Tech Roundup: Google's Antitrust Woes, Meta E.U. Fine & More

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

• The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awards the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics to John J. Hopfield of Princeton University and Geoffrey E. Hinton of the University of Toronto for their foundational work in machine learning with artificial neural networks and training them using tools from physics.
• The U.S. Department of Justice puts forth a sweeping proposal to force Google to divest parts of its business as part of efforts to address antitrust concerns in search and advertising, marking a historic corporate break-up of one of the most valuable tech companies; says Google's "anticompetitive conduct resulted in interlocking and pernicious harms that present unprecedented complexities in a highly evolving set of markets," as the company claims the proposals "risk hurting consumers, businesses and developers."
• Google faces major legal setback in its fight against Epic Games after a U.S. judge orders the company to open the Play Store to rivals from November 1, 2024, for three years, distribute third-party stores within Play, stop requiring Google Play Billing for apps distributed on the Google Play Store, let Android developers tell users about other ways to pay from within the Play Store and even link to ways to download their apps outside of the Play Store, forbids Google from offering developers perks not to launch their apps on rival stores or offer similar incentives to device makers or carriers money to either preinstall the Play Store and not to preinstall rival stores; Google says the changes will cause a "range of unintended consequences that will harm American consumers, developers and device makers." (The 2020 lawsuit filed by Epic had accused Google of monopolising how consumers access apps on Android devices and how they pay for in-app transactions.)
• Russian communications watchdog Roskomnadzor is reportedly planning to spend 59 billion rubles (US$ 644 million) over the next five years to upgrade its internet traffic-filtering capabilities, as well as block or slow down certain resources, according to Forbes.
• The Irish Data Protection Commission wraps up an investigation into a 2019 breach, fining Meta €91 million for violating GDPR rules by storing passwords in plaintext.
• South Korean lawmakers pass a bill that criminalises possessing or watching sexually explicit deepfake images and videos following reports that such content is being widely circulated on Telegram group chats.
• Google expands conversational AI voice chat Gemini Live's language support to French, German, Portuguese, Hindi and Spanish, after launching in English; releases Gemini 1.5 Flash-8B, a smaller and faster 1.5 Flash variant with a 50% lower price, 2x higher rate limits and lower latency on small prompts
• Google starts testing Gemini-powered video search in India, allowing users to take a video using Google Lens, and ask the company's Gemini AI model questions about the contents of the video; confirms its plans to bring Gemini to older Pixel Buds earbuds models, and rolls out Gemini-powered contextual Smart Replies, which analyses the context of an email and suggests a detailed reply, in Gmail for paid users.
• Intel and AWS plan to co-invest in making a new AI chip on Intel 18A via a "multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework."
• AI hosting platform Hugging Face surpasses one million AI model listings for the first time, marking a milestone amid rapid AI boom.
• Microsoft announces plans to combine its Xbox Game Pass and Xbox mobile apps into a single application.
• Google begins imposing restrictions against business profiles in Maps that violate the company's Fake Engagement policy by posting fake reviews; says it will block such profiles from receiving new reviews and ratings, temporarily remove reviews or ratings, and display a warning to let consumers know that fake reviews were removed.
• JPMorgan, Visa and other financial firms join Project Agora, a blockchain-based project by Bank for International Settlements to overhaul cross-border payments.
• Chipmaker Qualcomm says Google has committed to releasing an Arm64 version of Google Drive on Windows later this year, including the latest Copilot Plus PCs.
• Samsung unveils the Galaxy S24 FE, a "Fan Edition" value-focused version of the S24 with a 6.7" display, Exynos 2400e and 8GB of RAM; also debuts the 14.6" Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra and 12.4" Galaxy Tab S10+, which are "built with AI enhancements."
• TikTok launches Smart+, a new AI-powered ad tool that competes with Google's Performance Max and Meta's Advantage+, automating ad targeting and optimisation.
• Apple updates iCloud.com website with support for dark mode, a redesigned Calendar app, and the ability to create lists in Reminders and pin notes in the Notes app.
• Google pilots a version of Chrome for Android with support for extensions in the web browser; adds document tabs to Google Docs to make it easier to organise and find information in longer documents.
• Amazon-owned smart home security company Ring brings 24/7 continuous video recording (CVR) to its smart security cameras; makes it available only for Ring Home Premium (previously Ring Protect Pro) users.
• Snap expands Footsteps to all iOS users, a feature limited to Snapchat+ subscribers, allowing them to use Snap Map to track all the places they've travelled to; brings ads to the app's main Chat tab with Sponsored Snaps and adds Promoted Places to Snap Map.
• Reddit begins requiring moderators to submit a request to Reddit staff before changing a subreddit's public/private status, making sitewide mod-led protests much harder.
• X releases its first transparency report since Elon Musk took over as the chief executive; says it took action on 2,361 accounts over hateful content in H1 2024, down from 1 million in H2 2021.
• Chinese handset maker Huawei claims its HarmonyOS operating system has over 10,000 apps and meta services; comes as the latest HarmonyOS update blocks the ability to install Android apps.