Tech Roundup: Samsung Repair Mode, Twitter Blue Price Hike & More

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

• The Cybersecurity Administration of China (CAC) says it summoned more than 3,400 platforms, fined 283 services, and removed 177 apps from app stores for violating laws and regulations during the first half of 2022, amid continued online law enforcement.
• Twitter says it fielded nearly 60,000 legal demands globally in H2 2021 and that it complied fully with nearly 40% of the requests; the U.S. accounts for 20% of account information requests, closely trailed by India.
• Uber to start showing drivers how much they'll be paid for accepting a trip as part of a new feature called "upfront fares"; debuts Trip Radar, another setting that "lets drivers see a list of other trips happening nearby."
• Samsung announces a feature called Repair Mode that keeps users' data secure during a phone repair, starting with the Galaxy S21 series in South Korea.
• Global smartphone shipments fall 7% YoY to 291 million units in Q2 2022; Samsung takes a 21.5% market share, followed by Apple (16.3%), Xiaomi (13.6%), Oppo (9.5%), and Vivo (8.6%).
• Apple to expand its ad offerings in the App Store beyond Search with two new ad placements in the Today home page and under the "You Might Also Like" in each app listing.
• Amazon to wind down its personal file storage service, Amazon Drive, by December 31, 2023, to "provide customers a dedicated solution for photos and video storage."
• Twitter raises its Blue subscription price from US$ 2.99 to US$ 4.99 a month to help it "continue to build some of the features you've been asking for"; tests new feature that allows users mix and match photos, videos, and GIFs in a single tweet.
• Snap launches a Sounds Creator Fund, awarding up to US$ 100,000 per month to artists distributing songs on Snapchat via DistroKid, or US$ 5,000 per song, starting in August.
• Sony beats with Q1 2022 operating profit of US$ 2.3 billion, as PlayStation 5 sales hit 2.4 million, up from 2.3 million YoY, with lifetime shipments now touching 21.7 million.
• Indonesian blocks access to a range of online services, including Steam, Epic Games, PayPal, and Yahoo, after the companies fail to comply with a new requirement related to the country's restrictive content moderation laws effective July 29, 2022.
• Apple to make Apple Pay compatible with Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox in iOS 16, as the company appears to have a change of heart after the European Union's plans to crack down on big tech's anticompetitive practices.