Tech Roundup: Microsoft Bing, OnePlus X & More

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

• China scraps its one-child policy that prevented 400 million births after 35 years; couples allowed to have 2 children starting next March.
• New species of Giant Tortoise found in the Galapagos Islands; DNA research team led by Yale evolutionary biologist Adalgisa Caccone finds that the tortoise populations on the east (now newly named Chelonoidis donfaustoi) and west coast (Chelonoidis porteri) of the islands are in fact two different species, not the same.
• NASA-cum-ESA's Cassini spacecraft captures close-up shots of Saturn's moon Enceladus; shows its cratered surface and evidence of hydrothermal activity.
• English Wikipedia crosses 5 million articles; the five-millionth article was Persoonia terminalis, created by Cas Liber on 1 November 2015 at 12:27 UTC.
• Google using an artificial intelligence system, dubbed RankBrain, to interpret ambiguous search queries, or queries its systems haven't encountered before, reports Bloomberg.
• Facebook and Twitter are increasingly beginning to look alike; Facebook takes on latter's newly announced Moments by making the entire social network (only public posts) searchable.
• Google refutes Wall Street Journal's report (paywall) about its future plan to fold Chrome OS into Android; says it's committed to Chrome OS (for now).
• The Onion Router aka Tor releases chat app Tor Messenger based on Off-the-record Messaging protocol for the privacy-conscious.
• Apple has yet another record quarter; sells 48 million iPhones even as iPad sales continue to slide (declined by 20% to 10 million).
• Yahoo! enters into a new 3-year deal with Google (effective October 1) to provide it with search results and ads.

• Chinese handset maker OnePlus redefines affordable smartphone; launches a beautifully designed OnePlus X with OxygenOS, 3GB RAM, a 5-inch, 1080p AMOLED display, a 13MP rear-facing camera, Snapdragon 801 processor and 16GB of (expandable) storage for $250.
• Microsoft unsurprisingly kills off Sunrise, the popular calendar app it purchased earlier this year; to merge its features into Outlook.
• Beleaguered HTC unveils A9 (aka Aero) smartphone running on Android 6.0; to no longer give future earnings guidance in quarterly results.
• Google Play Music to get dedicated Podcasts section (yay!); opens up a new portal to let podcasters upload their shows.
• Ride sharing service Uber pulls out of 3 German cities Hamburg, Düsseldorf and Berlin months after Frankfurt ruling that Uber drivers were required to obtain the same licenses required of normal taxi drivers.
• Microsoft Bing, which also powers Cortana (on Windows 10), Yahoo! Search and Apple Siri, finally becomes a profitable business after turning in more than one billion in revenues previous quarter.
• Korean electronics giant Samsung takes things a little too far; shows off an 18.4-inch Galaxy View tablet TV for $599.
• Twitter adds (just) 4 million new monthly active users in the last four months, prompting fresh worries about the company's future.
• Toshiba confirms its sale of image sensor business to Sony as it seeks to restructure and recover from a $1.3 billion accounting scandal.