Tech Roundup: Google FloodHub, WhatsApp Communities & More

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

• Twitter is reportedly working on a new feature dubbed "Paywalled Video," which would allow users to charge money for access to videos, in a move that would put the platform more directly in competition with sites like OnlyFans; to reportedly shut down newsletter platform Revue, which it acquired in January 2021, by the end of 2022, in addition to pausing its four-month-old Notes feature.
• Apple confirms that iOS 16.2 update for iPhone will enable 5G support in India coinciding with its official rollout in December 2022.
• Google announces the global launch of FloodHub, "a platform that displays flood forecasts and shows when and where floods may occur to help people directly at risk and provide critical information to aid organizations and governments."
• Meta lets select Instagram U.S. creators test a toolkit for minting NFTs and selling them on and off the platform, as the company attempts to transform the once photo-sharing app to an all-in-one entertainment platform with avenues for creators to monetise their content.
• Google integrates package tracking into Gmail; plans to roll out parental controls for Assistant, including disabling features, age-appropriate content, and setting downtimes hours, in the "coming weeks."
• Netflix officially debuts its ad-supported tier with up to five minutes of ads per hour for US$ 6.99 per month in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain, the U.K., and the U.S.; to lack support for offline viewing and cap streaming quality at 720p, as well as limit access to certain movies and TV shows due to licensing restrictions.
• Amazon to roll out support for Matter smart home standard to 17 Echo devices in December, starting with Android phones, covering smart plugs, bulbs and switches; to expand early next year to include iOS devices.
• Newsletter platform Substack announces Chat, an opt-in feature letting writers host discussions with their subscribers.
• Meta-owned WhatsApp announces Communities, a group messaging feature for larger, more structured groups of up to 1,024 people, for users across the world, as it takes on Nextdoor and Discord; also adds support for 32-person video chats in group conversations.
• Creator platform Patreon launches a native ad-free video hosting tool for creators, as opposed to uploading the content on third-party services like YouTube and Vimeo.
• Open source, decentralised social network Mastodon says 230,000 people joined its platform in the past week and the service has hit a record 655,000 active users amid Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter. (The development also comes as Bot Sentinel reported that about 877,000 Twitter users deactivated their accounts and 497,000 suspended their accounts between October 27 and November 1)
• Meta plans to end human curation of its U.K. Facebook News tab and switch to a completely algorithmic system in early 2023.
• Snap partners with Amazon to let Snapchat users try on reading glasses, sunglasses, and more eyewear from popular brands in AR via dozens of new Shopping Lenses.
• Google expands Google Play Games for Windows in beta to more countries, including the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore, following initial rollout in Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and Australia; brings Steam on Chromebook in beta with the release of Chrome OS 108.
• PayPal plans to add support for iPhone's Tap to Pay feature in its PayPal and Venmo iOS apps "soon" and add Apple Pay to its checkout options.
• Robinhood reports Q3 2022 revenue down 1% YoY to US$ 361 million; net loss down 87% YoY to US$ 175 million and monthly active users down 1.8 million QoQ to 12.2 million in September 2022.
• Roku posts Q3 2022 revenue up 12% YoY to US$ 761.4 million; reports 21.9 billion streaming hours, as the streaming platform and media company packs on 2.3 million streaming accounts to reach 65.4 million.
• eBay reports Q3 2022 revenue down 5% YoY to US$ 2.4 billion; gross merchandise volume slides 11% YoY to US$ 17.7 billion and active buyers drop 11% YoY to 135 million.
• Qualcomm reports Q4 2022 revenue up 22% YoY to US$ 11.4 billion and net income up 3% YoY to US$ 2.87 billion; forecasts decline in smartphone sales "given the uncertainty caused by the macroeconomic environment."
• Twilio reports Q3 2022 revenue up 33% YoY to US$ 983 million, and over 280,000 active customer accounts.
• PayPal reports Q3 2022 revenue up 12% YoY to US$ 6.85 billion and payments volume up 14% YoY to US$ 337 billion.
• Block posts Q3 2022 revenue up 17% YoY to US$ 4.52 billion; gross profit up 38% YoY to US$ 1.57 billion and Cash App gross profit up 51% YoY to US $ 774 million.
• Coinbase reports Q3 2022 net revenue down 28% QoQ to US$ 576 million, net loss down 50% QoQ to US$ 545 million, as subscription and services jumps 43% QoQ and monthly transacting users drop to 8.5 million.
• DoorDash reports Q3 2022 revenue up 33% YoY to US$ 1.7 billion; delivery orders up 27% YoY to 439 million and net loss up 193% YoY to US$ 296 million.
• Lenovo reports Q2 2022 revenue down 4% YoY to US$ 17.09 billion, marking the PC giant's first decline in 10 quarters.