Tech Roundup: Stack Overflow Acquisition, Twitter Blue & More

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

• Apple's App Store ecosystem facilitated approximately US$ 643 billion in billings and sales globally in 2020, up 24% year-over-year, according to a study commissioned by the company; expands support for its Apple TV streaming app to Android TV devices and Nvidia Shield, as it banks heavily on its services offerings and aims to win over users of other platforms and make it accessible in as many places as possible in order to boost viewership. (Now if only iMessage became a cross-platform messaging app!)
• Amazon describes warehouse workers as "industrial athletes," detailing its wellness programs to help workers by laying out guidelines to "prepare their bodies" for walking "up to 13 miles a day" or lifting "a total of 20,000 pounds" during their shifts.
• Facebook-owned WhatsApp updates Business API to enable storefronts and other businesses to send back-in-stock alerts, among other features; opens Messenger API to let businesses interact with users on Instagram, announces deeper support for shared AR effects and games in video calls for Messenger and Instagram, in addition to allowing users to log into their app or website using their Facebook credentials via a new feature called Facebook Login Connect.
• WhatsApp is also said to be working on a Disappearing Mode for messages across all threads, 'View Once' option for photos and videos, and multi-device support, letting its 2 billion users connect up to four devices to one account.
• Microsoft to showcase its "next generation of Windows" on June 24; to add support for end-to-end encryption in Teams for one-to-one voice calls on desktop and mobile apps starting in early July.

• The European Union officially unveils plans for a digital ID wallet that residents can use to prove their identities and share electronic documents across the 27-nation bloc, in addition to enabling access to online services with their national digital identification; says "very large platforms will be required to accept the use of European Digital Identity wallets upon request of the user, for example to prove their age."
• Google debuts new Pixel Buds A-Series wire-free earbuds for US$ 99 with improvements to sound quality and access to real-time translation in more than 40 languages via Google Assistant; expands new security protections in Chrome's Enhanced Safe Browsing to warn users when installing potentially unsafe extensions through the Chrome Web Store or downloading malicious files, and announces plans to cut off access to "Advertising IDs" when Android users opt out of tracking, instead showing third-party app developers a "string of zeros," thus making it harder for advertisers to track them when they move between apps.
• While Google already allows Android users to opt-out of personalised ads, software developers may still access to the Advertising IDs, a unique string of characters that identifies the user's device, for purposes like measuring app usage. In following Apple's lead, if a user has opted out of personalised ads, the Advertising ID will no longer be available.
• With regulators taking a closer look at user privacy, and consumers becoming more concerned about the use of their personal data, it's no surprise that the tech giants are building higher walls, cutting off competition and becoming bigger monopolies in the advertising space by making changes in the name of privacy.
• ByteDance-owned TikTok adds a new section to its privacy policy saying the app may collect biometric data such as faceprints and voiceprints from its users' audio and imagerial content in the U.S.

• Twitter launches its first-ever subscription offering, Twitter Blue, in Canada and Australia for CAD $3.49 and AU $4.49/month, with extra perks like bookmark folders, undo tweets, a new reader mode, and dedicated subscription customer support; redesigns its app to make its audio chat room feature, Spaces, the centre tab in the main navigation bar (and make it a core part of the user experience), initially on iOS, as part of a limited test comprising of around 500 users.
• Apple updates AirTags to address stalking concerns that the Bluetooth trackers could be used to surreptitiously track people without their knowledge; says it's bringing the alert window from three days down to a random timeframe between eight and 24 hours in which an AirTag will emit a sound to notify users unknowingly travelling with the device on or near them, and that it will roll out an Android app later this year to help users detect unknown AirTags or Find My network-enabled items that have been placed into their belongings.
• Popular Q&A platform Stack Overflow, which attracts over 100 million visitors a month, gets aquired by Netherlands-based global investment firm Prosus, the primary shareholder of Chinese tech giant Tencent and Russia's Mail.ru Group, in a deal worth US$ 1.8 billion.
• YouTube says it has paid over US$ 4 billlion to the music industry in the last 12 months, noting it has added more paid members in the first quarter of 2021 than in any other quarter since launch.
• Music streaming service Spotify announces Only You, offering users personalised playlists and insights based on listening habits, alongside a new feature Blend, that lets "two friends to merge their musical tastes into one curated playlist made just for them, making it even easier for users to connect, discover, and share the music they love with one another."
• Huawei officially debuts HarmonyOS, its proprietary operating system (a fork of Android) designed to run across multiple devices, including smartphones, tablets, watches, televisions, cars, and internet-of-things (IoT) devices.