THE NEWS WRAP: Chinese government excludes Apple products from is procurement budget

The Chinese government has excluded Apple iPads and MacBook laptops from the list of products that can be bought with public money, government sources told Reuters.

Ten Apple products, including the iPad, iPad Mini, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, were not on a government procurement list distributed in July.

A number of other US technologies companies have been excluded from Chinese government purchases amid tensions between the countries over claims of hacking and cyber-spying, including Symantec Corp, Kaspersky Lab and Microsoft.

Twitter to introduce shopping services?

A handful of Twitter users have noticed a new setting for “payment and shipping” buried inside the Twitter Android app settings menu, adding to increasing evidence the social media giant is planning a move into the e-commerce space.

The setting cannot be activated or opened at this point.

As The Next Web points out, Twitter has been rumoured to be working on a deal with payments provider Stripe for some time, and Re/Code spotted a “buy now” button that began appearing in tweets back in June.

Google acquires Emu

Google has acquired Emu, a new mobile messaging application with smart features that incorporates a virtual assistant to automate tasks based on its users’ conversations.

The startup says it will be shutting down the Emu app on August 25.

Overnight

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 13.87 to 16,443.34. The Australian dollar is currently trading at US94 cents.