Tech Roundup: Google Search Updates, Kindle Scribe & More

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

• Google attempts to reinvent search with new visual updates to its search engine, offering users more personalised search results related to shopping, movie and TV recommendations, as well as improvements to multisearch to support more than 70 languages, Google Lens translation, a "shop the look" feature when shopping for apparel, a "discussions and forums" section to find first-hand advice, and new immersive view and "neighbourhood vibe" features in Google Maps, among others.
• Apple removes popular Russian social network VK from the App Store, along with other apps such as Mail.ru, VK Music, and Youla classifieds following sanctions imposed by the U.K. government against the country.
• Apple releases new iOS 16.1 beta expands Stage Manager, a new multitasking feature, to older iPads, allowing it to work with iPad Pro models that have an A12X or A12Z chip.
• Google adds Play Store home pages to its Android app with recommendations for Android Automotive, Android TV and Wear OS apps, making it easier to surface and discover apps tailored for other devices.
• Chipmaker Intel announces the Unison app, letting users text, take calls, and transfer files to iOS and Android devices, starting with select 12th Gen PCs from Acer, HP, and Lenovo this year.
• Google adds a narration voiceover feature to YouTube shorts, its answer to TikTok, allowing creators to add commentary over already recorded videos; to launch new option early next year that allows users to "opt into alerts if new results appear with personally identifying information, so you can quickly request their removal from Google Search." (It's worth noting, though, that Google is only taking down search results, not the content on the web itself.)
• Netflix introduces new social feature to its games service that lets its members to create game handles when playing exclusive titles from its catalogue, alongside help players discover other gamers, make friends and play with each other.
• South Korean electronics giant Samsung faces a new lawsuit in the U.S. for failing to stop two cyberattacks against its networks this year; states that customers are "forced to register accounts" to access essential features, enabling the company to "increase its profits, gather information regarding its customers, and be able to track their customers and their behaviours."
• ByteDance-owned TikTok says it's removed more than 54 million fake accounts so far this year, adding it took down more than 113 million videos between April and June 2022.
• Amazon encourages some customer service reps to work from home in a move meant to cut office costs, as the company moves to close multiple US call centres.
• Meta gets an Instagram clone app called "The OG App" – which claimed to offer an ad-free Instagram experience sans suggested content and options to turn off reels and feed updates for 24 hours – pulled from Apple's App Store a day after its launch for violating its policies; Un1Feed, the startup behind the app, says "Meta is intent on taking extraordinary measures to suppress and censor us simply because we did right by their users."
• Meta permanently bans Pornhub's Instagram account for "repeatedly violating" its policies regarding nudity, adult content, and sexual solicitation, after a three-week suspension and terms of service breaches accruing over 10 years.
• Apple removes the Dark Sky weather app from the App Store following its acquisition in March 2020; removal comes ahead of the planned December 31, 2022 deadline.
• Twitter reveals that it inadvertently ran ads (aka promoted tweets) from Walt Disney and Coca Cola on the profile pages of peddling links to or soliciting child sexual abuse material on its platform.
• Microsoft to discontinue its SwiftKey keyboard for iOS effective October 5 (the Android version is expected to be retained); says the app will "continue to work until it is manually uninstalled or a user gets a new device."
• Meta begins widely testing a feature called Notes in Instagram that lets users "quickly share thoughts" with a close circle of friends; officially renames Facebook Pay to Meta Pay for users across the world.
• Web infrastructure company Cloudflare takes on Google's reCAPTCHA with Turnstile, a user-friendly, privacy-preserving alternative to CAPTCHA that makes use of "non-intrusive browser challenges based on telemetry and client behaviour exhibited during a session."
• Payments company Square unveils new option to allow merchants use Apple’s Tap to Pay feature to process transactions.
• The European Commission proposes the AI Liability Directive, seeking to make it easier to sue the makers of drones, robots, and other AI-based products.
• WordPress-owned Tumblr introduces "community labels," letting users tag posts about drug and alcohol addiction, violence, and sexual content.
• Google rolls out Chrome 106 with new search operators for the address bar (e.g., @history, @bookmarks or @tabs), translate highlighted text, and improvements to RSS reader on desktop.
• Amazon unveils new Kindle Scribe (US$ 339.99) that doubles up as both a reading and writing device with support for a stylus to annotate documents and jot down notes; also debuts a new sleep tracker called Halo Rise (US$ 139.99), also debuts Fire TV Omni QLED TVs and an advanced Ring Spotlight Cam Pro, alongside upgrades to Echo Dot (they can now also function as Wi-Fi extenders), Echo Auto (US$ 54.99), and Fire TV Cube (US$ 139.99).