Tech Roundup: AT&T Time Warner Acquisition, IoT Botnet Attack & More

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

• Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against web infrastructure provider Dyn stemming from malware-infected Internet of Things devices (WiFi routers and video cameras) bring down several websites including Twitter and Amazon, weeks after source code for Mirai IoT botnet malware was released online. 
• Scientists at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine peg the maximum lifespan of human beings at 125.
• Virtual Reality experience allows a legally blind man to see for the first time.
• ​Apple's self-driving car project has been significantly scaled back over strategy disagreements, leadership changes and supply chain challenges, reports Bloomberg.
• Google-designed Pixel smartphone opens to unanimous positive response.
• AT&T Inc. readies to acquire Time Warner (which also includes brands like CNN and HBO) for $86 billion USD in a new deal that would transform the telephone carrier into a media giant like Verizon (which acquired AOL Inc. and Yahoo!), reports Wall Street Journal (paywall).
• Amazon, Facebook and Twitter engage in bidding war to live stream IPL cricket matches in India.
• Google releases Android 7.1 Nougat Developer Preview beta.

Google's first Made By Google store opens in Manhattan

• Alphabet Inc.'s health spinoff, Verily Life Sciences LLC, joins fight against Zika virus with "machines and sensors that can automatically rear, count, feed, sort and transport the Aedes aegypti mosquito" that carries the virus.
• Online marketplace eBay hops onto bot bandwagon with an intelligent assistant that will learn about each shopper from their Facebook profiles to make online shopping easier.
• Self-driving taxi operated by Singapore-based startup called NuTonomy collides with a lorry; ceases all trials pending investigation.
• Car maker Tesla announces all cars manufactured by the company now have full self-driving hardware/software capabilities.
• Samsung faces class action lawsuits in Korea and the United States over Galaxy Note 7 debacle; files copyright claims against exploding Note 7 parody videos on YouTube.
• Apple iPhone 7 comes in two different versions, packing in modems from Intel and Qualcomm,  the latter of which found to be faster than the former by 30 percent; follows a similar 'chipgate' controversy last year where Apple used TSMC and Samsung for its A9 processors on iPhone 6s.
• Microsoft shares hit an all time high since 1999 after it reports impressive quarterly earnings boosted by revenues from Surface and cloud business (Azure).
• LG to discontinue modular phones after lukewarm reception to G5 smartphone.