Tech Roundup: New Horizons, Circa News & More

[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]

• NASA's New Horizons spacecraft all set for a rendezvous with dwarf planet Pluto for the first time ever; to beam back pictures from an altitude of just 12,500km come July 14.
• ESA's Philae comet lander wakes up after a seven-month hibernation as the comet 67P moves closer to the sun, providing the much-needed sunlight to power it back up.
• British Petroleum agrees to pay a record $18.7 billion USD fine over Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010.
• Earth entering a new period of mass extinction, reveals a new study which found that vertebrates were disappearing at a rate 114 times faster than normal.
• Moon jellyfish reveals a previously unknown mechanism of self-repair; found to be rearranging its remaining arms until they were evenly placed around the body upon amputation in a process called symmetrization instead of regenerating lost limbs.
• Forensic researchers have devised a new method of using muscle protein degradation to pin exact time of death even after as long as 10 days.
• The South African recipient of the world's first penis transplant is set to become a father.
• Pioneering news reading app Circa News shuts down after it runs out of funds (and for the first time I am truly heart broken over the demise of an app, which was one of my top sources for news updates).
• USA's NSA and UK's GCHQ targeted antivirus tools like Kaspersky in an attempt to track users and infiltrate networks, according to documents from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
• A technical glitch halts floor trading in New York Stock Exchange for more than three hours; a faulty software update said to be the culprit.
• After moving Messenger out of Facebook and giving its own space on the Web, Facebook completely unlinks the social network from its chat service; no longer requires a Facebook account to sign up.
• Google Photos suffers an embarrassing flap after it auto-categorizes photos of a black couple as gorillas; rolls out an immediate fix.
• Google finally graduates Gmail's "Undo Send" option to recall sent emails from Labs.

Spot the difference! Facebook's new logo.

• Facebook updates logo to something even more generic to make it more friendly and approachable; denies it's talking to music labels regarding a possible music streaming service (though I believe it'll eventually happen).
• OnePlus's new flagship OnePlus 2 to pack 4GB RAM, an octa-core processor and a 16 MP rear camera for a below $450 USD price point; to be unveiled on July 27.
• Google and Apple release new beta versions of their mobile operating systems Android M and iOS 9.
• Canadian handset maker BlackBerry to unveil an Android smartphone with a dual curved display.
• Microblogging network Twitter undergoes an executive shake-up; Dick Costolo steps down as CEO.
• Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system to arrive on July 29; writes off $8.5 billion USD acquisition of Nokia as it lays off 7,800 employees.
• Facebook unveils a rival to Google Photos called Facebook Moments with smart facial recognition features; won't launch in the European Union in the wake of concerns raised by regulators over the use of facial recognition technology used in the app.
• Yahoo! exploring options to use Google-powered search results and ads on its site; updates its Android homescreen launcher Aviate to include Google Now-like Smart Stream.
• US consumer rights organisation, Consumer Watchdog, wants Google to extend Right to be forgotten to the country; lodges a complaint with Federal Trade Commission.
• China's Shanghai Consumer Rights Protection Commission sues Samsung and Oppo for stuffing its smartphones with bloatware (on a side note, Apple should take note of this!).
• YouTube takes on Twitch's video game live streaming with YouTube Gaming; launching this summer in the US and UK.
• Apple Music continues its exclusivity spree; premieres exclusive music content from Pharrell Williams, Thom Yorke, Drake and Eminem.
• Online TV and movie streaming service Netflix reportedly launching in India next year.
• Picasa Web Albums make a comeback in light of Google's unbundling of Photos and Google+.
• Samsung on its way for seventh straight profit decline due to sagging sales of its flagship smartphones; to launch next-gen Galaxy Note earlier than is its custom.
• Facebook-owned photo-sharing social network Instagram adds Twitter-like Trending Tags and long overdue 1080 x 1080 higher resolution uploads.
• Cross-platform file sharing app Pushbullet receives its biggest update ever; becomes a chat messenger.
• Microsoft buys to-do list cum reminders app Wunderlist after Sunrise and Acompli.
• Wikipedia is now encrypted by default.