Apple Shuts Some California Stores As Coronavirus Cases Rises
The tech giant Apple said on Friday it was temporarily shutting some stores in California following a surge in COVID-19 cases in the state, sending the iPhone maker’s shares down 1.3% in trading after the bell.
Sony Removes Cyberpunk 2077 From PlayStation Store
In a statement on PlayStation’s website, Sony said it would offer full refunds to users who purchased the game through the PlayStation Store.
Twitter To Relaunch Verification On January 20, 2021
The micro blogging site Twitter is resuming its verification on January 20, 2021. The new policy was refined with input from tens of thousands of user responses after Twitter confirmed in November it would be relaunching verification next year.
Facebook Is Temporarily Disabling Some Messenger And Instagram Features In Europe
A small message has appeared in both the Facebook Messenger and Instagram apps for European users this week, noting that some features aren’t available to “respect new rules for messaging services in Europe.”
Bitcoin Hits All-Time High Rising Above $20,000
The world’s most prominent digital currency broke through the $20,000 level around 8:30 a.m. EST, CoinDesk figures show. The cryptocurrency rose to as much as $20,817.80 at roughly 9:15 a.m., additional CoinDesk data reveals.
Twitter To Remove Harmful False Claims About COVID-19 Vaccinations
Any tweets claiming that vaccines “intentionally cause harm to control populations” or invoke conspiracy theories will be subject to removal, according to Twitter’s blog post.
Twitter To Discontinue ‘Quote Tweet Prompt’
Twitter saw a 20 percent decrease in retweets and quote tweets while the automatic quote tweet prompt was in place.
Zoom Is Lifting 40-Minute Meeting Limit For Upcoming Holidays
The limits will be removed in recognition of Hanukkah, Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, and Kwanzaa. The company similarly lifted its 40-minute limit last month for Thanksgiving Day.
Facebook Launches Instagram Lite App In India
Facebook is working to bring back the Instagram Lite app in India The new app comes in less than 2MB of size. Facebook initially tested the Instagram Lite app in the country back in June 2018.
Microsoft Authenticator Brings Passwords Autofill To Mobile Devices
Any sites or apps you visit on your mobile device, Authenticator will help you autofill strong passwords without having to remember them. These passwords can be synced across mobile and desktop, so you can seamlessly autofill passwords as you move across devices.
Facebook Is Deploying Notifications To Users If They Engaged With COVID-19 Misinformation
The company will now send notifications to anyone who has liked, commented, or shared a piece of COVID-19 misinformation that’s been taken down for violating the platform’s terms of service
Twitter Fined £400,000 For Breaking EU Data Law
Twitter has been fined €450,000 (£400,000) by the Data Protection Commission in Ireland for breaking Europe’s GDPR data privacy rules.
Google Meet Now Supports Live Captions In Four New Languages
Captions setting will also be “sticky.” This means that if you turn them on or off during a meeting, they will be saved, along with the chosen language, for future meetings.
Non-English captions are currently available on the web to APAC and EMEA countries only, with rollout to North America and Latin America coming in early 2021. Additionally we’ll also expand support to iOS and Android mobile apps in early 2021.
Twitter Is Shutting Down Its Periscope Apps
The micro blogging site Twitter has announced that it’ll be shutting down Periscope as a service, with the company set to discontinue the Periscope applications by March 2021. Twitter will, however, continue to offer live video streaming through its integrated Twitter Live feature within the main Twitter…
Gmail Hit By A Second Outage Effecting Significant Number Of Users
The errors came just a day after many Google properties, including Gmail, YouTube, and Google Docs, were hit with a widespread outage.
Google Discontinues The Google Home Max
The tech giant company Google is no longer manufacturing the Google Home Max, its smart speaker designed with HiFi audio.
Facebook Publicly Launches Its Collaborative Music Video App, Collab
In the app, a “collab” is a selection of three 15-second independent videos, stacked on top of each other, that play in sync.
Reddit Buys Short-Form Video Social Platform Dubsmash
In a post announcing the acquisition, Reddit said it is looking forward “to bringing our teams together to combine the unique creator experience of Dubsmash with the community growth engine of Reddit.”
Gmail, YouTube, Google Docs And Other Services Go Down In Multiple Countries
Multiple Google services and websites including YouTube, Gmail, Google Assistant, and Google Docs have been hit with a widespread outage.
Google Pay Adds Support For 34 New Banks In 26 Countries
Google added 24 banks back in October, and now the company has tacked on an additional 34, in 26 countries around the globe.
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