At the request of the Ministry of Digital Transformation, Apple and Google blocked 118 applications of illegal casinos, including 92 in the AppStore and 26 in the Play Market. Additionally, the State Service of Special Communications deleted 4,460 online casino websites.
Microsoft has detected suspicious activity on the OpenAI API by Chinese startup DeepSeek. The companies are investigating the possible unauthorized use of data to develop a competitive AI model R1.
The world's 500 richest people lost $108 billion due to the fall in tech stocks. Larry Ellison ($27.6 billion) and Jensen Huang ($20.8 billion) suffered the largest losses due to the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek.
Google has announced the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” for users in the United States. The change will take place after an official update to the US Geographic Names System, and both names will be displayed outside the US and Mexico.
Elon Musk announced the start of beta testing of Starlink's direct connection to smartphones on January 27, 2025. The new technology will allow receiving satellite internet directly to mobile phones.
Samsung has unveiled a new series of Galaxy S25 smartphones with Google's integrated Gemini artificial intelligence and Qualcomm chips. The company has kept prices at $799-1299 and plans to release a thinner version of the Edge in the first half of 2025.
YouTube will resume shipping silver, gold, and diamond buttons to Ukrainian creators starting in January 2025. The awards will not be delivered to Russia, Belarus, Iran, and North Korea.
Donald Trump officially took office as President of the United States on January 20, 2025. The leaders of Canada, the United Kingdom, the EU, NATO, and Finland have sent congratulations and expressed their willingness to cooperate.
Ilon Musk gave a speech at Trump's inauguration party at Capital One Arena. Owners of major technology companies, including the CEOs of Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple, attended the ceremony.
Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and other tech leaders attend Trump's inauguration. The ceremony was moved indoors at the Capitol due to freezing temperatures.
Facebook, X, YouTube, and other tech companies have joined the EU's updated code of conduct on combating hate speech. The companies pledged to respond to complaints faster and implement automatic tools to detect harmful content.
Trump's inaugural committee has raised more than $150 million from individuals and corporations. Among the largest donors are tech giants and aerospace companies, which donated a million dollars each.
In Washington, preparations are underway for the inauguration of the 47th President of the USA, Donald Trump. The ceremony will gather 250,000 guests, involve tech giants, and set a record for fundraising at $170 million.
Google is integrating Associated Press news into its Gemini AI chatbot as part of a new partnership. Google Workspace users will have access to this feature at no additional cost.
Boeing, Google, and other major US companies have donated $1 million each to Donald Trump's inaugural fund. Meta, Amazon, Uber, Ford, GM, Toyota, and Chevron also joined the list of donors.
Following an official request from the Lithuanian Broadcasting Commission, Google removed more than 200 blocked websites with Russian channels from its search results. This is part of the fight against disinformation and propaganda by Russian media.
Costumes of characters from The Squid Game have become the most popular at New Year's celebrations in Russia. Due to the high demand, sellers raised prices for the paraphernalia by 40%, despite warnings from psychologists.
Indonesia refused to issue a permit for the sale of the iPhone 16, despite Apple's promise to invest $1 billion in an AirTag factory. The reason is the failure to meet the requirement for 40% local components in smartphones.
Microsoft has updated the Bing interface to look like Google, including similar visual elements and hiding its own branding. Google criticized the move as an attempt to mislead users.
Google has created an interactive browser-based version of the popular game from the TV series “The Squid Game”. Users can play “Red Light, Green Light” with the Young-hee doll by entering the name of the series into Google search.
Access to YouTube has been severely restricted in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and popular VPN services have stopped working. Lantern and NTHLink are completely blocked, and only some paid VPNs are available.
Russian MPs said that WhatsApp is likely to be blocked for refusing to cooperate with security forces. The messenger was included in the OPI register, which allows the FSB to demand encryption keys.
YouTube traffic in Russia has dropped to 20% of normal levels due to deliberate restrictions by the authorities. Google shows a drop from 40 to 8.5 points.
A photo from Google Street View of a man loading a white bag into a trunk became a key clue in a missing person case. Spanish police arrested two suspects and found human remains.
Chrystia Freeland resigned due to disagreements with Trudeau over the response to Trump's threat of a 25% tariff. The resignation provoked a government crisis and calls for the resignation of the Canadian prime minister himself.
Serbian intelligence agencies use Cellebrite products and NoviSpy spyware to illegally spy on journalists and activists. Amnesty International revealed the facts of infection of phones during police interrogations.
Google has announced the end of cooperation with developers from russia on the Google Play platform as of December 26. russian developers will lose the opportunity to receive revenue from the sale of applications and subscriptions.
According to PornHub, Ukraine ranked 15th in the global viewing rankings. The most popular query was “hentai,” and the most active viewers were users aged 18-24.
IATA predicts record airline industry revenue of more than $1 trillion and 5 billion passengers in 2024. The average revenue per passenger will increase to $7, despite problems with aircraft supply and geopolitical conflicts.
“Power outage schedule” became the most popular query for Ukrainians on Google in 2024. Other top searches included Euro 2024, Oleksandr Syrsky, 20 Days in Mariupol, and EcoFlow.