Tech Roundup: Google Street View India, Meta Revenue Decline & More

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

• Google announces plans to relaunch Street View in India in partnership with Genesys International and Tech Mahindra to supply the imagery, starting in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Vadodara, Ahmednagar, and Amritsar, over 10 years after the service was suspended by the government on security grounds; also debuts "photorealistic aerial views of nearly 100 of the world's most popular landmarks."
• Apple agrees to pay US$ 50 million to settle a class-action lawsuit claiming the company knew and concealed that its MacBook butterfly keyboards were prone to failure.
• Google rolls out a new Gmail interface that brings together Gmail, Chat, Spaces and Meet in a single, unified view; teases a tablet update for later in 2022.
• Twitter tests a status feature for tweets in Australia and the U.S., letting users add a label from a pre-determined list to provide more context.
• Sony begins testing support for 1440p games on the PlayStation 5, a widely requested feature, alongside curated gamelists and new social tools.
• Google delays phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome to H2 2024, after deferring the plan from 2022 to 2023, citing the need for more Privacy Sandbox tests with regards to a new set of APIs (e.g., Topics API) that it claims can strike a balance between preserving privacy and continuing to enable the online advertising economy that is the core of its business.
• Google's efforts to move away from cookies date back to 2019, when the company announced a long-term roadmap to adopt ostensibly more private ways of tracking web users. The linchpin is Privacy Sandbox, which aims to create web standards that power advertising without the use of so-called "tracking" cookies.
• The proposals to change the way web advertising works have naturally attracted the attention of regulators owing to Google's position as the biggest browser vendor and web advertiser.
• Alphabet subsidiary DeepMind's AlphaFold AI software predicts the structure of almost every protein catalogued by science, over 200 million in total, in just 18 months, a breakthrough that's expected to speed up the discovery of new drugs.
• China smartphone sales fall 14.2% YoY in Q2 2022 to the lowest point since Q4 2012; sales of Honor devices grow 103.3% YoY, boosting its Q2 market share from 7.7% to 18.3%.

• Google revises its Play Store policy for third-party apps to prohibit unexpected interstitial ads effective September 30 unless users explicitly opt-in and requires the ads to be skippable after 15 seconds; takes on copycat apps with new rules that ban developers from impersonating other companies and organisations.
• Meta to double down on recommendations, with more than 30% of content on Instagram and Facebook feeds to be populated by posts and videos from accounts users don't follow to drive engagement.
• Google debuts new Chrome OS features, including video editing in Google Photos, PDF editing in the Gallery app, support for light and dark themes, and the ability to save a virtual desk.
• The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) files a complaint to block Meta from acquiring Within, the company behind the virtual reality fitness app Supernatural, stating the company "chose to buy" instead of compete and that the "acquisition would substantially lessen competition, or tend to create a monopoly, in the relevant market for VPR dedicated fitness apps and the broader relevant market for VR fitness apps." (Through a series of key acquisitions and pricing strategies, Meta has turned its VR business into the market's most dominant platform, with a 90% market share in hardware, according to IDC.)
• Meta reports first-ever yearly decline in revenue for Q2 2022, dropping 1% to US$ 28.8 billion; overall profit slumps 36% to US$ 6.7 billion, as Reality Labs posts a US$ 2.81 billion loss on US$ 452 million in revenue, and daily active users across its Family of Apps jumps 4% YoY to 2.88 billion.
• Spotify reports monthly active users of 433 million, with paying subscribers at 188 million, as Q2 2022 revenue hits €2.9 billion, up 23% YoY; decides to stop further production of Car Thing units, citing demand and supply chain issues.
• Samsung reports Q2 2022 operating profit of US$ 10.8 billion, up 12% YoY, revenue of US$ 59.3 billion, up 21% YoY, and chip division revenue of US$ 22.1 billion.
• Etsy reports Q2 revenue of US$ 585 million, up 10.6% YoY, and net income of US$ 73.1 million, down 25.6% YoY.
• Qualcomm reports Q3 2022 revenue of US$ 10.93 billion, up 37% YoY, and net income of US$ 3.36 billion, up 53% YoY, and chip segment revenue of US$ 9.38 billion, up 45% YoY.