Apple and Intel announced Thursday that the iPhone will acquire the chipmaker’s smartphone modem business. Wired looked into the $1 billion deal. One analyst explained that it highlighted how Apple is slowly taking control of its 5G future with the purchase.

The modems in Apple devices have been an exception to the company’s usual tight integration. Competitors such as Samsung and Huawei build their phones around chips that bundle the main processor and modem circuitry. That offers cost and space savings. In Apple’s devices the custom processor and externally sourced modems have been separate components. Kevin Krewell, principal analyst at Tirias Research, says buying Intel’s modem unit will allow Apple to make integrated processors and modems of its own. As with Apple’s other chip programs, that should provide cost savings and opportunities to create unique new features. “Apple has long wanted to control its platform completely,” he says.

We’ve seen Apple’s billboards pushing its privacy credentials in the U.S. and Canada. Now,  they’ve appeared in locations around Europe, Cult of Mac reported.

Apple often makes privacy a selling point of the iPhone. It has long been considered one of the biggest advantages its smartphone has over Android-powered rivals. These billboards make it so that the privacy-conscious have only one handset in mind when they go shopping. Spotted in three locations around Germany, each of the ads has a big, bold message that is based on the location. One in Hamburg, which proudly calls itself the “gateway to the world,” reads, “Das Tor zur Welt. Nicht zu deinen Informationen.” It translates to “The gateway to the world. Not your information.

WhatsApp is to roll out a payments system in the crucial Indian market, Reuters reported. Users will be able to make and receive payments through the messaging app. Apple Cash offers a similar facility, although it is only currently available in the U.S.

WhatsApp is ubiquitous across India, where data consumption is surging thanks to cheap internet, but a full launch of its payments feature had been delayed amid some false messages circulating on the platform that have led to mob lynching and more government scrutiny, according to local media. The Menlo Park, California-based firm has also been trying to comply with Indian regulations including data storage norms that require all payments-related data to be stored locally…Digital payments, lending and e-wallet services have been growing rapidly in India, led by a government push to bring more of the country’s cash-loving merchants and consumers into the formal economy.