Tech Roundup: Open AI Register, Pixel 5 & More

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

• The European Union aims to ban big tech companies from giving preferential treatment to their own services or exclusively preinstalling their own apps on their sites or platforms, aside from forcing the firms in so-called "gatekeeper" roles to share customer data with business rivals in order to target users, according to an early draft of a new landmark Digital Services Act regulation; also wants large platforms to let users uninstall any preinstalled apps on devices such as smartphones and personal computers.
• Also worthy of note is a clause that bans gatekeepers from blocking rivals offering their products to customers outside of the gatekeeper's platform or services, a move which would affect Apple and Google with their restrictive app store rules regarding in-app purchases.
• Amsterdam and Helsinki become the first cities in the world to launch open AI registers with an aim to deploy "artificial intelligence in public services [that] operate on the same principles of responsibility, transparency and security as other activities of the city."
• Google mandates all third-party apps distributed via Google Play Store to use its in-app payment system (from which takes a 30% fee), bringing its policies in line with Apple's App Store policies.
• The development also comes as the search giant said it would make changes in next year's version of Android to make it easier to use other app stores on its devices without compromising safety.
• If anything, the changes in Play Store policies appear to be aimed at Netflix, Spotify, and Tinder, all three of which have skirted the rule by prompting users for a credit card to pay them directly.
• With lawmakers and regulators across the world increasingly beginning to investigate the clout of the companies and whether they stifle competition and harm consumers, the way Apple and Google app stores collect the 30% cut from all in-app purchases on their respective platforms raises antitrust arguments that have the potential to reshape the internet economy as we know it.
• As much as third-party developers have contributed to the growth of the app marketplaces over the last decade, it's about time true web apps are given a serious rethink. But here's where Apple has intentionally limited the availability of web APIs on iOS (such as push notifications on mobile Safari) and other core components of the operating system (ARKit, FaceID, or Bluetooth) from being made accessible to web apps, in turn forcing developers to submit native apps developed with their software development kit to the App Store.
• After all, if Apple were to fully support progressive web apps (PWAs), why even make an iOS app at all? Doing so would only deprive it of the 30% cut it gets out in-app purchases on native apps.
• For Apple, a web-based ecosystem simply doesn't benefit their business model. Instead, it's one giant walled garden that surrounds its ever-increasing roster of services with a hardware moat that effectively locks users into its platform. The choice is as binary as it can get: it's all or nothing.
• Ride-hailing giant Uber scores legal victory to resume operations in London after the city's transport regulator Transport for London (TfL) stripped off its license last November over a "pattern of failures" that had put passengers at risk. (Uber had previously appealed the TfL's decision, allowing it to operate in the city in the interim.)

The Google Pixel 5 is here

• Cybersecurity and content-distribution company Cloudflare launches a free "privacy-first" analytics tool, called Cloudflare Web Analytics, to rival Google Analytics that records how users engage with websites without invasive user tracking.
• Facebook introduces Accounts Center, a new tool for managing login, payment, and Story settings across Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger, as it continues to unify the messaging platforms; officially debuts cross-platform messaging across Messenger and Instagram, letting users on Messenger app reach their family and friends on Instagram without having to download a separate app, and vice versa.
• The huge infrastructure challenges aside (WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted), the more Facebook operates as a unified empire and not a constellation of standalone services, the harder it becomes to break up Facebook and the tougher it might become for rivals to chip away at the company's dominance.
• Indeed, a leaked Facebook document obtained by The Wall Street Journal over the weekend claims the breakup would be a "complete nonstarter" and that it "would defy established law, cost billions of dollars and harm consumers," hinting at the company's line of action should it find itself in an antitrust investigation that would force a divestiture of WhatsApp or Instagram.
• Music streaming service Spotify rolls out new feature that makes it easier to add people to collaborative playlists.
• A new investigation into Amazon's warehouse safety, based on data from 150 warehouses between 2016-2019, reveals the company's attempts to suppress rising injury rates among its warehouse workers, which topped 14,000 during the period.
• Sonos files a second patent lawsuit against Google, accusing the search giant of infringing five wireless audio patents across the entire line of Nest and Chromecast products.
• Google expands RCS support to more countries such as Austria, Bangladesh, Israel, Sri Lanka, and Switzerland, weeks after launching the rich messaging feature in Croatia, Czechia, Lithuania, and Slovenia early this month.
• Retail giant Amazon unveils a new service called Amazon Explore that allows customers to book one-on-one live, virtual experiences led by local experts that's focused towards learning DIY skills, taking virtual tours of famous landmarks, and even shop from boutiques and markets across the world; officially launches Amazon One, a palm recognition technology that lets shoppers use their palm print to authenticate purchases in physical retail stores.
• Apple gets accused of delaying a legal fight over its alleged stealing of blood-oxygen monitoring technology from medical-sensor maker Masimo, which filed a lawsuit against the iPhone maker earlier this year, alleging that the company pilfered trade secrets and hired key Masimo employees in a bid to gain a more dominant share of the smartwatch market. (It's worth pointing that blood-oxygen monitoring is a key feature of the latest Apple Watch Series 6 that was announced last month.)
• The European antritrust authority, the European Commission, is expected to approve Google's acquisition of Fitbit after the company outlined new proposals that restrict the use of Fitbit data for Google ads, along with supporting other wearable manufacturers on Android, letting third-parties access Fitbit users' data (with their consent), and allowing Fitbit users to connect to third-party services via APIs.

The new cross-messaging feature across Instagram and Messenger

• Microsoft's Bing search beats out rival DuckDuckGo to be offered as an option for Android users during setup in European countries following Google's quarterly default search engine auction for the period October 1 to December 31; DuckDuckGo says the antitrust remedy hurts competition and that it's "only serving to further strengthen Google's dominance in mobile search by boxing out alternative search engines that consumers want to use and, for those search engines that remain, taking most of their profits from the preference menu."
• Google unveils Google TV streaming platform (not to be confused with the now-shuttered Google TV on-demand platform) that allows users to watch content from other streaming apps such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and Disney Plus on their TVs (in line with this rebranding, the name of Google Play Movies & TV app is being changed to Google TV), launches Google Pixel 5 smartphone with Snapdragon 765G processor, a 6" 90Hz OLED display, 8GB RAM, and 4,080mAh battery (US$ 699), a new Chromecast with Google TV support (US$ 49.99), Nest Audio smart speaker (US$ 99.99), and updates Google Photos app for Android with a new machine learning-powered editor. (For what it's worth, Android TV will still continue to co-exist. Google TV runs on top of Android TV, akin to a Google layer added on top of the open source Android TV platform.)
• Indian startups reportedly exploring new alliance to fight Google's domination of the market with a localised Play Store alternative.
• Facebook expands its experimental effort Forecast, an app for crowdsourced predictions and collective insights, to all users.
• Google to turn off face retouching by default and avoid references to "beauty" in its Camera app, starting with the Pixel 4a, 4a 5G, and 5; launches Android Partner Vulnerability Initiative to improve the security of OEM devices and inform users about the security flaws affecting their devices.
• China reportedly preparing to launch an an antitrust probe into Google, following allegations by Chinese handset maker Huawei that Google leveraged the dominance of Android to stifle competition.
• Singapore to start using facial verification as part of its digital identity scheme SingPass to grant citizens secure access to both private and government services.
• Popular dating app Grindr fixes a security flaw in its password reset process that allowed anyone with knowledge of a user's email address to take over the account.