Tech Roundup: Google Fines, Samsung Maintenance Mode & More

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

• Australia unveils plans for tougher online privacy laws after several major data breaches at Optus and Medibank, including increasing fines from AU$ 2.22 million to AU$ 50 million.
• Indian antitrust watchdog, the Competition Commission of India, fines Google US$ 113 million for abusing its dominant position in the Android market (and by extension, the Play Store) to force developers to use its own payment service for processing in-app purchases; orders the tech giant to all third-party billing system within three months.
• Music streamer Spotify hits 195 million paid subscribers; to receive a price rise in 2023 following recent increases by Apple Music and YouTube Premium.
• Meta accuses Apple of creating policies that bolster its own business at the cost of undercutting others in the digital economy via updated App Store rules requiring developers to use in-app purchases for sales of "boosted" posts in social media platforms.
• Paying for boosted posts on apps like Facebook and Instagram currently doesn't involve the use Apple's in-app purchase system, which allows Apple to take a 30% cut, while TikTok and Twitter do.
• This move, while in line with Apple's guidelines, could once again reignite calls for third-party app stores to counter the tech giant's attempts to monetise every single digital transaction carried out on its platform.
• Spotify calls out Apple for making it harder to sell audiobooks, stating the company's rules "mandate a cumbersome Audiobooks purchasing process that makes it harder for you to find your next favourite author or book."

• Samsung officially begins rolling out Maintenance Mode to Galaxy phones with One UI 5 installed, enabling users to secure personal information when sending their devices for repair.
• Google to increase storage for Google Workspace Individual accounts from 15GB to 1TB; also adds options to multi-send emails with mail merge tags like @firstname for personalised emails.
• Ride-hailing company faces new legal setback after New Zealand's employment court sides with four drivers in a ruling that seeks to classify gig workers as employees.
• Stock image giant Shutterstock to sell AI-generated stock imagery as part of an extended partnership with OpenAI.
• Amazon begins letting select U.S. customers pay with PayPal-owned Venmo on its site and in its mobile app, with plans to roll out the option to all shoppers in the country by next month.
• Microsoft reports over 90 million active users for GitHub, up from 28 million active users when it acquired the service in 2018; says more than 20 million users have streamed games using Xbox Cloud Gaming, double the number it reported in April 2022.
• Microsoft reports Q1 2023 with revenues of US$ 50.12 billion, up 11% YoY, and net income of US$ 17.56 billion, down 14%; cloud revenue grows 24% YoY to US$ 25.7 billion, and Productivity and Business Processes segment (which includes Microsoft 365 and LinkedIn) posts US$ 16.4 billion revenue, up 9%, as Windows OEM revenue drops 15% YoY and devices revenue climbs up 2% YoY.
• Alphabet reports Q3 2022 revenue up 6% YoY from US$ 65.1 billion to US$ 69.09 billion, and net income of US$ 13.91 billion, down from US$ 18.94 billion YoY; reports Google ad sales of US$ 54.5 billion in Q3 2022, up from US$ 53.1 billion YoY, Google Search revenue of US$ 39.5 billion, up from US$37.9 billion YoY, and Google Cloud revenue of US$ 6.9 billion, as YouTube ad revenue slides 1.9% YoY to US$ 7.07 billion, with overall revenue growth slowing to 6% from 41% a year earlier.
• Spotify reports Q3 2022 revenue up 21% YoY to €3.04 billion, as monthly active users surge 20% YoY to 456 million.