Tech Digest daily roundup: Fake reviews to become illegal under new legislation
Buying, selling or hosting fake reviews will become illegal as part of changes planned in new laws. The UK government’s new Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill aims to help consumers and increase competition between big tech firms. The bill is being introduced on Tuesday and bans people receiving money or free goods for writing glowing reviews. Firms will also have to remind people when free subscription trials end. And the bill also seeks to end the tech giants’ current market dominance. The bill has been in the making since 2021. BBC
WhatsApp users are no longer restricted to using their account on just a single phone. Today, the Meta-owned messaging service is announcing that its multi-device feature — which previously allowed you to access and send messages from additional Android tablets, browsers, or computers alongside your primary phone — is expanding to support additional smartphones. “One WhatsApp account, now across multiple phones” is how the service describes the feature. The Verge
Swedish audio streaming giant Spotify reports that it had 515 million active monthly users as of the end of March, beating expectations, but its operating loss has deepened. The Swedish company also saw the number of paying subscribers grow to 210 million. Spotify said in a statement that it had posted its “strongest” first quarter “since going public in 2018” with nearly all performance indicators “surpassing expectations”. But the company also posted a first-quarter operating loss of 156 million euros ($172m). AlJazeera
Have you ever seen an iPhone owner using it to unlock their car and wished that you could do it with your Android phone as well? Now you can, so long as you have a BMW and one of a handful of compatible phones. The updated BMW Digital Key Plus feature is now available for a number of Android phones having previously been compatible only with Apple’s iPhone. Compatible Android phones include some of the very best that Google and Samsung have to offer including the Pixel 7 Pro and Galaxy S23 Ultra. Pocket Lint
It might be time to move on from your aging iPad if rumors are true about which devices iPadOS 17 will support. According to iPhoneSoft, the first generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro from 2015, alongside the iPad 5 from that year, will be unable to update to the upcoming version, expected to be announced at WWDC 2023. It’s normal for Apple to drop support for its previous products. However, as Apple decided to open up Stage Manager to more iPad models in the run-up to iPadOS 16’s release, we could see some features reserved for its more recent devices. iMore
An attempt to land the first privately-funded spacecraft on the moon appears to have failed. Japan’s ispace Inc hoped its Hakuto-R lander would touch down in the moon’s Atlas crater after a 100-day journey. But after completing its final orbit of the moon, and decelerating from 6000 kilometres per hour to a walking pace a few metres above the surface, the signal from the lander was lost. “We have to assume that we could not complete the landing on the lunar surface,” said Takeshi Hakamada, CEO of ispace. Sky News
Amazon workers at the delivery firm’s Coventry depot are demanding formal union recognition, after membership more than doubled during strike action. If granted, it would be the first time a union in the UK has won the right to negotiate with the American tech firm. The GMB union, which has organised 14 strike days at the distribution centre since January, has been signing up hundreds of new members on picket lines outside. The Guardian
