Tech Roundup: Amazon Flying Warehouse, French "Right to Disconnect" & More

2016 has come and gone. As we step into another year with full of dreams and expectations, let's take a look at some of the 2016's biggest tech winners and losers -

Winners of 2016 - Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook for becoming the tech superpowers, improvements in the field of artificial intelligence and virtual reality, Google Pixel and Xiaomi Mi Mix for making people sit up and take notice of smartphones once again, Snap Spectacles for proving the cooleth of a wearable, Microsoft's Surface Studio for redefining an all-in-one PC, the advances in self-driving technology from Tesla, Google and Uber, Apple's battle with FBI over privacy on iOS after San Bernardino shooting, Amazon's cashier-free grocery shopping.

Losers of 2016 - The whole fake news controversy, Facebook's U-turn over merging of Facebook and WhatsApp data, everything about Yahoo! and its billion user data breach, Twitter's struggle for existence, the fading allure of a smartwatch, Samsung Galaxy Note 7 battery fiasco and its bungled recall, Apple's courageous move to get rid of headphone jack in iPhone 7 and its poor handling of battery complaints with the new MacBook Pro, Uber's legal and regulatory roadblocks and its wishy-washy relationship with drivers, Amazon's poor working conditions at Scottish warehouse, music streaming exclusivity wars, Google's continuing scattershot approach towards social messaging.

In other news:

• Employees in France gain legal right to avoid work emails outside working hours; new law, dubbed "right to disconnect", to be effective starting January 1.
• China's smog crisis worsens; 460 million people across 24 cities said to be affected, triggering school closures and traffic restrictions.
• Migrating birds are arriving at their breeding grounds earlier than usual as global temperatures rise, latest study reveals.
• Vera Rubin, U.S. astronomer who discovered first direct evidence of dark matter, passes away at 88.
• Indian government launches mobile payment app Bharat Interface for Money as part of its plans to make transactions cashless.
• Egypt blocks encrypted messaging application Signal in latest cyber crackdown over free speech, even as Turkey repeatedly revokes access to social media.
• Smart Internet of Things devices begin to play increasing role in criminal investigation; Georgia's Bentonville Police Department requests "search warrant to obtain records from Amazon for anything ... Echo might have recorded" to gather evidence of a murder.
• Apple CEO Tim Cook calls newly released wireless AirPods a "runaway success" without quoting any specific numbers.
• Twitter launches live 360 degree video streaming on Periscope.
• Huawei ships more than 10 million units of P9 and P9 Plus smartphones globally.
• Facebook-owned virtual reality arm Oculus acquires eye-tracking startup The Eye Tribe.
• Apps from Facebook and Google feature in Nielsen's top smartphone apps of 2016; includes Facebook, Facebook Messenger, YouTube, Google Maps, Google Search, Google Play, Gmail, Instagram, Apple Music and Amazon. 
• Nintendo's Super Mario Run opens for pre-registration on Google Play Store weeks after its launch on iOS.
• South Korean regulator Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) fines chip maker Qualcomm US$ 854 million for demanding exorbitant patent licensing fees from its rivals Intel, Samsung and MediaTek.
• Twitter mulling an edit option for tweets, but it could get messy. (What if someone decides to edit a tweet (s)he wrote months back to give it a totally different spin? Probably an edit window of 15 mins immediately after sending out the tweet is the best idea?)
• Apple reportedly seeking tax breaks to open manufacturing center in India, reports Bloomberg.
• Online retailer Amazon files patent for flying warehouses that could house a fleet of delivery drones.
• Apple said to cut iPhone 7 production by as much as 10% in the first quarter of 2017 citing sluggish demand, according to Nikkei.
• Beipanjiang Bridge, raised 564 metres above the Beipan River in mountainous southwest China, opens to public traffic, making it the highest bridge ever built in the world.