Tech Roundup: Digg Reboot, Google DolphinGemma & More

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

• Apple's iPhone shipments in China decline by 9% in Q1 2025, dropping from 10.8 million the year before to 9.8 million, as Xiaomi, Huawei, OPPO and vivo top shipments; comes as global smartphone sales grows 3% YoY in Q1 2025, with Apple taking the the top spot, its first ever for Q1, with a 19% share.
• The Wikimedia Foundation partners with Kaggle to release a dataset of "structured Wikipedia content in English and French" optimised for AI model training.
• Apple Intelligence features, such as Writing Tools, become unavailable in Meta's iOS apps including Facebook, WhatsApp and Threads.
• China bans automakers from using "smart driving" or "autonomous driving" in ads for driver-assist tech and tightens scrutiny after a fatal Xiaomi EV crash.
• Google makes Gemini Live camera and screen sharing features free for all Android users in the coming weeks after launching them for Advanced users; says some terms in AI Overviews will link to Google's search results "to help people more easily explore topics and discover relevant websites" and rolls out Search's AI Mode feature to more Labs users in the U.S. with multimodal capabilities, letting users ask complex questions about pictures.
• Docusign unveils AI contract agents to analyse agreements and surface issues that usually require human intervention.
• Microsoft adds a "computer use" tool in Copilot Studio to let AI agents interact with websites and desktop applications by clicking buttons, selecting menus and typing into fields on the screen.
• ByteDance-owned TikTok begins testing Footnotes, a Community Notes-like feature to add "more context" to videos; says it will not affect algorithmic ranking of videos or their ability to appear on the "For You" page.
• Lyft acquires Hamburg-based taxi app FreeNow from BMW and Mercedes-Benz for €175 million and says the combined operations will serve over 50 million riders annually.
• Indian food delivery and quick commerce platform Swiggy launches Pyng, an online marketplace to let users find verified professionals like financial advisors.
• xAI unveils Grok Studio, a canvas-like tool for its Grok chatbot that can generate and edit documents and run Python and JavaScript code; launches an API for Grok 3 and Grok 3 mini with "reasoning" capabilities and announces a memory feature for Grok in beta that enables the AI chatbot to remember details from past conversations and give more personalised responses.
• Google adds a "consistent volume" option in YouTube Music to ensure that music volume is consistent across tracks.
• News aggregator Digg launches a US$ 5 early-access program called Groundbreakers as part of a reboot, giving users a "front-row seat to how Digg is being rebuilt."
• Canva debuts Canva AI, which lets users generate images, brainstorm design ideas and create documents; unveils Canva Code for creating mini apps that can be integrated in designs.
• Shutterstock licenses its video library to AI corporate video company Synthesia to train its latest AI model EXPRESS-2 after previously teaming up with OpenAI to sell stock images made using AI generator DALL-E 2.
• BeReal rolls out in-feed ads in the U.S. after Voodoo acquired it for €500M million; says it has nearly 40 million monthly active users, including 5 million in the U.S.
• OpenAI rolls out GPT-4.5 via the US$ 200-per-month ChatGPT Pro subscription and a new ChatGPT memory feature that references past chats for more tailored responses, starting with ChatGPT Pro and Plus subscribers, but not in the U.K., E.U., U.K., Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland; plans to retire GPT-4, launched in March 2023, from ChatGPT on April 30, 2025, and fully replace it by GPT-4o.
• Meta says LLMs have historically leaned left and wants to remove that bias with Llama 4 to "understand and articulate both sides of a contentious issue"; plans to launch a standalone Meta AI app in Q2 2025 and test a paid subscription service for Meta AI.
• Tinder unveils "The Game Game," a free in-app voice-based game that invites users to flirt with AI chatbots powered by OpenAI's GPT-4o and GPT-4o mini models.
• Microsoft removes the "bypassnro" command, which lets users skip signing into a Microsoft Account when installing Windows, in the the latest preview build of the Windows 11 operating system.
