Google is adding a per-second billing option to its cloud service. “The move comes just days after Amazon Web Service (AWS), the market leader, made the same announcement,” Business Insider reports. “The new billing model will be available immediately, which means Google actually beat AWS to the punch. AWS's new pricing plan will start October 2.”

To take on Apple and Spotify, Amazon is adding Alexa to its Music app. “Users will be able to control playback and request songs with Alexa,” GeekWire reports. “It activates via the push-to-talk function on the bottom right area of the app. They can also request Alexa to recite the weather, news and sports scores, but there is no access to Alexa Skills.”

Media player software startup Plex is integrating a dedicated news hub within its app. As TechCrunch reports: “The feature delivers a way to browse and discover news from publishers worldwide, and introduces a personalized newscast that adapts to your interests based on what programming you watch and skip, among other things.”

Google is adding a standalone unit for its shopping service, which will require the search giant to bid against rivals for ads shown on the top of its search page. As Bloomberg reports, the move is part of an “effort to satisfy European Union concerns over the display of product results.” With the clock ticking, “Google faces a Thursday deadline to comply with an EU antitrust order for it to give equal treatment in how the search engine shows competitors’ comparison-shopping sites.”

The Securities and Exchange Commission is forming a Cyber Unit, which will focus its enforcement team on digital offenses. “These include hacks, such as attempts to obtain insider info or to compromise trading platforms and accounts, but that's really just the tip of the iceberg,” Engadget reports. “To start, the SEC will look at fake news when it's used to manipulate the market, such as pumping up a stock price to sell at a higher price.”

Challenging Apple’s dominant market position, Fitbit is expected to start selling its first smartwatch on October 1, Venture Beat reports. “The $300 Fitbit Ionic is the company’s first ever smartwatch and it sports GPS, heart rate monitoring technology, and support for Fitbit Pay,” it writes. “The idea here is that you can go out for a run without your wallet and pay for everything directly from your wrist."

TechCrunch takes a closer look at tbh, a popular app that encourages teens to anonymously send positive messages to friends. “The innovation of tbh, teen-speak for To Be Honest, was getting rid of the typing,” it writes. “Whether asking or answering questions, open text fields invite abuse when combined with anonymity.” Instead, “tbh writes the prompts for you, and purposefully allows only those that are tough to bend toward bullying.”

In late November of 2016, President Obama personally petitioned Mark Zuckerberg to take the threat of political disinformation seriously, The Washington Post reports. At a meeting of world leaders in Peru, “President Barack Obama pulled the youthful tech billionaire aside and delivered what he hoped would be a wake-up call,” WaPo writes. Just weeks earlier, Zuckerberg had dismissed Facebook’s role in spreading “fake news” as “crazy.”

Surprising no one, Microsoft is replacing Skype for Business with Microsoft Teams, The Verge reports. Less than a year ago, “Microsoft’s original Teams launch made it look obvious that Skype for Business would eventually disappear, given the fact that Teams integrates most of Skype’s functionality already.”

Leading up to the launch of the Apple TV 4K, the tech titan has made it clear that its 4K content can be streamed, but not downloaded. “Customers can download a local copy of an HD movie, and on occasion, HD movies that support HDR and Dolby Vision, but 4K movies are not available for download and thus can't be watched without an internet connection,” Mac Rumors reports.