Tech Roundup: Google Shoploop, Reliance JioGlass & More

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

• Hackers behind Twitter's catastrophic security breach may have gained access to its internal dashboard using credentials pinned in one of the company's Slack channels, according to a report from The New York Times.
• In an update to its investigation, the social media platform said hackers initiated a password reset on 45 of the 130 affected accounts with an aim to login to the accounts and send Tweets, and that they downloaded account information, which may include direct messages, of up to eight accounts via its "Your Twitter Data" tool, but confirms "none of the eight were verified accounts."
• The E.U. launches a sweeping antitrust inquiry into how tech giants use voice assistants like Siri, Google Assistant and Alexa to restrict access to data and lock users into a single ecosystem; says "there's a risk that some of these players could become gatekeepers of the Internet of Things, with the power to make or break other companies and use that power to harm competition, to the detriment of consumers."
• U.K. mobile network operators ordered to stop buying equipment from Chinese tech giants Huawei and ZTE by the end of the year, in addition to requiring to strip out the company's gear from their infrastructure by 2027, marking a major reversal by the U.K. government.
• Alphabet Inc's Google to spend around US$ 10 billion in India over the next five to seven years through equity investments and partnerships as part of a new "Google for India Digitization Fund."
• The company has also become the latest high-profile firm to back India's Reliance Jio Platforms after Facebook, Intel and Qualcomm, investing US$ 4.5 billion for a 7.7 percent stake, along with jointly developing an entry-level affordable smartphone with optimisations to the Android operating system and the Play Store.
• The new phone, coupled with a rising anti-China sentiment, will most likely pose a major challenge to Chinese vendors such as Xiaomi and BBK Electronics, owner of the Realme, Oppo and Vivo brands, which currently dominate the smartphone market in India.
• The development comes as global tech companies efforts' to gain a foothold in the country are tied to their attempts to court hundreds of millions of first-time internet users in Asia's third-largest economy, resulting in billions of dollars in investment to gain first-mover advantage and dominate areas like messaging, e-commerce, social networks and video sharing.
• Linus Torvalds, the principal engineer of the Linux kernel, approves new policy to adopt inclusive language and abolish terms such as masters, slaves or blacklists; to use alternatives such as primary/secondary, leaders/followers, directors/performers, requester/responder, or main/replica, with blacklists/whitelists to become either denylists/allowlists or blocklists/passlists.
• South Korea's telecommunications regulator, Korea Communications Commission, fines video sharing platform TikTok for violating local telecommunication laws by collecting 6,000 pieces of data of children under the age of 14 without parental consent and transmitting to its servers in the U.S. and Singapore without prior notification.

• India's Reliance Industries-owned Jio Platforms unveils JioGlass, a lightweight smart glasses that can be connected with a mobile device for immersive mixed reality services such as interactive learning and virtual meetings.
• Microsoft and Samsung announce partnership to build tech for real estate development and property management using Azure IoT and Samsung's SmartThings platforms.
• Amazon to launch smart shopping carts called Dash Carts at its Woodland Hills, California, grocery store in 2020; to come embedded with cameras, sensors and a smart display that automatically track a shopper’s order, as the retail giant aims to follow the footsteps of its cashier-less Go stores, letting shoppers avoid checkout lines as they exit the store.
• Music streaming service Spotify officially rolls out in 13 new markets, including Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia and Ukraine; debuts new Top Podcasts and Trending Podcasts charts listing the most popular shows and the top 50 rising shows in the region.
• Google expands Play Pass game subscription service for Android to Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, and the United Kingdom after initial debut in the U.S. last September, in addition to introducing a new US$ 29.99 per year subscription option.
• Google sued for allegedly tracking users' app activity via Firebase SDK even after opting out of sharing data in settings; comes a month a similar lawsuit that accused the search giant of tracking internet use even when browsers are set to "incognito" mode.
• Microsoft adds support for Google Calendar integration in Outlook for the web; adds capabilities to schedule emails and get suggested replies to emails; to make its xCloud game streaming service available "at no additional cost" for Game Pass Ultimate members when it rolls out in September later this year.
• Rideshare heavyweight Uber to acquire Routematch, an Atlanta-based company that provides software to transit agencies as the ride-hailing company looks to offer more SaaS-related services to cities.
• Moving streaming service Netflix adds 10.09 million subscribers worldwide in its second quarter, but warns of slowing growth in the coming months, as it begins counting TikTok among its rivals, alongside Snapchat and even sleep.

The new Gmail experience

• Alphabet's Google reiterates that it will not use health data from fitness tracker company Fitbit to help it target ads in an attempt to address E.U. antitrust concerns about its proposed US$ 2.1 billion acquisition of the company.
• Facebook rolls out screen sharing feature for Facebook Messenger in video calls and Messenger Rooms, making it easy for user to "instantly share their screen with friends and family one-on-one or in a group video call with up to eight people and up to 16 people in Rooms"; to launch Instagram Reels in the U.S., U.K., Japan, Mexico and roughly 50 other countries in early August, weeks after expanding to India, as TikTok faces mounting scrutiny over its handling of user data and amid larger tensions between the United States and China.
• Google's experimental Area 120 division releases Shoploop (only via mobile web), a new shopping app that allows brands and creators share short-form videos (90 seconds or less) to help users discover and purchase products.
• Short-term rental platform Airbnb launches new tool that encourages guests to send "kindness cards" and cash donations to their former hosts "impacted by COVID-19" in a bid assuage hosts' financial concerns due to travel restrictions imposed by the pandemic.
• Google to make Gmail a productivity hub by integrating Meet, Chat, Docs, and Rooms right into the service for enterprise users as part of a major redesign of the email platform and take on rivals Microsoft, Slack and Zoom.
• Apple wins court fight against the E.U. Competition Commission over a record US$ 14.9 billion in back taxes to the Irish government; the E.U. General Court rules that the European Commission failed to show "to the requisite legal standard" that Ireland’s tax deal broke state-aid law by giving Apple an unfair advantage.
• Videoconferencing platform Zoom launches Zoom for Home, an all-in-one home communications tablet for US$ 599 equipped with a 27-inch screen, three wide-angle cameras designed for high-resolution video and 8 microphones.
• Apple News platform gains support for audio stories of feature reporting and other long-form pieces published in newspapers and magazines, in addition to featuring a curated local news experience in select cities in the U.S.