Tech Roundup: Android O, Uber FTC Settlement & More

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

Alphabet/Google:

• To release Android O as early as next week with smart text selection features, notification badges, picture-in-picture mode, auto-fill in apps, Play Protect and capability to snooze notifications, among others.
• Revives Google Glass with a renewed focus on enterprise applications.
• Unveils Hire, a job application management tool integrated with G Suite.
• Brings native ad-blocking features to Chrome for Android; adds option to select search engine in Russia to comply with antitrust ruling earlier this year.
• Says it plans to merge YouTube Red and Google Play Music with a new service. (While on that matter, why can't Google merge Contacts and Trusted Contacts apps together?)
• To downrank poorly performing apps on the Play Store.
• To shut down YouTube Editor come September 20; stops showing search results as you type (called Instant Search)

Amazon:

• Begins its first step towards creating a retail profile of all Amazon users with a new social feed of interests called Spark, a commerce-focused Pinterest or Instagram rival that allows Prime users to share their favourite Amazon products with others.
• Targets meal-kit delivery services like Blue Apron with its own variant; currently being tested in Seattle.
• Reportedly plans to enter ticketing business for music and sporting events in the United States in a bid to loosen Ticketmaster's stranglehold over the business.

Amazon Spark

Apple:

• Discontinues iPod Nano and Shuffle; doubles iPod Touch storage capacity to 32GB and 128GB.
• Removes VPN apps from App Store in China to comply with regulations put in place by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology earlier this year that require VPN apps to be licensed by the government. (In a related news, Russia too has signed a new law banning VPNs in the country starting November 1.)
• Registers increase in iPad and Mac sales following a much-needed refresh of the lineup.
• Ordered to pay US$ 506 million to University of Wisconsin's Alumni Research Foundation for infringing on a patent related to computer processing technology used in its A7, A8, and A8X chips.

Facebook:

• Forays into original video with Watch, a platform for showcasing episodic content on the social network.
• Adds a new Trending News section to its app; to change its News Feed algorithm in the coming months to favour quicker-loading sites over slow-loading ones.
• Tests Facebook Stories for desktop web; makes them shareable to public.
• Kills Snapchat rival Lifestage and dedicated Groups app; asks users to revert to the main Facebook app. (Can they also bake a very basic messaging layer into the app?)
• Brings back Poke with a new Hello button.
• Boasts of 1 billion daily active users for WhatsApp, as Status (a version of Snapchat Stories) hits 250 million daily users.
• Faces new hurdle in China following a disruption of WhatsApp service in the country.

Netflix:

• Becomes the top grossing app worldwide across both Android and iOS; beats expectations with 5.2 million new subscribers added last quarter.
• Makes its first ever acquisition by purchasing comics publisher Millarworld for an undisclosed amount to expand its library of original content.

Snap Inc:

• Updates its app with capabilities to recolour any object (a feature called Tint Brush) and record multiple snaps.
• Faces heightened growth concerns after daily active user base nearly stagnates at 173 million (up 4% from previous quarter).
• Adds daily news broadcast in partnership with NBC News with a new program called Stay Tuned.

Uber:

• Reaches settlement with US Federal Trade Commission following a 2014 complaint into its privacy overreach for using a "god view" tool to track a reporter's location; agrees to 20 years of privacy audits.
• Updates its app with in-app messaging features to facilitate conversations between the riders and the drivers.

In other news:

• Samsung to unveil Galaxy Note 8 smartphone on August 23.
• Indian retail giants Flipkart and Snapdeal's strategic talks to fend off Amazon in a possible US$ 950 million merger falls apart; Snapdeal decides to follow an independent path.
• Online marketplace eBay announces new AI-powered visual search features to take on Pinterest, Amazon and Google.
• Music streaming service Spotify hits 60 million paid subscribers, as struggling rival SoundCloud gets a new lease of life with an emergency funding of USD 169.5 million.
• Twitter user growth stays at 328 million (same as Q1 2017) and witnesses a decline in advertising revenues, even as rivals Facebook (87% of its revenues now come from mobile) and Google continue to dominate digital ad market.
• Adobe to end support for Flash at the end of 2020.
• Microsoft shuts down one-handed keyboard app Word Flow; recommends users to switch to SwiftKey.
• Mozilla launches experimental voice search, file-sharing and note-taking tools for Firefox.
• Yelp sells food delivery service Eat24 to GrubHub for US$ 287.5 million (which already own Seamless, AllMenus and MenuPages).
• Chinese handset maker Lenovo, also the owner of Motorola, to switch to stock Android OS for its upcoming smartphones.
• Online GIF search engine Giphy hits 200 million daily users; to begin testing sponsored GIFs.
• All-in-one chat app Line adds taxi booking service to compete with Uber in Thailand.
• PayPal-owned Venmo handles US$ 8 billion in cash transfer last quarter as it explores newer ways took make money.