Tech Roundup: Google Store Sales Measurement Program, Snapchat Crowd Surf & More

The much-anticipated iPhone is almost here, so is Google's Pixel successor in a month or two. But it goes without saying that smartphones have undergone a mini revolution of sorts this year, with the likes of Samsung Galaxy S8 (and perhaps its upcoming Note 8 too), HTC U11, OnePlus 5, Nokia 8, Sony Xperia XZ Premium, and most recently the Essential Phone embracing unique designs and improved camera performance that can give iPhones a run for their money. What makes it even more exciting is the fact that more phone makers than ever before are sticking to vanilla Android (except Samsung and LG, of course), which, while a little boring, is undoubtedly the best version of Android you can possibly get without compromising on security and usability.

Alphabet/Google:

• Faces a legal complaint from Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) for a new program called Store Sales Measurement that allows it to correlate users' online activities with those when they are offline by analysing credit/debit card records from third-party data brokers to create comprehensive profiles. (It is to be noted that this is no different from what Facebook does, as revealed by ProPublica late last year.)
• Reels from the fallout over a widely circulated controversial anti-diversity memo, with more women coming forward with stories of sexist and racial discrimination at the company.
• To pay Apple US$ 3 billion this year to remain the default search engine in iPhones and iPads, even as investors express unhappiness over mounting costs to drive traffic (aka traffic acquisition costs) which was about US$ 5.09 billion in the second quarter alone.
• Acquires Senosis Health, a startup that turns smartphones into medical devices to collect various health statistics.
• Tests a Material Design makeover for Google Calendar and launches a Search Lite app for countries with slow internet speeds like India and Indonesia; adds a new Discover tab to Google+ to surface relevant content and rolls out a design refresh for Transparency Report.
• Brings 6-second auto-playing video previews to mobile search results to help you decide if it's actually the video you want to see.
• Adds support for phone calls and Bluetooth audio playback via Home smart speaker in the U.S. and Canada.

Facebook:

• Acquires Fayteq, a small German startup behind software that can add or remove objects from videos.
• Updates Instagram to allow users to add a friend to a live stream.

Microsoft:

• Debuts new iPhone app Seeing AI that uses computer vision to narrate the world to visually impaired people.
• Adds PayPal integration in Skype mobile app for quick money transfers.
• Partners with Johnson Controls for a thermostat powered by Cortana smart assistant.

In other news:

• Leaders in the field of artificial intelligence, including Elon Musk, sign a letter call for a ban on autonomous killer robots; comes after Musk's debate with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg over regulation of AI technologies so that they don't become an existential threat to mankind.
• Cellular service provider Verizon introduces new Verizon Up program (requires that customers be enrolled in Verizon Selects as well) that allows users to trade their browsing and app usage history for various rewards.
• Andy Rubin's Essential Phone goes on sale; reviews hail its unique design and stock Android experience while bemoaning an inconsistent camera.
• Tech companies race to purge white supremacist content from their platforms; Electronic Frontier Foundation issues a warning saying free speech is being threatened.
• Popular chat app Line adds a new livestreaming feature called Chat Live which can be used in group or multi-person chats of up to 200 people.
• Uber suspends services in Philippines after Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) bans it from operating for one month for failing to stop recruiting new drivers while it processed a backlog of applications to issue ride-hailing permits.
• Snapchat's foray into news in partnership with NBC News rakes up 29+ million viewers in its first month; introduces new Crowd Surf feature that uses proprietary machine learning technology to stitch together Snaps submitted to Our Story, and uses geo-location and timestamps to piece the audio together into a semi-seamless video.
• Apple to spend US$ 1 billion on original video content as it goes after Hollywood, reports Wall Street Journal (paywall).
• HTC apologises for unintentionally serving banner ads on its TouchPal keyboard app, comes after Samsung spammed users with notification ads on Galaxy S8.
• Chipmaker Qualcomm unveils a software development kit called Neural Processing Engine that makes it easier for developers to optimise their apps to run AI-based tasks on its Snapdragon chipsets.
• Chinese electronics giant Xiaomi follows-up Mi Internet Speaker with a new Mi AI Speaker for just US$ 45.
• Foursquare updates Swarm with a new logging feature that shows all the places you have checked-in to, something similar to Google's Location History Timeline.
• Samsung, Apple, Huawei, OPPO and Xiaomi emerge the top 5 handset makers for the quarter ending June 2017, reports IDC.
• Opera quietly discontinues gesture-based iOS web browser app Opera Coast.