Tech Roundup: Amazon Retail, Error 53 Fury & More

Not long back search giant Google demoed Accelerated Mobile Pages, an ad-supported, open-source, platform-independent initiative that helps load webpages faster on mobile devices by using a new AMP HTML framework to build light-weight webpages. While this is expected to go live later this month, it's clear Google has been fine-tuning the experience behind our backs, as its wont -

Images 1, 2: AMP last year, 3, 4: AMP now 
(Notice the lightning bolt and the words AMP?)

Alphabet/Google:

• Dethrones Apple to become the world's most valuable company for the first time since February 2010.
• Reportedly working on a Samung Gear VR-like virtual reality headset to take on Facebook's Oculus Rift, according to Financial Times, as Cardboard Viewer sales top 5 million (paywall).
• Gmail becomes Google's seventh product after Search, Chrome, Android, Google Play, Maps and YouTube to cross 1 billion monthly active users.
• Announces Marshmallow update for Android Wear with voice and speaker support to make calls, and send and listen to messages.
• Rolls out a confusing Hangouts update that may result in it potentially losing SMS/MMS capabilities.
• Google Play Music's Podcasts functionality goes live for some users.
• Adds support for Apple's Nitro WebKit rendering engine in Chrome for iOS since the former made it open to third-party app developers in September 2014.
• Makes a no-brainer move; to shut down activity tracking app My Tracks on April 30, 2016 (say hello to Google Fit?).
• Removes ad-blocker app Adblock Fast from Play Store days after Samsung releases an update to its Android web browser with support for content blockers (like iOS).

Apple:

• Record setting quarterly revenues of $75.9 billion and net quarterly profit of $18.4 billion overshadowed by its less than stellar quarterly forecast.
• Faces flak for its extreme security measure (or is it an attempt to exert more control over product repairs?) that bricks "expensive" iPhones and renders them useless if the phone's home button (which also houses the TouchID fingerprint sensor) has been fixed by a non-Apple-certified repair person, resulting in an Error 53 message "that comes to light only (emphasis mine) when the latest version of Apple's iPhone software, iOS 9, is installed."
• To get rid of ugly rear antenna bands and protruding camera lens in iPhone 7, reports MacRumors.
• Working with partners in USA and Asia to develop new extended-range wireless charging technology "that would allow iPhones and iPads to be powered from further away than the charging mats used with current smartphones", reports Bloomberg.
• Said to be developing prototypes for a possible virtual reality headset, reports Financial Times (paywall), months after it began selling View-Master VR headsets on its website.
• Ordered to pay VirnetX $625 million for infringing on its patents in its FaceTime and iMessage services.

Facebook:

• Bans sales of private guns on its social network, including Instagram.
• WhatsApp crosses 1 billion monthly active users.
• Instagram rolls out its first 60-second video ad (in time for Super Bowl 50), an increase from the previous maximum of 30 seconds, which was increased September last year from the then-maximum of 15 seconds.
• Launches Audience Optimization tool for publishers to identify preferred target audience for a post; shows the most and least preferred interests on the social network.
• Outs new research that says its 1.5 billion active users are precisely 3.57 introductions away from meeting everyone else on Earth.

Microsoft:

• Breaks down barriers between its research arm and the rest of the company so that its inventions make its way into its products in time, reports Bloomberg.
• Acquires makers of SwiftKey keyboard for $250 million; joins the roster of recent app-based acquisitions like Acompli (now rebranded as Outlook), Sunrise (impending shut down) and Wunderlist.
• To bring its Windows Phone keyboard to iOS; to have a one-handed mode with a "fanned key layout."
• ​Releases a work/interest focused news app News Pro on iOS.
• Secures surfacephone.com, surfacelaptop.com and surfacecar.com domains.

Twitter:

• CEO Jack Dorsey jumps in to clarify after Buzzfeed (and by extension The Verge) reveals company's plans to shift to a new Facebook-like algorithmic timeline that will reorder tweets "based on what Twitter's algorithm thinks people most want to see," says "never planned to reorder timelines next week."
• Deletes 125,000 ISIS-affiliated accounts since the middle of 2015; expands anti-terror teams.

Others:

• ​Zika virus outbreak declared a public health emergency by World Health Organisation after thousands of cases are reported across South America, Spain and Australia, the fourth such declaration in the agency's history after Ebola, polio, and swine flu; USA reports its first case transmitted through sexual contact.
• NASA discovers icebergs on Pluto, latest findings reveal.
• Online retailer Amazon preparing a major expansion into retail bookstores after putting several such out of business; up to 400 stores expected to be opened in the USA alone (paywall).
• Both Samsung and LG to reveal their next-generation smartphones S7, S7 edge and G5 on February 21.
• Music streaming service SoundCloud adds top charts spanning over 30 genres in an attempt to boost music discovery.
• ​Yahoo! to trim its workforce by 15 percent and focus on its core offerings Search, Mail, Tumblr, News, Sports, Finance and Lifestyle as it finally admits it's open to "qualified strategic proposals."
• Popular iOS journalling app Day One gets a major design overhaul; new version called Day One 2 now available on App Store for $9.99.
• Networking giant Cisco Systems acquires Internet of Things' cloud-based software platform developer Jasper Technologies for $1.4 billion.
• Paypal-owned digital wallet service Venmo gets support for in-app purchases to compete with Android, Apple and Samsung Pay, as Google and Apple's mobile payment systems are set for launch at ATMs later this year in the USA.
• Ride-hailing service Uber undergoes a bathroom tile-inspired branding revamp.