Tech Roundup: YouTube Gaming, Bing's Snapshots on Tap & More

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

YouTube Gaming goes live!

• Gigabytes of data stolen from Ashley Madison hack posted online, leading to extortion, blackmail and two suicides, as new leaked emails from the adultery website CEO reveals attempts at hacking into a competing dating service Nerve in 2012.
• 21-year-old Junaid Hussain, a British-born hacker and prominent member of the tech-savvy terrorist outfit Islamic State, is killed in a U.S. drone strike.
• Global warming the reason behind continuing spate of drought in California, according to a new paper published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
• Russia briefly bans entire Wikipedia on August 25 following a court order to ban a Wiki page about charas, an Indian form of Hashish; ban lifted after the forbidden information is redacted.
• Google+, Play Books, Games and Newsstand apps to no longer come pre-installed on Android smartphones (and now it's your turn, Apple!).
• Microsoft's steals Google's Now On Tap feature with 'Snapshots on Tap' on Bing, providing you with relevant results by scanning the contents of whatever is currently on your screen.
• Google brings tweets into desktop search results; Hangouts gets its own website as Google+ alienation continues.
• Facebook gives Notes a makeover; wants it to be your blogging platform.
• Google responds to European Commission's anti-trust allegations; says they are "unfounded" and rebuts claims that "our ad displays and specialized organic results harmed competition by preventing shopping aggregators from reaching consumers."
• Office 2016, the next version of Microsoft's productivity suite, set for September 22 release; Windows 10 installs crosses 75 million PCs almost a month after launch.
• The new reversible USB Type-C standard catches big-time; to feature in upcoming Lumia and Nexus phones from Microsoft and Google.
• Online retailer Amazon axes consumer devices after Fire phone flop, reports Wall Street Journal (paywall).
• Google unveils Twitch-competitor YouTube Gaming with a breathtaking Material Design.
• Photo-sharing service Instagram removes image restrictions; no longer mandates your photo uploads to be square.
• Adobe's much-dreaded Flash, blamed for poor performance and gaping security holes, continues its death march; Google officially kills Flash-based advertising on Chrome browser effective September 1 (today).
• Popular Chinese handset maker Xiaomi brings Android 5.1 Lollipop to its phones with MIUI 7.
• Former Apple CEO John Sculley launches... two Android mid-range smartphones SF1 and SJ1.5 (referring to San Francisco and San Jose) targeting Asia, Africa and Middle-East.
• Samsung's recently launched Galaxy Note 5 suffers from, for lack of a better word, 'Pengate' (I know!); S Pen when inserted into the slot the wrong way found to break S Pen detection, or even worse, get stuck, Samsung points to the user manual to follow proper instructions.
• Google's new contactless mobile payments service Android Pay becomes a reality as part of an update to its proprietary API package Google Play Services.