Tech Roundup: Brave Browser, iOS 9.3 Preview, YouTube Pakistan & More

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

Alphabet/Google -

• Bakes Chromecast streaming into Chrome; lets you cast your Chrome tab sans any extension.
• Lenovo confirms Google's plans to reenter China; Play Store all set for launch this year.
• Google Now Launcher's latest update adds landscape orientation on homescreen, a feature it previewed with Marshmallow, but later dropped from the official release.
• Rolls out ability to install Android apps right from mobile search results; adds option for app developers to generate their own promo codes.
• Bets big on Virtual Reality by making it the new letter of Alphabet; gives its moonshot project initiative Google X a design makeover.
• Google Cardboard becomes a life saving virtual reality tool in visualising a baby's heart, saving its life in the process.
• YouTube returns to Pakistan after a three year ban following the release of anti-Islamic film Innocence of Muslims; new version to be heavily monitored by government for any offensive content.

Apple -

• iOS 9 is now installed on 75% of devices; Apple Music touches 10 million paid subscribers since launch last June.
• Previews iOS 9.3 with night mode, multi-user profiles on iPads for schools among several other features; releases iOS 9.2.1 with a fix for a three-year-old 'cookie theft' bug.
• To shut down iAd App Network, which allows developers to advertise their own apps through iAds, come June 30.
• To add iTunes Radio, the ad-supported free radio streaming service, behind Apple Music paywall starting January 29.
• Tesla chief Elon Musk reaffirms Apple's car plans; says "it's pretty hard to hide something if you hire over a thousand engineers to do it," adding it's an "open secret."
• May owe $8 billion in back taxes in the European Union for establishing subsidiaries in Ireland, where corporate taxes are low, in an attempt to avoid paying taxes on revenue generated outside the USA, reports Bloomberg.
• Drops new Music Memos app on the App Store that lets songwriters and musicians record their musical musings.

Facebook -

• Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg reiterates commitment to Free Basics initiative in India; Indian telecom regulator TRAI slams company's Save Free Basics campaign as "a misleading and a crudely majoritarian and orchestrated opinion poll."
• Makes WhatsApp completely free and promises to stay ad-free, but will let business reach out to users via chatbots a la Messenger.
• Tests new in-app web browser so that users don't even have to think about leaving the Facebook app.

Microsoft -

• Refreshes search engine Bing with an updated logo; one ups Google with a speed test widget on search results page.
• Adds group video calling on Skype.

Twitter -

• Bets big on its live streaming service Periscope; now lets users natively playback streams from within their Twitter timelines.
• Twitter share price stages a comeback on rumours of takeover after reaching an all time low of $16.69 (well below its IPO price of $26 a share), following outages to the company's website and mobile apps; News Corp. denies speculation that it's interested in acquiring all or part of it.
• Former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo launches a new fitness focused platform.

Others -

• A new Ebola virus death is reported in Sierra Leone, barely a day after World Health Organisation declares West Africa Ebola-free.
• Botched clinical safety trial for a cannabis-based painkiller drug leaves one volunteer dead and five others seriously ill in France.
• 2015 smashes 2014 to become the warmest year on record; global temperature in 2015 0.25 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than 2014.
• Alex becomes the first Atlantic hurricane to form in January since 1938.
• Adult porn website PornHub's 2015 Year in Review (ahem!) ranks USA, U.K. and India as the top three nations with the most number of visits to its sites; people streamed over 4.4 billion hours of porn.
• Two-year phone contracts finally become a thing of the past in the USA as Sprint becomes the last of four major cellular carriers to ditch them.
• Remix OS, a promising remixed version of Android for PCs and Macs, is now available as an alpha for free download.
• Ride-sharing service Uber adds Trip Experiences on its mobile apps, a feature aimed at making your trip more productive by offering news, music and updates you care about from select partners.
• Chinese handset maker Xiaomi sold 70 million smartphones in 2015, missing its estimated 80-100 million sales target as competition deepens.
• Indian etailer Flipkart rejigs top management; comes amid company's probable plans to go public in the USA.
• Media streaming service Netflix's share price soars as company approaches 75 million subscriptions.
• Yahoo! fixes a critical bug in Mail that allowed attackers to hijack accounts by embedding malicious JavaScript code in email messages.
• JavaScript inventor and Former Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich launches a new web browser-cum-intrusive ad blocker Brave that removes invasive ads but inserts its own less malevolent ads based on your browsing history and takes a 15% cut of the ad revenue (some ads are better than nothing!).