#WeeklyRecap: Big Tech trial, CERT-In's warning, NASA's Mars mission, more
This week, the biggest story in tech was the congressional trial of the CEOs of Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon over anti-trust issues. Then, among other things, CERT-In warned of a dangerous strain of malware, NASA's robotic rover went looking for ancient Martian life, and ISRO's Chandrayaan-2 rover "Pragyan" was said to be intact on the lunar surface. Let's take a look at everything.
Grilling of Big Tech CEOs
On Wednesday, Google's Sundar Pichai, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, and Apple's Tim Cook appeared to testify for a congressional hearing on antitrust. They were questioned over their companies' market practices and grilled by lawmakers over concerns that, at some point, they exploited their market dominance and crushed small competitors. Google and Facebook, in particular, faced a lot of flak during the trial.
NASA launches Mars rover, ISRO's rover found intact on Moon
In addition to the hearing, NASA's launch of the Perseverance rover to find signs of ancient life on Mars also made headlines. The space agency is also poised to make history by bringing American astronauts back to Earth on SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft. Meanwhile, in India, a Chennai-based techie claimed that the Pragyan rover of ISRO's Chandrayaan-2 mission is intact on the lunar surface.
Apple iPhone 12 delayed, Google extends work from home
This week, Apple reported an 11% growth in revenue but also admitted that its next flagship, the iPhone 12, is running late and will be debuting a few weeks later than anticipated. Google, on the other hand, extended the work from home option given to its employees until July 2021, tested a new context tab for news, and got sued by Australia's competition regulator.
Twitter's controversies continued
Twitter said this week that its July 15 hack was carried out by targeting select employees through phone-based spear-phishing. Then, the company drew more criticism after Bloomberg reported that its contractors spied on celebs like Beyoncé using their internal tools. The site also restricted Donald Trump Jr. from tweeting to force him to remove a fake video he had tweeted.
Multiple cyber-security issues flagged
India's cybersecurity agency CERT-In warned of BlackRock, a dangerous Android malware that is spreading as fake Google updates and using legitimate branded apps to steal people's bank credentials, card details, and other data. Additionally, two bugs were also flagged — one risking the private data of OkCupid app and the other risking private Zoom meetings. Both have been fixed now.
Finally, some major hardware launches
For gadget lovers, a number of devices were unveiled this week, including Realme C15, Nubia Red Magic 5S, Samsung Galaxy M31s, TECNO Spark 6 Air, OPPO Reno4 Pro, Huawei Honor 9A and 9S, and Black Shark 3S. Additionally, ASUS launched a new Zenbook and Vivobook notebooks, Honor launched the MagicBook 15, while Nokia unveiled a new 65-inch 4k Android TV at Rs. 65,000.
