10 things in tech you need to know today

Reuters

FILE PHOTO: Silhouettes of laptop users are seen next to a screen projection of Facebook logo in this picture illustration

Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Wednesday.

1. A Facebook worker reportedly accepted thousands of dollars in bribes to restore banned accounts. BuzzFeed reported that an agency paid as much as $8,000 to convince the Facebook contractor to reactivate the company's ad accounts after they were shut down for violating the company's policies earlier this year.
   
2. Palantir has taken on Project Maven, a US Department of Defense program that Google stopped working on in March, sources told Business Insider. The project, referred to internally at Palantir as "Tron," will train artificial intelligence to analyze aerial drone footage to identify people and objects.
3. The most expensive version of Apple's new Mac Pro costs a whopping $52,599. Apple's new Mac Pro is available to order today and ranges from $5,999 to $52,599.
4. Apple is suing its former lead chip designer after he quit to set up his own chip company. Apple is accusing Gerard Williams of breaking the terms of his employment agreement after he cofounded a chip design firm called Nuvia.
5. 'Fortnite' is finally coming to the Play store, and its creator Epic wants to break how Google taxes apps in the process. The creators behind "Fortnite" are asking Google to allow the game on the Google Play app store while trying to avoid Google's 30% levy on in-app purchases.
6. Google has released its new browser Chrome 79 for Windows, Mac, Linux, Chrome OS, Android, and iOS users. This release comes with security and bug fixes as well as new built-in support for Chrome's Password Checkup tool.
7. An Arkansas senator blasted Adam Neumann over WeWork at a hearing. Senator Tom Cotton said Neumann's poor leadership is an example of why voters are drawn toward socialism.
8. Facebook and Google have dropped out of a top 10 best places to work list. The Silicon Valley tech giants traditionally lead rankings in Glassdoor's annual figures but fell out of favour this year.
9. Indonesian ride-hailing app Gojek could be acquiring a digital payments startup in a major deal. Bloomberg reported Gojek could pay up to $120 million for mobile point-of-sale startup Moka.
10. An Instagram influencer was sentenced to 14 years in jail after going to extreme lengths to get hold of a particular domain name online. In June 2017, Rossi Lothario Adams II persuaded his cousin to hold the domain name owner at gunpoint in an attempt to force him into handing it over.

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