Tech Roundup: Disney+, Google Currents & More

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

• Astronomers release what's the first ever image of a supermassive black hole located at the centre of Messier 87, a galaxy in the Virgo cluster some 55 million light years away from Earth; the image was captured using telescopes in Chile, Hawaii, Arizona, and the South Pole that each measured the radiation coming from accretion disk (the swirl of chaotic matter and energy that surrounds every black hole), which were then combined to make a single image.
• Walt Disney previews its much awaited Disney+ streaming service with content from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic; to roll out on November 12 for US$ 6.99 a month across web browsers, smartphones, smart TVs, tablets, and game consoles, in addition to possibly combining subscriptions for Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu for one price. (Has Disney just won the streaming wars?)
• Microsoft releases first preview of Chromium-based Edge browser to users. (Chromium is Google's open-source web browser project, which also powers browsers like Chrome, Opera, Vivaldi and Brave. It includes the Blink rendering engine, Google's fork of Apple's WebKit, V8 JavaScript engine, Google's software-based sandboxing, and the browser user interface.)
• Facebook Lite for iOS, a lightweight version of Facebook's flagship app, comes to India, months after the social network began testing the app in Turkey. (Facebook Lite for Android has been available in India since June 2015.)
• Retail giant Amazon acquires Canvas Technology, a Colorado based warehouse robotics startup that focusses on autonomous cart systems to move goods around factory floors.
• Facebook reportedly planning to bring Messenger back into its flagship mobile app in a limited capacity (only to send and receive messages, you'll still need Messenger app to make calls, send photos, or send message reactions), exactly five years after it moved messaging out of its main app and into a separate, standalone app, stating "this is a better experience […] each app can only focus on doing one thing well," as it pivots to a new messaging oriented strategy that ties Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram Direct Messages together.
• YouTube TV, Google's live TV streaming service, raises its price from US$ 40 per month to US$ 50 per month (US$ 55 if paid via Apple iTunes), suggesting that internet based streaming services are becoming just as costly as traditional cable TV bundles; says the price bump is to cover all markets in the U.S. and to support its expanding lineup of channels. (It has also announced that it's newly adding Discovery, HGTV, Food Network, TLC, Investigation Discovery, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, MotorTrend and EPIX.)

Disney+ streaming service

• Apple's hardware partner and Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn to begin commercial production of iPhone X range of smartphones in India from July, according to The Economic Times.
• Amazon's cashier-less Go convenience stores to start accepting cash to address "discrimination" concerns against users who want to pay by cash, reports CNBC. (Go eliminates any friction with payments by requiring customers use a stored bank or credit card associated with their Amazon account to make a purchase. Philadelphia last month became the first major U.S. city to ban cashless stores, followed by the state of New Jersey a few weeks later. Cities like New York, San Francisco and Chicago are also considering similar laws.)
• Slack brings deeper integration with Microsoft Outlook Calendar, Zoom, and Skype for Business, allowing users respond to invitations and join a meeting directly from Slack; also adds support for Outlook, OneDrive, Dropbox and Box, letting users share email messages and files as a direct message or on a Slack channel.
• Google and Dropbox enter into a partnership that lets G Suite users edit and share Google Docs, Sheets and Slides directly within Dropbox.
• Google rebrands Google+ for enterprise users as "Google Currents" (Google previously used the "Currents" brand name for its social news magazine app, which was later replaced by Google Play Newsstand, which was in turn merged with Google News last year); adds Google Assistant and Google Voice support, capabilities to natively edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files in Google Docs, and brings Hangouts Chat integration into Gmail for G Suite users.
• Facebook spent nearly US$ 20 million of CEO Mark Zuckerberg's personal security in 2018, up from US$ 9 million the year before, a regulatory filing reveals.
• Apple reportedly planning standalone Mac apps for Apple Music, Podcasts and Apple TV as it prepares to slowly move away from the ponderous monolith iTunes.
• Google expands Google Pay to 10 new countries - Australia, Belgium, Czech Republic, Ireland, Japan, Norway, Russia, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden with support for more banks; faces questions in India after Delhi High Court asks the Reserve Bank of India, the country's top financial regulator, to explain how Google was operating its mobile payment services in the country without taking any approvals or licence.
• Google demos next iteration of Google prompt for securely authenticating logins; shows off a new Bluetooth-based protocol that lets Chrome browser talk to a nearby Android smartphone (running Android 7 and above) to validate a login straight from their phones. (The method is somewhat similar to what happens when you sign in with your Apple ID with 2 factor authentication turned on.)