Tech Roundup: China Privacy Scrutiny, Windows 11 & More

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

• Cyberspace Administration of China, the nation's internet watchdog, calls on ByteDance-owned news aggregation app Jinri Toutiao, Tencent's NOW Zhibo, dating platform Zhen Ai and a batch of 126 other apps to rectify their user data collection practices, as the government intensifies its scrutiny of tech companies' data practices to address privacy infringements and information breaches.
• Google rolls out Workspace experience to all users with a Google account, bringing together Gmail, Chat, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Meet under one collaborative space (previously chat Rooms); launches a new tier called "Google Workspace Individual" at US$ 9.99 per month catering to individual small business owners with premium capabilities, including smart booking services, professional video meetings, and personalised email marketing.
• The U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority announces investigation into the "effective duopoly" of Apple and Google on mobile ecosystems with respect to iOS and Android, their respective app stores (App Store and Play Store) and web browsers (Safari and Chrome) "over concerns they have market power which is harming users and other businesses"; comes days after the Japanese government opened a similar probe into the mobile operating system market in the country.
• Apple debuts Podcasts Subscriptions globally across 170 countries and begins testing a major redesign to the iCloud Mail experience on the web, bringing its email service more in line with recent design changes made in macOS Big Sur; faces flak for removing 27 LGBTQ+-related apps from its App Store in China to comply with regulations in the country.
• Chipmaker Nvidia acquires DeepMap, a Palo Alto-based startup that develops high-definition mapping technology for self-driving cars, to bolster the company' autonomous vehicle technology sector and "extend our mapping products, help us scale worldwide map operations and expand our full self-driving expertise."
• Google unveils new features for Android, including end-to-end encryption for RCS-based one-to-one chats in Messages, along with an option to star messages, an Earthquake Alerts System to give advance notice to users to seek safety in the event of an earthquake, and the ability to use Google Assistant to jump to a specific part of an app and show relevant information in the form of a widget right from the lock screen.

• U.S. lawmakers table a clutch of five bills to chip away at the power of big tech companies; aims to empower the Justice Department or the Federal Trade Commission to break up tech firms by making it unlawful to operate parts of their business that presents a clear conflict of interest (such as Amazon and Apple), bar companies from giving their own services preference over their rivals (like Google), block companies like Facebook from buying up nascent competitors like in the 2012 acquisition of Instagram, and force platforms to make the data they collect interoperable in order to make it easier for users to jump from one service to another.
• Microsoft to end support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025, just over 10 years since the operating system was first introduced; upcoming version of Windows 11 leaks ahead of the company's event on June 24 to unveil the next generation of operating system, showing a revamped user interface with a macOS-style taskbar with centered app icons.
• Emails surfaced during Apple vs. Epic Games trial finds that the company manually boosted the ranking of its own Files app ahead of the competition such as Dropbox for 11 months; Apple says it was due to a simple mistake, telling The Verge that "the Files app had a Dropbox integration, so Apple put 'Dropbox' into the app’s metadata, and it was automatically ranked higher for “Dropbox” searches as a result."
• Google speeds up Chrome OS update cycle, with plans to release new versions every four weeks, just like the regular Chrome browser; graduates its AirTable equivalent Tables from beta to a full-fledged Cloud product, making it available as part of Google Workspace later this year.
• Facebook buys BigBox VR, the maker of VR battle royale title POPULATION: ONE, in its fifth VR game development studio acquisition; launches a new type of group, called Fan Groups, to cater to gaming creators, with options to organise topics into threaded discussions and seek out players from within a streamer's community with a new category of post called "Looking for Players."
• WordPress.com and Tumblr owner Automattic acquires Day One, a popular journaling app for Apple devices with over 15 million downloads on the Mac and iOS App Store, for an undisclosed sum.