Tech Roundup: China Clubhouse Ban, Instagram Reels Changes & More

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

• China takes on big tech conglomerates by tightening its anti-monopoly guidelines for internet and digital payment services; new rules effectively block companies from forcing sellers to choose between the leading online players, including heavyweights such as Alibaba Group's Taobao and JD.com, and mobile payment services like Ant Group's Alipay or Tencent's WeChat Pay, a long-time practice in the country, and prohibit companies from price fixing, restricting rivals, and stealthily using their access to using data and algorithms to manipulate the market.
• Live audio-chat networking startup Clubhouse gets firewalled in China weeks after the app soared in popularity in the country and users flocked to chat about sensitive topics free from government censorship, including exchanging opinions ranging from support for anti-government protests in Hong Kong to discussing massive human rights abuse in Xinjiang.
• Apple tests new feature in iOS 14.5 beta that lets users set a default music streaming service, such as Deezer, Spotify, or YouTube Music, when using Siri to play music; adds Waze-Like Features in Apple Maps for crowdsourcing accidents, speed traps, and hazards.
• Valve officially releases a Steam client for Chinese market with a catalogue of 53 gaming titles and no message boards and community features.
• Universal Music Group unveils a global agreement with ByteDance-owned video-sharing app TikTok, days after pulling its music catalog from TikTok-rival Triller.
• Facebook expands policies to take down more posts with vaccine-related misinformation, including assertions that vaccines cause autism; sister company Instagram announces changes to its recommendation algorithms that aims to suggest less of Reels that are blurry, uploaded with a border around them, or visibly recycled from other apps by re-sharing watermarked content from rivals such as TikTok.

• Automaker Tesla invests US$ 1.5 billion in bitcoin, with "near future" plans to accept the cryptocurrency as a payment option, sending the price of bitcoin surging to US$ 44,200.
• Adobe brings document collaboration to Photoshop, Illustrator, and Fresco, enabling asynchronous editing of files across desktop, iPhone, and iPad.
• Automattic, the for-profit company tied to open source web publishing platform WordPress, acquires analytics provider Parse.ly.
• Twitter is reportedly building subscription products to ease its dependence on ads, including "tipping" for exclusive content and charging for TweetDeck; CEO Jack Dorsey expands on his vision of a decentralized social network and suggests an "app-store-like view of ranking algorithms" that give users flexibility over how their feeds are presented, as monetisable daily active users on the platform hit 192 million.
• Xiaomi unveils global version of its Mi 11 flagship with Snapdragon 888, 6.8-inch 1440p OLED 120Hz display, and up to 265GB storage for €749.
• Hyundai and its affiliate Kia say they are not in talks with Apple to develop an autonomous vehicle, weeks after intense speculations of a rumoured collaboration about the potential new product by the iPhone maker.
• The E.U. considers regulations that would force Facebook and Google to pay for news content on their platforms, echoing a similar move in Australia.
• Microsoft launches two new apps for Teams, called Bulletins, which lets organisations share departmental news and announcements in a central place, and Milestones to keep track of the current status of work items and improve collaboration across cross-functional teams.
• Retail giant Amazon is said to be developing a wall-mounted Echo device with a large touchscreen that serves as a smart home control panel, video chat device, and media player.
• Shopify partners with Facebook to expand its payment option, Shop Pay, to all Shopify merchants selling across both Facebook and Instagram.