Tech Roundup: Google Gemini Canvas, TikTok Security Checkup & More

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

• As many as 54 countries imposed internet shutdowns at least 296 times in 2024, led by Myanmar, displacing India from the top spot for the first time since 2018.
• Google acquires NYC-based cybersecurity startup Wiz for US$ 32 billion in an all-cash deal, making it the largest acquisition in its history; to be folded into Google Cloud.
• Amazon sues the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), accusing it of stretching consumer safety law by ruling Amazon responsible for recalling products sold by third parties on Amazon.com.
• Qualcomm unveils the Snapdragon G3 Gen 3, G2 Gen 2, and G1 Gen 2 for gaming handhelds; claims the G3 Gen 3 offers a CPU 30% faster than the previous generation.
• Snap updates Spectacles AR glasses to add GPS support for Lenses, improved hand tracking and an AR keyboard.
• AI company Mistral debuts Mistral Small 3.1, a 24B-parameter multimodal and multilingual open-source model that it says outperforms Gemma 3 and GPT-4o-mini and runs on 32GB RAM.
• Online dating platform Bumble rolls out new ID verification in the U.S., the U.K., Australia, France, India and six other markets.
• Roblox open-sources Cube 3D, the first version of its AI foundation model for generating 3D objects, that's trained on licensed and public datasets and its own data.
• Zoom unveils AI Companion 2.0, which adds agentic AI features, including calendar management, meeting tools, and document creation; to roll out to users by July 2025.
• Discord launches a Social SDK to let developers offer friends lists, cross-platform messaging and voice support, thereby making it possible to integrate the platform's social features into their games.
• Elon Musk owned xAI acquires San Francisco-based text-to-video startup Hotshot for an undisclosed sum; urges users to download any created videos by March 30, 2025, before it's officially shut down.
• ByteDance-owned TikTok debuts a new Security Checkup tool that offers users a one-stop shop to manage their security settings, devices, and recover access to accounts.
• Google's Waymo expands its operating area around Silicon Valley to a 27 square-mile region, including Mountain View, Palo Alto, Los Altos and parts of Sunnyvale; comes as parent Alphabet spins off laser-based internet backbone provider Taara into an independent company as it hopes to better compete with rivals like Starlink.
• OpenAI debuts a Responses API to help developers build agents that search the web, scan for files and perform tasks on computers; tests ChatGPT connectors for Google Drive and Slack.
• Microsoft plans to end support for its Remote Desktop app for Windows on May 27, 2025; recommends that users transition to the Windows app instead.
• Google drops sign-in requirement for Gemini and demos new Gemini features, such as video search and Screenshare, which lets users ask questions based on their phone's screen; launches a new, free consumer version of its AI code completion and assistance tool, Gemini Code Assist.
• Coinbase registers with India's FIU and plans to roll out its retail trading platform in India later in 2025, its second attempt to expand in the country.
• Google says it will switch legacy G Suite (now called Workspace) users to pooled Workspace storage starting May 1, 2025.
• NVIDIA unveils Blackwell Ultra, a family of chips shipping in 2025 for building and deploying AI models, and Vera Rubin, its next-generation chip featuring its first custom CPU that are expected to ship in H2 2026.
• Stability AI releases Stable Virtual Camera, an AI model with a non-commercial use license that can create "immersive" 3D videos using up to 32 2D images.
• Google updates its Gemini chatbot, adding Canvas, a space for users to create, refine and share writing and coding projects, and Audio Overview from NotebookLM; debuts new Search and Android health care features, including medical records APIs, and plans to release open AI models for drug discovery called TxGemma.
• Meta says its Llama models have been downloaded 1 billion times since their 2023 debut, up from 650 million downloads in early December 2024.
• Taboola strikes a deal with Microsoft to sell display ads for MSN.com, Outlook Games, and Office products, as it expands beyond native advertising.
• Tencent releases five AI tools that turn text or images into 3D visuals and graphics, based on Hunyuan3D-2.0, and plans to integrate DeepSeek's R1 into WeChat.
• Germany's Federal Court of Justice rules against Apple's appeal opposing a 2023 regulatory assessment that classified the company as a significant market power, opening it to stricter antitrust controls in the country.
• Meituan, Ele.me and other Chinese food delivery companies plan to offer social security benefits to riders after JD's February move, amid government pressure.
• An analysis by the Digital Witness Lab at Princeton of more than 8,000 messages finds messages advertising guns across 234 publicly accessible WhatsApp groups in India.
• Microsoft releases Copilot for Mac, including a shortcut command to open the app, in the U.S., U.K. and Canada, and adds a split screen mode to the iPad version; makes OpenAI's o1 reasoning model free for all Copilot users, and provides unlimited use of the model and Copilot's voice capabilities to everyone.
• Google's YouTube says it has more than 1 billion monthly viewers for its podcast content worldwide, watching more than 400 million hours of podcasts monthly on living room devices in 2024.