Tech Roundup: Alphabet Intrinsic, Google "About This Result" & More

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

• China's Cyberspace Administration passes new order banning children under 16 from appearing online in live-streaming ads and online video content, and unveils sweeping overhaul that prohibits turning online tutoring companies from making profits, raising capital or going public, clamping down on the US$ 100 billion industry; antitrust authority State Administration of Market Regulation (SAMR) fines Tencent US$ 77,143 and orders the company to end its exclusive music licensing deals with global record labels within 30 days, amid ongoing scrutiny of tech companies in the country.
• The European Union gives Google two months to improve the way it presents search results for flights and hotels, and explain how it ranks such results, or risk facing sanctions; says "E.U. consumers cannot be misled when using search engines to plan their holidays," adding "we need to empower consumers to make their choices based on transparent and unbiased information."
• Google updates its "About This Result" panel with more context about a specific search result, including matching keywords, related terms, and local relevance; rolls out the ability for users to block other accounts from sharing files in Google Drive as part of an attempt to prevent potential harassment and spam on the service.
• Instagram tests new feature called "Limits" that allows users to temporarily lock their accounts and limit any potential interactions when they feel they're being targeted by a flood of harassment.
• Ephemeral and multimedia messaging platform Snapchat's daily active users increases to 293 million, as social media service Twitter tops 206 million daily users in the second quarter of 2021.
• Google's unified smartwatch platform with Samsung to be called Wear OS 3 and come as an update to a limited set of smartwatches in the "second half of 2022," including Mobvoi's TicWatch Pro 3 GPS, TicWatch Pro 3 Cellular/LTE, TicWatch E3 and follow on TicWatch devices, as well as Fossil's new generation of devices launching later this year.
• Google's parent Alphabet announces Intrinsic, a new company to build software for industrial robots, as part of its "other bets" that includes Waymo, Wing, and Verily.

• Apple updates its music streaming service app for Android with support for lossless and spatial audio on select "compatible devices" following launch of the feature in iOS. (It's worth noting that Spotify leads the streaming industry with 158 million paid subscribers, while Apple Music had 60 million subscribers in June 2019, and Amazon Music had 55 million in January 2020.)
• Music streamer Spotify partners with GIPHY to connect users with artists' music via GIFs, allowing Spotify-linked GIFs to be tapped on the artist's page on GIPHY.com (or its apps); adds a What's New feed on iOS and Android, showing continually updating new releases from followed artists.
• Uber Freight to acquire transportation management software maker Transplace in a deal that values the company at US$ 2.25 billion.
• Payments processor Visa buys Currencycloud, a U.K. startup which sells software for banks and fin-tech companies to process cross-border payments, for US$ 963 million.
• Facebook mimics the approach of Amazon and Microsoft, as it brings its cloud gaming service to iOS via a progressive web app in the wake of Apple's restrictions for cloud gaming clients on the platform that mandates games offered in the streaming service be individually downloaded from the App Store.
• Google publishes a detailed timeline for the Privacy Sandbox rollout in Chrome, reiterating plans it announced earlier to delay phasing out third-party cookies until H2 2023; issues a fix for a bug in Chrome OS 91, apparently caused by a single typo (specifically, a missing ampersand symbol in the source code), which locked Chromebook owners out of devices upon restart.
• Twitter transparency report reveals that only 2.3% of active accounts have enabled two-factor authentication (2FA) between July and December 2020, 79.6% of which rely on SMS-based 2FA.
• Content recommendation network Taboola to acquire retail- and e-commerce-focused ad network Connexity for $800M in cash and stock.
• Box launches Box Sign, which lets users electronically sign contracts and request signatures, five months following its US$ 55 million acquisition of SignRequest earlier this February.