10 things in tech you need to know today

Tim Cook


Apple CEO Tim Cook.


  1. Apple CEO Tim Cook called out companies like Facebook, Theranos, and YouTube in a speech pushing for responsibility in Silicon Valley. Cook said in his commencement speech at Stanford University that the tech industry is becoming known for the belief that "you can claim credit without accepting responsibility."
  2. Niantic, the creator of 'Pokémon Go' is suing an "association of hackers" that it says helps players cheat at its games. The lawsuit comes shortly before Niantic is expected to officially launch "Harry Potter: Wizards Unite," which has been in a beta phase in Australia and New Zealand since April.
  3. Genius.com says it caught Google red-handed copying its lyrics and robbing them of valuable search traffic. Genius got suspicious a few years back and devised a plan to put unique patterns in its lyrics by alternating types of apostrophes.
  4. Huawei is getting ready for a huge 40% to 60% drop in smartphone sales following its blacklisting by the Trump administration, Bloomberg reports. Sources familiar with the matter said the company is considering pulling one of its upcoming smartphones, the Honor 20.
  5. Huawei said Samsung's foldable phone fiasco is one reason why it's being "cautious" and delaying its own folding smartphone. "We don't want to launch a product to destroy our reputation," a Huawei spokesperson told CNBC.
  6. California-based chip company Broadcom took a $2 billion hit following Trump's Huawei ban. In its earnings report, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan attributed the slowdown to "geopolitical uncertainties" and "the effects of export restrictions on one of our largest customers."
  7. Amazon laid off dozens of employees from its little-known video game studio. According to Kotaku, employees impacted by the layoffs have 60 days to find a new position within Amazon or accept a severance package.
  8. Hundreds of Google employees and shareholders are expected to converge at the shareholder meeting on Wednesday to demand reforms on sexual misconduct and diversity policies. The protests are to show support for proposals shareholders will vote on regarding sexual harassment and diversity policies at Google and parent-company Alphabet.
  9. Amazon's CTO told the BBC that it will be up to society to decide how to use its facial recognition software ethically, not Amazon itself. AI experts and civil rights groups have criticised the software in the past.
  10. Amazon hits back at presidential hopeful Joe Biden, defending how much it pays in taxes. "We pay every penny we owe," Amazon wrote on Twitter, adding that Biden's criticism should be focused on US tax code rather than Amazon itself.

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