Tech Roundup: Google I/O, Nokia Comeback & More

Is it time to switch back to SMS? My wait for an universal messaging app continues...
Google I/O came and went, and I am frustrated. Not because they didn't announce a new Chromebook Pixel successor, but because they introduced three new social messaging apps Spaces, Allo and Duo all in a span of one week. Let me be clear. No one needs five chat apps on their phone (including Hangouts and Messenger SMS app for Android), let alone all of them from one company, when most users are already juggling between Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram, Kik, Skype, WeChat, Vine, Snapchat, iMessage (only on iOS), Slack (if your workplace demands it) and last but not least Twitter. The instant messaging situation is already chaotic, crowded, fragmented and terrible without Google having to introduce new apps, but by making Allo and Duo mobile-only (What were you smoking Google?), the search giant's confused approach seems several steps backwards. Plus frankly, with so many chat apps vying for our attention, I am just not sure I can handle yet another messaging service in my life.

Alphabet/Google:

• Unveils new smart speaker-cum-Amazon Echo rival Google Home and mobile-only messaging apps Allo and Duo at its Google I/O; confirms that Android Play Store is coming to Chrome OS later this year.
• To start blocking flash content on Chrome by default starting late 2016.
• Chromebook sales overtake Macs for the first time in the USA.

Amazon:

• To start selling its own line of detergents, diapers and food, The Wall Street Journal reports.
• Expands its restaurant delivery service (available via Prime) to New York and Dallas after introducing it in Seattle back in September last year.

Apple:

• Releases iOS 9.3.2 and iTunes 12.4 with design tweaks (How about outlining a plan to get rid of the bloated and confusing application altogether?); pulls iOS update for new 9.7-inch iPad Pro after reports of Error 56 bricking complaints.
• CEO Tim Cook goes on a charm offensive to woo China and India; announces plans to open an iOS App Design and Development Accelerator in Bangalore and a $25 million Apple Maps development center in Hyderabad.
• Bans game about a Palestinian child living in Gaza Strip from App Store; says it has a political statement.
• Rumoured to be adding feature that let users unlock Macs with iPhone's Touch ID, as Apple Pay integration for web browsers is expected.

Others:

• April 2016 was the hottest April ever, and the seventh month in a row to have broken global temperature records; Phalodi in Rajasthan, India registers 123F (51C), shattering records in the country.
• Unknown hackers who got away with $81 million USD from Bangladesh Central Bank back in February implicated in a similar cyber heist on a Vietnamese commercial bank and the infamous 2014 Sony Pictures Entertainment hack, findings based on malware code used to cover-up evidence of the attacks reveal.
• Facebook meets with prominent conservatives in the United States after furor over Trending Topics; says the social network will be a neutral news platform.
• Nokia makes a comeback to smartphone business; will release smartphones, tablets and feature phones running Android, as Microsoft sells off its feature phone biz (acquired from Nokia) to FIH Mobile Ltd. and HMD Global.
• Self-driving technology pioneers from Google, Tesla, Apple, Cruise Automation, and others, form a new startup called Otto to make hardware kits to turn your commercial trucks to self-driving vehicles.
• Travel website TripAdvisor comes under fire from animal welfare advocates for making profits by promoting inhuman wildlife attractions.
• Sony releases Xperia XA Ultra with a 16 MP selfie camera.
• Lenovo releases a trio of Moto G phones; to possibly rebrand Moto X to Moto Z.
• Chinese electronics giant Xiaomi to launch its own quadcopter drone on May 25.
• Microsoft unveils a smart Magic Mirror in Singapore that can read your emotions and display content from the web, including weather forecasts and news.
• Twitter to stop counting photos and links in 140-character limit, reports Bloomberg.