#NewsBytesWeeklyRecap: F8 cancellation, Nest outage, Decathlon leak, Apple's store, more
This week, we have witnessed a lot of buzz in the world of tech, thanks to several launches, leaks, announcements, and scary security threats. Most disturbingly, coronavirus fears struck the tech industry, pushing companies like Facebook and Google to cancel their upcoming events and restrict the international travel of employees. Let's look back at everything that happened this past week.
Cancellation of Facebook's F8, GDC 2020 over coronavirus
The outbreak of coronavirus, which has claimed nearly 3,000 lives worldwide, continued its impact on the global tech industry. It had already led to the cancellation of MWC, and now, in a major shocker, Facebook's F8, Google News Initiative summit, GDC 2020, and the Geneva Motor Show have all been canceled over similar concerns. Notably, GDC is likely to be held later in summer.
Google Nest cam suffered outage, employee contracts coronavirus, more
Along with the canceled summit, Google is also dealing with the case of an employee who has contracted coronavirus while being at the company's Zurich office. Beyond that, the company apologized for failing to fix a Nest cam outage that lasted for more than 17 hours. In a related case, malware capable of stealing 2FA codes from the company's Authenticator app was also discovered.
Improvements for Google Image Search and Gmail
Among other things, Google also announced two product updates: one to show categories instead of dimensions in Image search, and the other to block malicious documents in Gmail via deep learning. Notably, Gmail also suffered from a Spam and trash deletion bug that remains unfixed.
Facebook revamps Messenger, plans big updates for Instagram, WhatsApp
Just like Google, Facebook also made headlines for a number of product updates. First, the company gave Messenger a cleaner new look by ditching the bot-integrated Discover tab of the messaging application. Further, there were reports of a Dark Mode being developed for WhatsApp Web apart from several new features coming to upgrade the experience of Instagram.
Facebook tweaked its policy to tackle misleading coronavirus ads
Facebook also tweaked its policy to take down ads promising a cure for coronavirus and creating a sense of urgency and panic around it. The company has already been banning misleading posts associated with the deadly outbreak.
Then, there were some scary security threats
In the cybersecurity segment, ESET researchers raised alarms over a vulnerability that affects billions of devices, opening a way for hackers to snoop in on Wi-Fi traffic. Meanwhile, sports retailer Decathlon left personal data of millions of its employees and customers exposed on an unprotected server, and PayPal failed to fix a Google Pay bug that hackers exploited to steal money.
Important updates from Apple and Microsoft
Separately, Apple's CEO Tim Cook confirmed the company's plan to launch an online store in India this year and a flagship brick-and-mortar store in 2021. Notably, iOS 14's revamped iPad-like multitasking pane also surfaced in a leak. On the other hand, Microsoft announced the decision to update Cortana with a focus on personal productivity and add Stories into LinkedIn, its social network for professionals.
Finally, there were some hardware launches, leaks
A number of smartphones debuted this week, including Realme X50 Pro 5G, iQoo 3, LG V60 ThinQ, Huawei Mate Xs, Honor View 30 Pro, P40 Lite, OPPO A31, and the 512GB variant of Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite. Huawei also drew attention with its MediaPad M5 Lite and MatePad Pro tablets while Vivo unveiled its Apex 2020 concept, a device with holeless, portless design.
