandwidth per month.

As iPad app is on the way, as well.

The latest mandatory PlayStation 4 system 1.51 patch is now available in Europe.

Released in North America earlier in the week, the 300MB+ download is now available to European gamers and must be installed before you can access PSN features on the console, which launches tomorrow around the continent.

The update improves "stability" for the system and makes other minor tweaks.

As a precaution following the issues plaguing the NA versions of the system, the patch can be placed on a USB drive and installed using the PS4's safe mode.

Sony listed the features included in the update:

The major carriers in the U.S.; Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint have completed their database system for stolen phones, nearly a year after it was first launched.

Wireless industry trade group CTIA president and CEO Steve Largent announced that the completed database will allow carriers to block activation of stolen 3G and LTE smartphones in the U.S. and around the globe. "As more countries and more carriers around the world participate in the 3G and 4G/LTE databases, criminals will have fewer outlets since these stolen phones would be blacklisted and could not be reactivated," adds Largent.

While the database has been marginally successful in the U.S., the biggest issue is with international carriers, who rarely enforce such rules. Officials in New York and San Francisco say efforts to block stolen devices have been fruitless since the devices are quickly sent overseas. Both cities have been asking US carriers and OEMs to install 'kill switches' into all new smartphones that allow consumers to deactivate the phones permanently if they are stolen.

A federal judge has dismissed a class action lawsuit against Apple over data privacy, stating that the plaintiffs failed to "show they had relied on any alleged company misrepresentations and that they had suffered harm."

In 2011, four plaintiffs claimed that Apple violated its own privacy policy by designing iOS to "easily transmit personal information to third parties that collect and analyze such data without user consent or detection." The accusers claimed they suffered damages by losing storage space on their iPhones and that they overpaid for the devices.

"Plaintiffs must be able to provide some evidence that they saw one or more of Apple's alleged misrepresentations, that they actually relied on those misrepresentations, and that they were harmed thereby," Judge Lucu Koh said.

The case is just one of 19 similar lawsuits filed across the nation that Koh is overseeing. Others may be more successful.

Prosecutors have claimed that South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) abused Twitter in an effort to support Park Geun-hye for president during last year's elections.

The president ended up winning by one million votes last December and many have accused the campaign team of foul play ever since.

Allegedly, NIS agents posted over 1.2 million tweets in praise of Park and her policies, as well as tweets that slandered her rivals, dubbing them North Korea sympathizers.

There were 26,550 original tweets that computer programs then disseminated on Twitter, adding up to over 1.2 million total tweets or retweets.

"What's clear so far is that the National Intelligence Service and other state agencies had engaged in a systematic and massive intervention in elections," opposition party leader Kim Han-gil stated after the news was released.

Facebook is testing a read-it-later feature that will help the company compete with standalone apps like Instapaper and Pocket.

The social network giant will let you save links posted to Facebook for reading later, whether you are online or offline, and some users will see a "Saved" option in their mobile app next to the Facebook apps.

It is unclear whether the feature will go live for everyone ever, as Facebook, like Google, is infamous for experimenting with features but eventually abandoning them.

When asked for comment, the company simply said, "We're constantly testing new features, but we have nothing further to share at this time." Regardless, the experimental feature does not have robust features like Pocket does, which continues to improve daily and is cross-platform with deep integration into your browser and mobile devices.

Acer has announced that their upcoming C720P touchscreen Chromebook will be priced at just $299, a very affordable price given the specs.

Until the C720P launches, the only Chromebook option with a touchscreen is Google's pricey high-end Pixel, which is a $1299 reference device.

Besides the multi-touch 11.6-inch HD LED back-lit display (1366×768 resolution), the notebook has a Haswell-based Intel Celeron, 32GB internal storage, 2GB RAM and the company claims a 7 second startup with 7.5 hour battery life.

Additionally, the new device features an integrated HD webcam, dual speaker design, USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI port and 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi. It measures 0.78-inches and weighs just 2.98 pounds.

Google has announced that their popular Maps service has been updated to allow for the embedding of maps into websites.

Ken Hoetmer of Google Maps says: "[Earlier this week] we introduced a feature in the new Google Maps that enables you to embed a Google Map by copying and pasting an HTML snippet. Make sure you're opted in, and then head over to Google Maps, click on the gear icon on the lower right, and give it a go.

Like the new Google Maps, embedded maps are now built for you. Your users can sign in to these maps to see relevant content, like their saved places from Google Maps. Conversely, they can also save a location from your embedded map for viewing on Google Maps for desktop or mobile. To top it off, embedded maps are free of usage limits, so you don't have to worry about quotas."

Additionally, Google has updated their ad experience to include more relevant local businesses.

Head over to Maps on your mobile device or desktop to get the update.

Amazon has announced that its Instant Video streaming service has been expanded to Japan.

The service will have 26,000 global and local movies and TV shows available for streaming, download rental and purchase.

Rental fees will start at 99 cents, (100 yen) for older titles and newer titles will start at $5 to rent or $15 to purchase.

As a launch promotion, the company says the first episode of the first season of programs (including local hit Boys over Flowers) are being offered completely free of charge.

You are allowed to download the titles to just one device, but stream to two.

According to the latest figures from AdDuplex, Windows Phone is now dominated by just one manufacturer, Nokia.

The Finnish smartphone maker (soon to be part of Microsoft) controls 90 percent share of the OS, followed by HTC at 7 percent and everyone else at a measly 3 percent.

As far as devices go, the cheap but excellent Lumia 520 continues to take share, now at 26.5 percent share, far and away the most for an individual model. The more powerful (and larger) Nokia Lumia 920 and 620 follow with 8.8 and 8.6 percent share, respectively. The Nokia 521 (which is the same device as the 520 but optimized for T-Mobile in the US) has another 3.5 percent share, effectively giving the Lumia 520 a massive 30 percent share of current Windows Phones.

Cyanogen Inc. has confirmed that their CyanogenMod Installer application, which we reviewed here, has been removed from the Google Play Store.

Reads the post:

Today, we were contacted by the Google Play Support team to say that our CyanogenMod Installer application is in violation of Google Play's developer terms.

They advised us to voluntarily remove the application, or they would be forced to remove it administratively. We have complied with their wishes while we wait for a more favorable resolution.

To those unfamiliar with the application, it has a single function – to guide users to enable "ADB", a built in development and debugging tool, and then navigates the user to the desktop installer. The desktop application then performs the installation of the CyanogenMod on their Android device.