Tech Roundup: Apple App Store Concessions, China Platform Wars & More

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

• Apple faces major setback in its legal fight with Epic Games as the U.S. District Court rules that the company cannot prohibit developers from linking to external purchase options in addition to in-app purchases (effectively bypassing the 30% cut on in-app digital transactions, or perhaps not) but notes that its termination of the gaming company's developer account was "valid, lawful, and enforceable" over its decision to enable alternative payments for Fortnite users; Epic says "Fortnite will return to the iOS App Store when and where Epic can offer in-app payment in fair competition with Apple in-app payment, passing along the savings to consumers."
• Chinese tech giants and rivals Tencent and Alibaba agree to make their interoperable between their platforms and open up their "walled gardens" to other competitors following increased regulatory scrutiny in the country, officially putting an end to the widespread practice of blocking consumers from links to other web services within their apps. (It's worth pointing out that "Tencent's payment systems cannot be used on Alibaba's sites and vice versa, links to Alibaba's online shopping sites cannot be posted on Tencent's messaging app WeChat, and short videos from ByteDance, the owner of TikTok and its Chinese sister app Douyin, also cannot be posted on WeChat.").
• Facebook's WhatsApp adds new feature to allow Android and iOS users encrypt their chat backups in the cloud, escalating a growing tussle over encryption technology and meeting law enforcement needs, wherein privacy-preserving technologies continue to be at loggerheads with government demands to access vital electronic evidence stored on smartphones and the cloud. (The development comes nearly four months after WhatsApp took the Indian government to court over regulations that would require the platform to trace the "first originator" of messages, a feature that's not only incompatible with end-to-end encryption, but also undermines the use of encryption technology.)

• Microsoft acquires learning marketplace start-up TakeLessons, complementing the on-demand learning content Microsoft already offers through LinkedIn Learning, which is available to premium subscribers.
• TurboTax-owner Intuit acquires email marketing service provider Mailchimp in a cash and stock deal worth US$ 12 billion.
• Facebook-owned Instagram begins internally testing a feature that'll rank posts from select "favourite" accounts higher in its Feed as it attempts to give users more control over their feeds, five years after the service switched from a reverse chronological feed to an algorithm-driven one back in 2016; tests new feature on WhatsApp that will give users the option to adjust the visibility of their "Last Seen" status on a contact-by-contact basis.
• Google officially rolls out dark mode to its search results pages on desktop and new Translate button for YouTube comments in over 100 languages; releases new version of Chrome web browser with security fixes to address critical flaws that could be abused to take over vulnerable systems.
• Videoconferencing service Zoom adds live translation services and announces plans to bring video meetings and Zoom Whiteboard — which allows users to collaborate asynchronously via a virtual whiteboard accessible from Zoom, as well as from a web browser — to Facebook's VR meeting space, Horizon Workrooms, in Q1 2022.
• Ride hailing giant Uber faces new setback after the Court of Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, rules that drivers working for the company should be classified as employees and not "self-employed contractors," forcing the company to be held liable for minimum pay requirements and benefits like sick pay.