Google’s RCS versus Apple’s iMessage; Starlink’s cat warmers; and a startup that wants to defeat menopause

Messaging wars — Google’s RCS versus Apple’s iMessage A recent Wall Street Journal feature on how teens in the US are using Apple’s iMessage as a status symbol spotlighted another front on which the iPhone maker is at loggerheads with Google—messaging. Hiroshi Lockheimer, senior vice president of Android, tweeted that Apple is deliberately holding back from supporting the RCS, or rich communication services, on its walled-in iMessage platform. RCS was originally developed by GSMA, the telecom operators’ global industry group, but Google bought an RCS provider in 2015 and developed and popularised it as the next generation phone-number based messaging platform that would replace the SMS. Emails that became public in the Apple versus Epic Games lawsuit also showed that Apple’s strategy of not supporting RCS was a deliberate one, The Verge points out. Starlink’s satellite dishes have turned cat warmers Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet company is benefitting an unexpected set of users, of the feline variety. In cold weather, cats have found a comforting resting place atop the satellite dishes that Starlink consumers have on their roofs, one customer Aaron Taylor pointed out in a tweet on new years day, with a photograph of five cats huddled up on his dish. ‘Cat on a hot satellite dish,’ The Guardian quipped, in its headline, inspired by the Tennessee Williams play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof that became a famous movie as well. What’s happening, apparently, is that the Starlink dishes are engineered to give out a bit of heat to melt the snow that collects on them, and cats are known to take comfort wherever they find it. Gameto—a startup that wants to defeat menopause Gameto, a biotech startup solving the problem of accelerated ovarian ageing, has raised $20 million in series A funding led by Future Ventures, and participation from several other firms and angel investors, the company said in a press release. New York and Boston based Gameto was founded a year ago by Dina Radenkovic, a Serbian medical doctor turned entrepreneur, who has trained in the UK and the US. The startup is building a platform for ovarian therapeutics to initially address menopause and improve assisted fertility, and then initiate drug discovery and a computational platform to study ovarian ageing. Eventually, Gameto wants to make menopause optional. Take-Two buys Zynga in $12.7 billion deal Take-Two Interactive, the maker of Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, is buying Zynga, maker of FarmVille and Words With Friends, in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $12.7 billion, CBS News reports. Zynga shareholders will receive $3.50 in cash and $6.36 in shares of Take-Two common stock for each share of Zynga outstanding stock at closing. Take-Two said on Monday it anticipates $100 million in annual cost savings, according to CBS.

Om Podcasten

Every week day, Forbes India's Hari Arakali, Editor - Tech & Innovation, brings you his take on one piece of tech news that caught his attention, covering everything from big tech to India's growing tech startup ecosystem.