Tech Roundup: Ad-Free Facebook, Apple M3 Chips & More

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

• Meta debuts an ad-free option for Instagram and Facebook in Europe, charging €9.99/month on the web or €12.99/month on Android and iOS, as way to get around data protection regulations that prevent it from tracking users' digital activity to serve targeted ads; to also stop showing ads to all users under the age of 18 in the region.
• Google agrees to give users more choice as to "what happens to their data, how Google can use them and whether their data may be used across services" in Germany.
• OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Meta and others sign a non-binding document to let the U.S., the U.K., and other nations test AI models for national security risks prior to their release.
• Pinterest touches 482 million monthly active users for Q3 2023.
• Tencent's WeChat, ByteDance's Douyin, Kuaishou and Bilibili begin asking users with more than 500,000 followers to reveal their real names, following a similar move by Weibo, in what's seens as a tightening of China's internet oversight.
• Google and Match Group reach a settlement in an app store antitrust case, letting Match implement third-party billing options by March 31, 2024; updates Chrome on iOS, but not Chrome on Android, with the option to let users move the address bar to the bottom of the screen, like Safari.
• Goole's YouTube says it "launched a global effort" to encourage users with ad blockers to allow ads or try YouTube Premium, after a "small experiment" earlier this year; unveils new wellbeing and mental health features for teens, including recommendations spanning categories such as "content that compares physical features and idealizes some types over others, idealizes specific fitness levels or body weights, or displays social aggression in the form of non-contact fights and intimidation."
• Microsoft plans to block unauthorised Xbox third-party accessories from use starting November 12, 2023, stating "unauthorised accessories can compromise the gaming experience on Xbox consoles."
• Apple quietly discontinues Apple Music's US$ 4.99/month Voice Plan, which was introduced in 2021 and let users access the Apple Music catalog exclusively via Siri; loses a bid to block a U.K. lawsuit over allegedly "throttling" iPhone batteries via updates in an effort to prevent the devices with degraded batteries from unexpectedly shutting down while in use, as it labels the dispute as baseless.
• Apple ships 2.5 million iPhones in India in Q3 2023, its highest for a quarter; Samsung keeps its lead with a 17.2% share, followed by Xiaomi's 16.6%, Vivo's 15.9%, realme's 14.4% and OPPO's 9.8%.
• Microsoft-owned LinkedIn surpasses 1 billion active users, as it announces a GPT-4-powered AI chatbot that the company calls a "job seeker coach" for Premium users.
• Google completes its switch to mobile-first indexing of Search, a process that began in November 2016, and plans to reduce use of its legacy desktop crawler.
• Apple launches Tap to Pay on iPhone in Ukraine, allowing independent sellers, small merchants, and large retailers in the country to use ‌iPhones‌ as a payment terminal; announces new MacBooks with M3 chips, as it discontinues the 13-inch MacBook Pro.
• Google begins rolling out Product Studio for merchants to create and manage product imagery using generative AI tools, following similar moves by Amazon; updates its search engine and Lens tool with new features to help users visualise and solve problems in subjects like geometry, physics, trigonometry and calculus.
• Media software platform Plex debuts Discover Together, adding an element of social network by allowing users to create profiles and find and follow friends in order to discover new shows or movies to watch.
• Meta's Instagram tests an AI friend that users can customise to their liking (name, avatar, gender, age, ethnicity, personality and interests) and converse with.
• Netflix announces :10, :20, and :60 second ads globally, expanding on its :15 and :30 second ad format; says subscribers who binge watch multiple episodes in a row will be presented with a fourth episode ad-free after watching three consecutive episodes starting Q1 2024.
• Google abandons plans for a Web Integrity API proposal in Chrome browser that aimed to confirm the authenticity of the user and their device/browser, as well as help enforce IP rights, count ad views, and limit bots, after it was criticised as an attempt to introduce DRM to the web and prevent ad blockers.
• Amazon reportedly monitored its sellers and punished them if they offered lower prices on other platforms such as Jet and Walmart, according to a newly unsealed complaint from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC); alleges the company "litters its storefront with pay-to-play advertisements," that it increased the number of irrelevant junk ads to make more profits, and that Amazon buried listings offered at lower prices from other retailers, while simultaneously hiking prices using a predictive algorithm called Project Nessie that, when activated, "raises prices for those products and, when other stores follow suit, keeps the now-higher price in place," generating the company about US$ 1.4 billion in additional profits over a period of five years.
• Meta announces new creator tools, including a Reels A/B testing mobile tool for testing different thumbnails and captions for a Reel to see which performs best; Threads tests a new setting titled "Suggesting posts on other apps" that prevents the service from recommending users' posts on Facebook and Instagram.
• Browser maker Brave releases its AI assistant Leo to all desktop users and unveils Leo Premium, offering access to faster and better LLMs and higher rate limits for US$ 15/month.
• Intuit-owned budgeting app Mint announces plans to shut down on January 1, 2024, as it urges users to switch to the company's other service, Credit Karma.
• Google announces plans to move Assistant Notes and Shopping List to Keep, months after transitioning Assistant Reminders to Tasks.
• Apple paints iOS as a more privacy conscious operating, labeling Google's Android as a "massive tracking device" in a 2013 presentation made public as an exhibit in the U.S. Department of Justice's ongoing antitrust trial against Google.
• Amazon to shutter its Style physical clothing stores in the U.S., less than two years after launch, as it pivots to expanding its grocery stores business, which spans Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods Market, Amazon Go and third-party partnerships; comes after the company closed several retail chains, including its line of Amazon Books, 4-star and Pop Up stores, as part of a broader move to cut costs and rein in its physical footprint.
• Meta gets accussed by a U.K.-based software company called Threads Software Limited of shutting down its Facebook account and attempting to company's threads.app domain following the launch of Threads (the X equivalent launched by Meta earlier this July); echoes a similar case where meta silently gained control of the handle @meta on Instagram that was previously used by an independent motorcycle publication called META.
• Controversial U.S. facial recognition company Clearview AI wins an appeal against a privacy sanction issued by the U.K. last year, which ordered the company to delete information it held on U.K. citizens; comes after the tribunal ruled that the company's activities fall outside the jurisdiction of U.K. data protection law owing to an exemption related to foreign law enforcement.
• Apple faces fresh regulatory setback over its App Store fees for developers following Dutch Authority for Consumers & Markets' (ACM) ruling that its commission on certain app subscriptions such as dating apps (which was brought down from a 30% cut to 27% in 2021 for in-app purchases) are an abuse of the company's market power.
• Microsoft updates its terms and conditions to emphasise that "excessive use of a Microsoft Generative AI Service may result in temporary throttling of Customer's access to the Microsoft Generative AI Service." (It does not, however, define "excessive use", how long a "temporary" restriction might last, or exactly what happens during "throttling.")
• Microsoft commits to six years of firmware updates for new and select older Surface PCs shipped after January 1, 2021.
• X has begun work on an account handle marketplace for purchasing handles left unused, requesting a flat fee of US$ 50,000 from potential buyers in some cases, according to a report from Forbes.