#WeeklyRecap: Trump's 90-day deadline for TikTok, Fortnite row, and more
This week, several big players made headlines in the world of technology. Apple and Google locked horns with Epic Games over Fortnite, TikTok got a 90-day sale ultimatum from US President Donald Trump, while Pinterest faced a lawsuit for gender discrimination from a former top employee at the company. Let's take a quick look at everything.
Trump's ultimatum, TikTok's survival tactics
After signing an order banning transactions with TikTok parent ByteDance, US President Trump signed another executive order directing the Chinese giant to divest TikTok's US operations in 90 days. Microsoft is already in talks to acquire TikTok's US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand businesses, and separately, reports have surfaced that the video service has approached Reliance Industries for potential investment and return in India.
Apple vs Epic Games, Facebook, Microsoft
As the TikTok case made headlines, Apple took on the gaming fraternity. First, Apple rejected Microsoft's xCloud gaming service and forced Facebook to submit an incomplete avatar of its Gaming app, citing a violation of its App Store policies. Then, when Epic Games' Fornite got an update that allowed players to pay directly for in-app purchases, it removed the game from the App Store.
Same was the case with Google
Like Apple, Google also took similar action and removed Fortnite from the Play Store in light of its update. Following this, both Google and Apple were sued by Epic Games over violation of antitrust laws. The game developer also alleged that Google played a part in compromising its deal to offer a special Fortnite launcher on OnePlus and LG phones.
Pinterest sued by former COO, Facebook's fresh steps
Pinterest was sued by former COO Françoise Brougher over allegations of sexism and discrimination. Then, Facebook's Instagram drew flak for holding deleted photos and messages on its servers for longer than users thought, and separately began merging its chat system with Facebook Messenger. The social network giant also started testing a new short video service for its main app in India.
Fiber optical connection for all Indian villages in 1,000 days
On India's 74th Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the plan to connect all Indian villages (6 lakh) with fiber optic link in the next 1,000 days. Separately, Skyroot, a Hyderabad-based start-up, became the first private company to test the upper stage of a rocket engine. The company plans to launch a rocket late next year.
Finally, some hardware updates
In the hardware category, a number of devices were announced, including Microsoft's Surface Duo, RedmiBook Air 13, Redmi G gaming laptop, Mi 10 Ultra, Redmi K30 Ultra, Realme C12, Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i laptop, Infinix Smart 5, Vivo S1 Prime, and Vivo Y1. Separately, Huawei appears to be running out of chips and losing support from Google for its Android-based smartphones.
