Tech Roundup: Ecosystem Collapse, Gravitational Waves & More

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

Alphabet/Google:

• Rebrands Google Ideas to Jigsaw as part of its continued Alphabet shakeup; Chairman Eric Schmidt says the name is a reflection of the complex 'jigsaw' puzzle the world is.
• Begins same-day grocery delivery in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
• Removes forced Google+ integration from Play Games.
• Reinstates Adblock Fast app on Play Store without any real explanation.
• Opens Editons at Play, a new bookstore for interactive books that cannot exist on static, printed paper.
• YouTube Red original shows premiere; acquires music marketing startup Bandpage for $8 million.
• Expands Right to be Forgotten globally for European Union citizens.
• To officially launch Accelerated Mobile Pages on February 24.
• Reportedly working on a standalone smartphone-free virtual reality headset, reports The Wall Street Journal (paywall).
• To phase out Picasa on March 15 in favour of Google Photos; to discontinue Web Albums starting May 1, 2016 after reviving it last July.
• Is awarded a patent for self driving trucks that bring packages to your door.
• National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) says the computer inside Google's self-driving car can be considered the "driver" of the vehicle.

Apple:

• Rightly contests U.S. Government's order to deliberately weaken iOS security protections in the wake of San Bernandino Shooting in a customer letter; says it amounts to building a "backdoor."
• After China saturation, Apple targets India next with a $25 million development center in Hyderabad.
• Officially brings its mobile payments solution Apple Pay to China.
• Releases an iOS 9.2.1 update to address Error 53 message that bricked iPhones; retracts from its original statement that it was intentional, and says it was "designed to be a factory test" as the company faces class-action lawsuit.
• Readying a March 15 event to unveil 4-inch iPhone 5se and iPad Air 3.
• Apple Music tops 11 million paid subscriptions less than an year after launch.
• Ventures into original TV series with Vital Signs, a Dr. Dre semi-autobiographical drama, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
• [JFF!] CEO Tim Cook deletes his super blurry Super Bowl photo from Twitter after snarky comments about it being Shot on iPhone.

Facebook:

• To begin serving ads on its Facebook messenger chat app; adds SMS integration.
• Facebook Free Basics is banned in India over net neutrality concerns.
• Oculus-ready PC bundles from Alienware, ASUS and Dell open for preorder starting $1499.
• Rolls out 2-factor authentication for Instagram; adds video view counts in a bid to compete with YouTube for ad revenues.

Microsoft:

• Miracast-powered Wireless Display Adapter gets a revamp; promises less lag.
• Rolls out a massive overhauled look for Outlook with support for built-in document editing, add-ins, inline replies and mentions; restricted to North America for now.
• Opens Windows 10 update history website containing "a summary of important product developments included in each update."

Twitter:

• Algorithmic Timeline goes live barely days after CEO Jack Dorsey statements to the contrary.
• Shares nosedive after user base declines from 307 to 305 million monthly active users last quarter.

Yahoo!:

• Officially announces plans to sell itself; begins to shut down Autos, Food, Health, Makers, Parenting, Real Estate, Beauty, Tech, and Travel digital magazines from its home page.
• Indonesia cracks down on online porn; bans Tumblr and other 500 websites.

Others:

• Music streaming exclusivity wars escalate; Kanye West new album The Life of Pablo to permanently remain a Tidal exclusive as the singer urges everyone to download the app, album gets pirated 500,000 times
• Fandango acquires Rotten Tomatoes and Flixter as business consolidation continues.
• Latest leaks confirm Samsung Galaxy S7 edge's pressure-sensitive screen and a monster 3600 mAh battery, as both Galaxy S7 and LG G5 are set for launch today.
• Evernote shutters its lifestyle product marketplace to focus on its software.
• MixRadio, an ex-Nokia music streaming service acquired by Line last year, to shut down in the coming weeks.
• Online radio Pandora is exploring a potential sale, reports The New York Times.
• Kaspersky researchers show new evidence linking North Korea to Sony hacking by teasing out patterns from malware samples collected from Sony computers to identify similar attacks. 
• Amazon Web Services, Seattle-based tech giant's cloud-computing platform, adds a new zombie apocalypse clause to its terms and conditions.

Science:

• Albert Einstein's brilliance is validated once again after researchers show conclusive evidence of gravitational waves, the so called ripples in space-time as predicted by Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, resulting from a collision of two black holes 36 and 29 times the mass of the Sun 1.3 billion light years away observed using a technique called Interferometry, heralding a new era in gravitational-wave astronomy.
• An estimated 150,000 Adelie penguins living in Antarctica die after an iceberg the size of Rome became grounded near their colony, forcing them to trek 60 km to the sea for food.
• Astronomers discover the largest known solar system with a planet that takes nearly a million years to orbit its star.
• Traces of Zika virus found in a man's semen two months after he fell sick.
• Neanderthals and modern humans may have interbred 50,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to new genomic analysis of a Neanderthal and a Denisovan from the Altai Mountains in Siberia.
• Bedbugs are becoming resistant to insecticides such as neonicotinoids, latest findings reveal.