Tech Roundup: Uber Controversy, WhatsApp Status & More
[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]
Google in Cleaning Mode:
Google appears to be in a cleaning spree of sorts. The search giant, now under a bigger Alphabet umbrella, has been busy reigning in wasteful moonshots, including killing its modular phone project Ara and solar drone project Titan, and very recently scaling back on its internet ambitions Fiber and Project Loon, while selling its satellite business Terra Bella aka Skybox to Planet Labs, in addition to looking for a potential buyer for its admittedly terrifying robotics arm Boston Dynamics. Google, for its part, is also sunsetting Spaces, a Pinterest-y way to organize stuff from the web, less than an year after its launch, and seems to have already killed Who's Down, an invite-only mobile-only chat app sometime this year. Better late than never!
Facebook Copies Snapchat Yet Again:
Facebook's new mantra is perhaps this - "If we can't acquire Snapchat, we are going to copy it." Ever since the popular ephemeral messaging service turned down Facebook's US$ 3 billion offer and decided to subsist on its own (it's going public next month), the social media behemoth has been busy unleashing copycat features like Stories and location stickers on Instagram, Messenger, and now to WhatsApp as well. Called Status, the new feature, which was spotted first late last year, has evoked mixed reactions from users thus far. Coincidentally, the update came right in time to celebrate WhatsApp's eighth birthday this February 24.
In other news:
Google in Cleaning Mode:
Google appears to be in a cleaning spree of sorts. The search giant, now under a bigger Alphabet umbrella, has been busy reigning in wasteful moonshots, including killing its modular phone project Ara and solar drone project Titan, and very recently scaling back on its internet ambitions Fiber and Project Loon, while selling its satellite business Terra Bella aka Skybox to Planet Labs, in addition to looking for a potential buyer for its admittedly terrifying robotics arm Boston Dynamics. Google, for its part, is also sunsetting Spaces, a Pinterest-y way to organize stuff from the web, less than an year after its launch, and seems to have already killed Who's Down, an invite-only mobile-only chat app sometime this year. Better late than never!
Facebook Copies Snapchat Yet Again:
Facebook's new mantra is perhaps this - "If we can't acquire Snapchat, we are going to copy it." Ever since the popular ephemeral messaging service turned down Facebook's US$ 3 billion offer and decided to subsist on its own (it's going public next month), the social media behemoth has been busy unleashing copycat features like Stories and location stickers on Instagram, Messenger, and now to WhatsApp as well. Called Status, the new feature, which was spotted first late last year, has evoked mixed reactions from users thus far. Coincidentally, the update came right in time to celebrate WhatsApp's eighth birthday this February 24.
In other news:
- Ride hailing startup Uber is rocked by allegations of systemic sexual harassment in the company; ex-Googler Amit Singhal, who led Google Search and recently joined Uber to head its mapping division, is asked to step down after allegations of misconduct during his time at Google surfaces.
- Bill Gates says the robot that replaces your job should pay taxes.
- NASA announces discovery of seven new Earth-like exoplanets orbiting a dwarf star called TRAPPIST-1 40 light years away.
- European regulators raise privacy concerns about telemetry data collection in Microsoft's Windows 10 desktop operating system.
- iOS 10 is installed on nearly 80% of all Apple devices five months after release to the masses.
- Samsung to unveil Galaxy S8 in New York City on March 29; said to be planning a S8+ with a 6.2-inch screen.
- Facebook aims to dominate post-app era by adding support for foreign exchange money transfer in Messenger chat service in partnership with Transferwise.
- Verizon and Yahoo! finalize deal after a US$ 350 million discount; deal now valued at US$ 4.48 billion. (Quite surprised the deal went through but I guess the benefits of merging AOL with Yahoo - thus more web traffic and thus more ad revenues - outweighed the costs and privacy concerns that arose out of the two large scale data breaches.)
- Snapchat parent Snap Inc. begins to sell Spectacles online; bets on hardware as Facebook begins to extensively mimic its features.
- Google quietly releases a new enterprise-focussed video conferencing app called Meet for Hangouts (only for Chrome/iOS) to take on Amazon Chime.
- Popular chat app Viber gets into e-commerce with option to buy items based on your chat conversations (indicted by a shopping bag icon on your chat screen).
- Google to bring its smarter voice Assistant (currently restricted only to Pixel devices) to all Marshmallow/Nougat-running Android phones starting this week as handset makers begin integrating Amazon Alexa in its place.
- Google teases Allo messaging service for the web (aah.. finally, now we are talking Google!); rebrands its default Android SMS app Messenger as Android Messages with support for RCS in a big way.
- Microsoft releases Skype Lite (previously Mingo) in India; integrates with Aadhar to identify users.
- Retail giant Amazon says Alexa smart assistant now has 10,000 skills. (But the question is how many are genuinely useful?)
- Alphabet's self-driving car company Waymo sues Uber and its autonomous car company Otto, accusing an Uber/ex-Google employee Anthony Levandowski of stealing trade secrets by downloading 14,000 files onto an external hard drive before he left the company.
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