Tech Roundup: Amazon Style, Twitter NFT Profile Pictures & More

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

• Global music subscribers hit 523.9M in Q2 2021, up 26.4% YoY; Spotify leads with 31% market share; Apple Music, 15%; Amazon Music, 13%, Tencent Music, 13%, and YouTube Music, 8%.
• Meta's Instagram launches Subscriptions as an alpha, initially letting 10 U.S. creators offer their followers paid access to exclusive Instagram Live videos and Stories; takes new steps to make "potentially harmful" content less visible in Instagram by ranking a problematic post "lower on Feeds and Stories of that person's followers" and launches gamified activities on Messenger Kids to help kids learn how to safely use the internet, developed with guidance from online safety experts.
• Apple says the option it introduced to allow users to choose "between two software update versions" — update to iOS 15 or continue on iOS 14 and still receive important security updates — was meant to be a short-term offering, as the company stops shipping security upgrades to phone running iOS 14 and prompts users to upgrade to the latest version of iOS 15.
• Google announces plans to transition organisations using G Suite legacy free edition to an upgraded Google Workspace paid subscription starting on July 1; launching a limited beta of Play Games app in Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan to bring Android games to Windows PCs.
• Opera unveils Crypto Browser Project, a beta browser for Windows, Mac and Android, with a crypto wallet, access to crypto/NFT exchanges and decentalised apps (dApps).
• Snapchat implements a new safety feature that limits the friend suggestions teenagers (ages 13 to 17) see in the app; to only receive suggestions that have "a certain number of friends in common with that person" through Snapchat's friend suggestion feature, called Quick Add.
• Sony's shares tumble by 13%, its biggest drop since October 2008, wiping $20 billion off its valuation, after PlayStation rival Microsoft publicises its deal to acquire Activision Blizzard for US$ 69 billion.
• Swedish telecom company Ericsson files infringement lawsuits against Apple over 5G and other wireless patents, following the expiration of the cross-license agreement between the two companies and no renewal deal.
• ProtonMail turns on enhanced email tracking protection system for its web-based email solution that blocks tracking pixels and hides users' IP address from third-parties.

• ByteDance-owned TikTok confirms it's testing support for paid subscriptions, paving the way for creators on the short form video platform to charge for their content.
• On-demand video streaming service Netflix reports revenue of US$ 7.71 billion, up 16% YoY, net income of US$ 607 million, and adds 8.28 million global paid net subscribers in Q4 2021 to hit a total of 222 million users; projects to add 2.5 million subscribers during the first quarter of 2022, as it admits to increased competition and market saturation, forcing it to rely on developing markets and verticals like gaming for growth.
• Twitter debuts NFT profile pictures for its paying Twitter Blue users, allowing them to connect their crypto wallets and "show off the NFTs you own in a hex-shaped profile picture"; comes as social media conglomerate Meta is exploring plans to let users create, showcase, and sell NFTs on Facebook and Instagram.
• Google is reportedly working new augmented reality (AR) headset under the codename Project Iris; hires PayPal executive Arnold Goldberg to steer its Google Pay efforts and turn it into a comprehensive digital wallet, with plans to incorporate cryptocurrency.
• Meta details Data2vec, a self-supervised machine learning algorithm that unifies the process of training a neural network to learn the same across speech, images, and text.
• Russian's central bank proposes banning the trading, use, and mining of cryptocurrencies on Russian territory, citing threats to financial stability.
• Meta's enterprise-oriented Workplace to gain WhatsApp integration to enable Workplace customers to cross-post announcements and share other data with employees using the messaging app.
• China's digital currency, e-CNY, nearly doubles user base to 261 million since October 2021.
• Amazon to launch Amazon Style, its first physical fashion store as it continues to experiment in physical retail, in Los Angeles later this year, allowing customers to use an app to send items to the fitting room.
• Apple countersues Ericsson days after the latter sued the iPhone maker for infringing its 5G wireless patents, seeking a U.S. import ban on mobile base stations and proposes that both parties withdraw all patent infringement actions.