10 things in tech you need to know today

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© MANDEL NGAN / AFP via Getty Images
Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks to the press during a tour of the Flextronics computer factory, with US President Donald Trump, where Apple’s Mac Pros were assembled in Austin, Texas, on November 20, 2019. MANDEL NGAN / AFP via Getty Images

1. The developer behind ‘Fortnite’ claims Apple submits after the iPhone maker released the game from the App Store. Epic Games said it offers players the option to bypass Apple and Google to give them more choice and save them money.
2. Epic Games also sued Google over its decision to boot ‘Fortnite’ from the Play Store. Google kicked “Fortnite” out of the Play Store after Epic circumvented its ban on in-app purchases that do not use Google’s own payment systems.
3. Apple is ready with a series of bundles that allow customers to subscribe to several of the company’s digital services at a lower monthly price. Bloomberg reported that the bundles, potentially called “Apple One”, could launch in early October along with the next iPhone.
4. Uber and Lyft lost a bid to delay a California court order that says their drivers should be classified as employees. The companies demanded a 10-day delay on a prior ruling and previously threatened to close their apps in California over a long-running labor dispute.
5. An appeals court in California has ruled that Amazon is legally liable for defective products sold on its site by third parties. The court said Amazon was “important in bringing the product,” a defective replacement laptop battery, to a customer who claimed it was on fire when it exploded.
6. Instagram will start suspicious accounts to verify their identity with a government ID. In a blog post, Instagram said that this move is intended to help the company understand how accounts “try to mislead their followers” and keep the Instagram community safe.
7. WeWork took a fresh $ 1.1 billion in SoftBank funding when the coworking giant’s membership dropped. WeWork membership fell 81,000 in the second quarter, per financial information sent to employees on Thursday.
8. The UK has definitely launched a version of its contact tracing app after months of delay. The app will be available with the stories of the Apple and Google app, but will be limited to residents in the Isle of Wight, the London borough of Newham and NHS volunteer responders to begin with.
9. WhatsApp freezes new access to its developer platform because it seems to outperform another Cambridge Analytica. WhatsApp says it wants more information about the companies using its API as it expands to attract more companies.
10. Check out the pitch-deck augmented reality startup used by Lightning to raise $ 8 million as the tech launches during the pandemic. Help Lightning saw a spike in demand during the coronavirus pandemic and the funding will be used to scale the company.

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