Tech Roundup: Apple Device Trust Scores, Google Mastercard Deal & More

[A wrap-up of everything that Apple and Google announced in the last few weeks.]

Alphabet/Google:

• Sets October 9 for unveiling heavily leaked new Pixel phones and Chromebooks.
• Begins selling Smart Displays manufactured by third-parties, the search giant's take on Amazon Echo Show, on its online store. (Although fresh leaks point to an in-house Smart Display ready for launch on October 9!)
• Apologises after a mysterious phone number, that later was found to be a toll free number associated with UIDAI, pops up on Android devices in India; says UIDAI helpline number and the 112 distress helpline numbers were "inadvertently" coded into Indian version of Android approved for release to OEMs.
• Reportedly bought Mastercard data to link online personalised ads served to users with offline purchases to gauge their effectiveness.
• Rolls out new Dataset Search tool to search for public datasets. 
• Brings its search-based job hunting feature to the U.K. and releases Hire, a job recruitment app for Android targeting small and medium-sized businesses to help hire fresh talent.
• Adds more wellbeing tools in YouTube to track time spent watching videos (weeks after it added slide out prompts that urged users to take breaks from the video platform), and allows users to add hashtags to video descriptions titles to make it easier to search for their channels and content.
• Brings dark mode to Phone, Messages and YouTube apps for Android.
• Starts testing Stories in YouTube that look a lot like Instagram's and a new Explore tab in place of Trending to highlight new creators among other trending content.
• Starts migrating all G Suite users from Hangouts to Meet.
• Removes all references to tablets from official Android website, as it begins to bet big on Pixelbooks.
• Rebrands Tez mobile payment service in India to Google Pay.
• Announces plans to shut down Google Goggles (asks users to try out Google Lens instead) and Google Inbox (weeks after it removed the ability to save articles to Inbox on its Android app).
• Hits 1 billion active users on Google Drive; announces Cloud Build, its new continuous integration and delivery platform.
• Said to be developing an experimental podcast app called Shortwave and a wearable health and fitness assistant called Google Coach.
• Overhauls events in Search with recommendations and more detailed overviews; lets users purchase tickets to top attractions from within Google Trips (why isn't this integrated with Google Flights yet?).
• Announces a slew of updates to Google Assistant that makes it possible to place Duo calls, do things automatically at a scheduled time through Google Home app, and conversational support for multiple languages interchangeably.
• Brings password-free logins with support for WebAuthn (like Firefox), progressive web apps on desktop and WebXR in its latest update to Chrome web browser, alongside marking all unencrypted web sites as 'not secure'.
• Overhauls Files app with native support for accessing Android .apk files, run Linux apps and resume Android web browsing sessions in latest update to Chrome OS.
• Gives Posts on Google a boost with the release of video-based Cameos app (iOS only) which allows celebs and pubic figures to answer questions about themselves, then share those answers directly on Google.
• Launches its first WeChat mini program as its China experiments continue to generate backlash inside and outside of the company.
• Updates Clock app for Android with Spotify playlists integration (YouTube Music integration coming later), and rebrands Keep notes app to "Keep Notes".
• Follows Firefox in rolling out password free logins in Google Chrome with support for WebAuthn; brings Progressive Web Apps to the desktop and adds experimental WebXR API for VR/AR content.
• Takes on Grammarly spell-checker with a new AI-based grammar checker for Google Docs; unveils tiny AI chips for on-device machine learning.
• Bans cryptocurrency mining apps from the Play Store, and begins showing the contact's battery level when sharing location sharing is turned on in Google Maps.
• Google Home shipments continue to outpace those of Amazon's Echo products for the second straight quarter as the search giant grows its smart home business overseas, according to a new report by research firm Canalys.

Apple:

• Announces a trio of new iPhones XR (6.1-inch, US$ 749), XS (5.8-inch, US$ 999) and XS Max (6.5-inch, US$ 1,099); bids good-bye to iconic home button and small-screen phones but adds dual SIM support, kills off iPhone SE, iPhone X, 6s and 6s Plus models, to no longer ship Lightning to 3.5mm audio jack adapter with new shipments (but makes it available for sale for US$ 9 on Apple Store); to maximise revenue off XS models by jacking up iPhone prices by US$ 100, delaying iPhone XR by a month (won't be available for pre-order until October 18) and betting on premium prices for increased storage.
• To start using call and email data to calculate trust scores for users' devices in a bid to combat fraud, as per a quiet update made to the iTunes Store privacy policy.
• Warns customers of a new logic board manufacturing defect in certain iPhone 8 models that may lead to the phones experiencing unexpected restarts, a frozen screen, or won't turn on.
• Sells fewer than 1 million iPhones in India in the first half of 2018, even as it loses key sales executives.
• Acquires Colorado-based Akonia Holographics, a startup focused on making lenses for augmented reality glasses, signalling the company's ambitions to make a wearable device that would superimpose digital information on the real world.
• Gains EU approval for its acquisition of music identification service Shazam.
• Removes 25,000 "illegal" apps from App Store in China that were found to be outstepping Chinese regulations (4,000 of them were gambling apps, which is illegal in the country).
• Removes Group FaceTime feature it announced with iOS 12; teases it separately as part of iOS 12.1 beta.
• Fully migrates iCloud user data of Chinese users to a state-owned mobile operator GCBD.
• Faces questions from Japan regulator Fair Trade Commission over concerns that it secretly crushed an App Store competitor Games Plus (a game streaming platform from Yahoo! Japan that allowed users to stream games made for other platforms and to play HTML5 games on mobile phones, completely bypassing the App Store), and an iPhone service blackout in India for resisting a government-mandated anti-spam app that would monitor users' calls and messages for spam reporting (something which is against Apple's privacy policy).
• Initiates new keyboard service program for 2015-2017 MacBook and 2016-2017 MacBook Pro models after determining that a "small percentage” of the keyboards may experience keys that feel "sticky," repeat, or do not respond in a consistent manner; will not allow Authorised Service Providers to replace second-generation keyboards on 2016 and 2017 MacBook Pro models with the new third-generation keyboards newly announced as part of 2018 lineup (another intentional planned obsolescence?).
• Rolls out global top 100 charts, separate sections for albums, singles and EPs on artist pages in Apple Music.
• In talks with newspaper publishers regarding potential subscription service following its acquisition of digital magazine subscription app Texture.
• Lining up new iPad Pro with Face ID for launch later this fall, reveals code inside iOS 12.1 beta.