Tech Roundup: Netflix Ads Tier, Microsoft Office Rebrand & More

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

• Turkey passes a "disinformation" law ahead of its 2023 elections, mandating one to three years in jail for sharing online content deemed as "false information."
• Netflix to launch "Basic with Ads" ad-supported tier for US$ 6.99 per month in the U.S. on November 3, 2022, with video quality capped at 720p (HD) and an average of four to five minutes of ads served per hour; other available countries include Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain, and the U.K. (While the plan comes amid slowing revenue growth and a loss in subscribers, a limited number of movies and TV shows isn't expected to be available due to licensing restrictions and there will be no option to download titles for offline viewing. This, alongside rumours that Apple is planning to offer an ad-supported plan for Apple TV+, is another indication that streaming has officially mutated into cable 2.0.)
• Apple to team up with Goldman Sachs on a high-yield savings account for its cardholders, marking the latest expansion from the tech giant into financial services.
• Microsoft Office to be formally renamed "Microsoft 365," in the biggest rebranding of the company's office productivity software in more than 30 years.
• Apple is ordered to provide chargers with new iPhones sold in Brazil, in what’s the latest legal setback for the company; also fines the tech giant US$ 19 million.
• Twitter pilots new feature that allows users to limit their mentions through a setting called "Allow others to mention you."
• Meta to axe Instant Articles format for news articles from Facebook in April 2023, more than 8 years after launching the feature in May 2015, stating "less than 3% of what people around the world see in Facebook's Feed are posts with links to news articles"; expands AI-based age verification requirement via a video selfie to more countries, including Brazil and India.
• Google to start labelling ads as "Sponsored" in bold black text mobile search results (with a similar desktop change coming soon) following concerns that the company blurred the lines between ads and search results; to also update "the size and shape of the favicon (a website’s logo or icon) that appears in Search, to make it easier to see on the page."
• Apple's mixed-reality headset to reportedly feature iris scanning to authenticate payments and log into accounts, according to a new report from The Information.