Tech Roundup: Google Gemini 2.5 Pro, Perplexity TikTok Bid & More

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

• The U.S. state of Utah passes the App Store Accountability Act, requiring mobile app stores from Apple and Google to verify the age of users rather than having individual apps do age verification.
• China's Cyberspace Administration and Ministry of Public Security outlaws the use of facial recognition without consent and its use in private spaces like hotel rooms.
• Google begins widely rolling out a Gemini-powered upgrade to Sheets that allows Workspace users to analyse data and turn spreadsheets into charts; upgrades search results in Gmail to surface the most relevant results based on recency, most-clicked emails and frequent contacts, and adds a new opt-in Maps feature that analyses textual content in screenshots to automatically identify places in them and add them to a list.
• AI company Perplexity proposes a bid to acquire TikTok; says it's "singularly positioned to rebuild the TikTok algorithm without creating a monopoly, combining world-class technical capabilities with Little Tech independence." (The development comes as Oracle is reportedly closing in on a deal that would have it guarantee TikTok's security in exchange for a small stake in the company's U.S. operations.)
• Apple expands Tap to Pay technology for iPhones to a host of new European countries, including Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland, allowing merchants to use iPhone to accept in-person, contactless payments.
• Google debuts a new "What People Suggest" panel in search results when users are looking for medical information on the search engine; says it has received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its Loss of Pulse Detection feature on Pixel Watch 3 to help "detect when you’ve experienced a loss of pulse (your heart stops beating from an event like primary cardiac arrest, respiratory or circulatory failure, overdose or poisoning) and automatically prompt a call to emergency services."
• Web infrastructure provider Cloudflare announces a new feature called "AI Labyrinth" that aims to combat unauthorised AI data scraping by serving fake AI-generated content to bots.
• A new joint study published by OpenAI and the MIT Media Lab has found that power users of ChatGPT have a tendency to become dependent or addicted to the AI chatbot.
• Google updates Gemini with a new "Ask about place" feature that integrates with Maps, allowing users to ask contextual questions about specific locations; introduces Gemini 2.5 Pro with improved context window, coding, multimodality and reasoning capabilities to all users, as it expands AI Overviews in search results to Europe.
• Genetic testing business 23andMe filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, amplifying concerns that the DNA records and personal information of its 15 million customers could soon be up for sale.
• xAI's Grok AI chatbot is now integrated with Telegram for Telegram Premium users, marking Grok's first big expansion beyond X.
• Social networking platform Discord revamps its desktop app with an updated Game Overlay to "help make talking with friends while playing your favorite games smoother than ever"; adds new customisation options with new themes and resizable channel list.
• Google-owned Waze says it is removing Google Assistant for iPhone users, citing "ongoing difficulties" with the integration, as it plans on replacing it with an "enhanced voice integration solution" in the future.
• OpenAI claims "our GPUs are melting" after its adds image generation capabilities to ChatGPT, allowing users to create images directly within the app using the company’s reasoning model, GPT-4o; plans to temporarily introduce some rate limits.
• Microsoft rolls out a new sign-in screen with support for dark mode; debuts a new look for Game Bar on PC and an easy way to shift between games on Xbox Cloud Gaming.
• Google YouTube changes how Shorts views are counted; say it will now be counted each time a video starts to play or replay, rather than only after being watched for a certain number of seconds, aligning it with TikTok and Instagram Reels.
• Microsoft unveils two new deep reasoning agents for Microsoft 365 Copilot called Researcher and Analyst to "tackle complex, multi-step research at work" and generate insights from raw data.
• OpenAI says it is "shifting from blanket refusals in sensitive areas to a more precise approach focused on preventing real-world harm" and that it will support Anthropic's Model Context Protocol, an open-source standard that connects AI models to data for more relevant answers; adds the ability for ChatGPT Team users to add internal databases as references, making the chat platform respond with better context.
• Perplexity says it is working with a startup called Firmly.ai to make it easier for brands to sell goods directly through Perplexity's shopping results.
• Meta adds a Friends tab on Facebook that shows content just from users' friends, with no recommended posts, as it brings back "OG" Facebook experience; updates WhatsApp to let iOS users set it as the default calling and texting app.
• TikTok plans to launch TikTok Shop in France, Germany and Italy on March 31, expanding its reach in Europe as the platform's future in the U.S. remains uncertain.
• Nintendo unveils Virtual Game Cards to make it easier for users to port over their existing Switch games to other devices and lend out games.
• Apple updates its Apple Music Classical app with time-synced listening guides, curated stations and personalised recommendations.
• Instacart rolls out Store View, paying shoppers to film store shelves "one aisle at a time" to assess inventory, starting with select U.S. and Canadian retailers.
• Amazon tests changing the name of its Echo smart speakers and smart displays to Alexa amid a broader revamp of its AI voice assistant; brings several game titles from Electronic Arts to its Luna cloud gaming service.
• Garmin launches Garmin Connect Plus, a subscription tier to its app that adds AI-powered insights called Active Intelligence and a few other expanded features, for US$ 6.99 a month (or US$ 69.99 per year).
• Web browser Vivaldi teams up with Proton to bring a free version of the latter's VPN service without having to download a standalone app.
• Meta expands its generative AI features to Europe after pausing it last June due to privacy concerns; takes a leaf out of TikTok's playbook by adding the ability to play a reel in Instagram at 2x speed by long pressing on the right or left side of a mobile device screen.
• Amazon rolls out new Amazon Photos feature that turns users' photo library into an online marketplace, making it possible to shop for products recognised in the photos; unveils Interests, an AI search tool for finding products by passion or hobby, rolling out to all US users, and is testing a chatbot called Health AI.