• Robinhood plans to roll out checking and savings accounts for its paying Gold subscribers later this year under the name Robinhood Banking, aiming to provide more of a private banking-like experience as it gets closer to becoming a full-fledged financial service.
• Apple Music opens its catalog to DJs by integrating with popular DJ software and hardware platforms including Algoriddim's djay Pro and AlphaTheta.
• Google debuts the US$ 499+ Pixel 9a, with a 48MP rear camera, a 6.3" display, a Tensor G4 chip and IP68 water resistance; pilots a Google Messages feature that lets users unsend and remotely delete messages within a 15-minute time limit and widely rolls out dual SIM RCS support after several months of testing.
• Samsung pauses its rollout of Android 15-based One UI 7 globally following the discovery of a bug that prevented some Galaxy S24 owners from unlocking their phones.
• Google updates Wallet to allow "parents and guardians in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Spain and Poland a way to allow their children to access digital payments on their Android device with appropriate supervision."
• India's JioHotstar surpasses 200 million paid subscribers, making it the third-largest video streaming platform globally after Netflix and Prime Video.
• Ireland's data protection watchdog opens an investigation into how personal data in public X posts was used to train xAI's Grok chatbot.
• Brazil's antitrust regulator reportedly investigates Apple over its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) privacy framework following complaints from Meta; says the company collects user data "under more favorable conditions." (Apple was recently hit with a fine of €150 million by France's competition watchdog after it found how Apple's own apps were treated differently from third-party apps.)
• Google says all new Google TV devices in the U.S. must now have a remote with a Free TV or Live TV button that opens its Freeplay library of more than 150 FAST channels; offers its Google One AI Premium plan for free to U.S. college students until spring 2026 and releases a native app version of Google Drive for Snapdragon-based Windows PCs.
• Snap releases sponsored AI lenses, a new generative AI ad format that users can interact with and is powered by One Snap, the company's homegrown generative AI technology.
• Valve's Steam storefront removes No Mercy in the U.K., Australia and Canada after the U.K. government criticises it for hosting a game with sexual violence, rape and incest.
• Sony hikes PlayStation 5 console prices in Europe, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand, citing a "challenging economic environment."
• Meta officially announces plans train its AI models on public content, like posts and comments, and interactions that users have with its AI chat in the E.U., more than 10 months after pausing the effort.
• Google details DolphinGemma, a new 400M-parameter AI model to decode dolphin communication by analysing the vocalisations of wild Atlantic spotted dolphins.
• Hugging Face acquires French startup Pollen Robotics, which makes the bug-eyed, two-armed, humanoid robot called Reachy 2, and plans to sell the robot.
• Notion releases Notion Mail, an AI-powered email client for Gmail that integrates with the rest of Notion's workflow management platform; comes with custom views and an "auto label" feature that categorises incoming emails with different labels for easy access.
• Norway-based browser company Opera makes its AI assistant Aria available on its Opera Mini browser for Android.
• Transcription service Otter debuts a new artificial intelligence agent called the Otter Meeting Agent to provide quick assistance and boost productivity during calls and meetings, including using company meeting database (supports Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams) to answer questions and complete tasks.
• Disney gives Disney+ subscribers the ability to edit their "Continue Watching" lists, enabling users to remove movies and shows that they are no longer interested in.
• The U.S. crosses the 100 million paid subscriber mark for music streaming services for the first time ever last year, according to the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA).
• Google says it uncovered over 10,000 illegitimate listings, including for fake businesses, on Maps and files a lawsuit against the alleged scammers behind the fraud.
• Meta unveils Aria Gen 2, its latest research glasses, with a PPG sensor for measuring heart rate and a contact microphone to distinguish the wearer's voice.
• DoorDash partners with Klarna to offer payment plans, including credit options for purchases of US$ 35 or more, a feature already offered by rival Grubhub.
• X sues the Indian government in New Delhi, saying its IT ministry has unlawfully expanded censorship powers to allow the easier removal of online content.