Tech Roundup: Facebook Horizon Workrooms, OnlyFans Porn Ban & More

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

• The U.S. Federal Trade Commission refiles its antitrust complaint against Facebook, alleging that the company "has maintained since 2011, a dominant share of the relevant market for US personal social networking services"; accuses it of shutting out outside apps by limiting their access to the Facebook platform or buying out its rivals like Instagram and WhatsApp in an attempt to get rid of competition by leveraging an illegal "buy-or-bury" scheme to maintain its dominance in the social networking market after its failure to "develop innovative mobile features" during the transition from desktop to mobile devices, adding Facebook's actions "have degraded the social network experience, subjecting users to lower levels of privacy and data protections and more intrusive ads."
• Epic Games' ongoing legal battle with Google reveals that the search giant paid game developers hundreds of millions in incentives in an attempt to "throw extra love/promotion to top developers" and keep their games on the Play Store as part of its "Project Hug" initiative (and later called "Apps and Games Velocity Program"), as unsealed court documents brings to focus Google's "Premier Device Program," which gave Android OEMs a greater share of Search revenue in exchange for not preinstalling third-party app stores on their devices, underscoring the lengths to which Google went to undermine third-party app stores on the Android platform by locking down phone manufacturers with elaborate contracts and directly appealing to software developers to keep them on the Play store, and treating any alternative software channel as an existential threat.
• China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) calls out 43 apps, including Tencent's WeChat, video giant iQiyi, Trip.com's Ctrip and Weibo Wallet, for illegally transferring user data, such as locations and contacts, and for incorrectly using pop-up ads when users open the apps, ordering the developers to rectify the problem by August 25 or risk facing punishment.
• Facebook announces Horizon Workrooms, a virtual meeting space capable of hosting up to 16 people with avatars, spatial audio, a whiteboard, and a personal drawing pad, in beta on Oculus Quest 2 as part of its broader ambitions to own the next computing platform and build the so-called metaverse; tests Reels in the News Feed and Groups in the U.S., after launching the feature in India, Mexico, and Canada earlier this year, and pilots 90-day disappearing messages in WhatsApp, weeks after testing "view once" photos and videos for sensitive chats.

• Chipmaker Nvidia reports a record Q2 revenue of US$ 6.51 billion, up 68% YoY, as gaming revenue and data center revenues hit US$ 3.06 billion (up 85% YoY) and US$ 2.37 billion (up 35% YoY) respectively.
• Movie streaming service Netflix begins rolling out support for Spatial Audio on the iPhone and the iPad.
• South Korean electronics giant Samsung confirms its plans to cut down on ads in its proprietary apps, including Samsung Weather, Samsung Pay, and Samsung Theme, adding the "update will be ready by later this year."
• Retail and entertainment behemoth Amazon plans to open several large physical stores across the U.S. that take up roughly 30,000 square feet, starting in the states of Ohio and California, to extend its reach in clothing, technology and other areas, marking the company's latest experiment with brick-and-mortar stores after stealing market share in the retail landscape from incumbents as its continues to profit from an increasing shift toward e-commerce during the pandemic. (It's also about gathering data from real-world, in-store purchases.)
• Twitter tests a new newsletter subscription button on user profiles following its acquisition of Revue; begins rolling out the ability to direct message a tweet to multiple people in different chats at once on iOS and web, as well as long press messages for reactions on iOS.
• Facebook adds new security features for people in Afghanistan, including a one-click tool to quickly lock accounts and limit account discoverability, in the wake of Taliban's rapid takeover of the country.
• Adobe to acquire video collaboration software Frame.io in a deal worth US$ 1.275 billion.
• Microsoft shows off a redesigned version of its Paint app for Windows and announces plans to raise the prices of commercial Microsoft 365 subscription bundles in March 2022, the first major price change since their 2011 launch.
• Online creator platform OnlyFans to prohibit users from "posting of any content containing sexually explicit conduct" starting October 1, banning intercourse, masturbation, or exhibition of genitals, and mandating users to remove such content before December 1; says it's making the change "to comply with the requests of our banking partners and payout providers" such as MasterCard (which is announcing new rules that require websites using its payment processing service to not only fully verify every user and every person who appears in every adult video, but review all posted content before publication, including real-time review of livestreams), with Axios reporting the company's difficulties in attracting investors due to the proliferation of porn on the site.