After the Australian government introduced a telecommunications industry code to improve blocking scam calls in December, Communications Minister Paul Fletcher announced yesterday that the code has led to 55 million scam calls being blocked over its first few months, a big jump from 30 million calls blocked over the previous year. Alongside the requirement for telcos to do more work on blocking scams, the code also introduced industry cooperation and information sharing.

Yesterday Visa, today Paypal, with news the digital payments platform will allow US customers to use cryptocurrency holdings to pay merchants through its platform. PayPal began allowing the purchase of cryptocurrency through its platform in November 2020, and now the Checkout with Crypto feature lets users pay from Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin or Bitcoin Cash into US dollars with no transaction fee or to any other local currency with a standard US to international transaction fee.

Google has announced a number of new features coming to Google Maps, the most interesting being an indoor augmented reality navigation mode to transit stations, airports and malls. The indoor Live View AR system will launch in a limited number of locations in the US, with Tokyo and Zurich first to follow, allowing users to hold up the camera and be shown where to navigate a venue and navigate between floors. Other new features for Maps include updates to modes of transportation preferences, driving routes that offer fuel-efficient options and map overlays for air quality and weather information.

Apple has announced its worldwide developer conference, WWDC, will again take place as a virtual online event in 2021, from June 7 to June 11. The event is where the latest versions of the company's software upgrades get announced, including iOS 15, macOS 12 and more ahead of laptop and iPhone hardware in the later part of the year.

We are not sure if we're being April fooled a little early or just baffled, but Volkswagen, with a k, has revealed it will change its name to Voltswagen, with a t, at least in North America, as part of a push toward an electric vehicle focused future. A leaked press release was first believed to be a possible joke but was confirmed as real by the German automaker. I guess if it is a marketing initiative, it just worked on Bits.

Chinese police and gaming giant Tencent have announced the shutdown of what is said to be one of the world's largest video game cheating services. The operation, known as Chicken Drumstick, had designed and sold cheats for both desktop and mobile games, with a reported US$76M in revenues earned through its cheats offered as a subscription service. Assets have been seized and 10 people arrested.

In space news, the latest attempt by SpaceX to launch and land its Starship rocket has again ended in an explosive failure. This was the fourth attempt to test a full-sized Starship prototype. SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted, quote, At least the crater is in the right place.

And in art, The Louvre has announced a new online collection database that now makes over 482,000 works of art from the museum viewable online for free. The Collections.louvre.fr includes all works of art on display and in storage, with options to explore by themes, collections and by search. And yes, even the Mona Lisa is here. Search with two Ns in Mona to find it.

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