10 things in tech you need to know today

Embassy of Saudi Arabia

Jeff Bezos and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman in 2018.

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

1. Jeff Bezos' phone was reportedly hacked by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2018. Bezos reportedly had had a friendly text exchange with bin Salman, after which Salman sent a video file - believed to be malicious - that compromised Bezos' phone when opened.
2. Trump and Macron declared a ceasefire on the escalating trade war over France's anti-tech tax. The fight began in July when France approved a 3% tax on revenue generated by large digital companies operating within the country, primarily targeted at Silicon Valley giants like Amazon, Facebook, and Google.
3. China's ByteDance is courting European game developers, and sources say it's mulling a casual-games platform for TikTok to rival Facebook and Snapchat. At a gaming conference on Monday in London, a ByteDance exec dropped hints about the firm's thinking on a casual-gaming platform akin to the instantly playable games available on Facebook and Snapchat.
4. Apple reportedly killed a security project after the FBI pushed back. The project involved an iCloud service that fully encrypted iPhone backups, locking even Apple out of the backups.
5. Netflix crushed growth targets internationally during Q4 2018 but missed in the US, where rivals like Disney Plus emerged. Shares of the streaming company were flat in after-hours trading.
6. Apple CEO Tim Cook subtly dinged Mark Zuckerberg by saying augmented reality doesn't isolate people like other technologies. Cook said he is "deeply worried" by technologies which do isolate people, and seemed to imply VR - which Zuckerberg is heavily invested in - was one of them.
7. Disney Plus is finally expanding to the UK and Europe in March. Disney Plus will be coming to the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, and Switzerland on March 24.
8. Apple is launching a new feature for the Apple Card that addresses one of its biggest drawbacks. Apple will now allow Apple Card owners to export transaction data from the Wallet app to third-party apps, making it easier to manage expenses alongside transactions from other accounts.
9. eBay has laid off at least 200 employees as a continuation of its restructuring under its interim CEO. The company confirmed the layoffs, saying they affected only a "low single digit" percentage of eBay's overall workforce.
10. California officials say a $10 million gender discrimination settlement by the creators of the game "League of Legends" isn't enough and calculated the game studio may owe $400 million. Riot Games agreed in August to pay $10 million to settle a class action lawsuit accusing the company of gender discrimination.

Have an Amazon Alexa device? Now you can hear 10 Things in Tech each morning. Just search for "Business Insider" in your Alexa's flash briefing settings.

You can also subscribe to this newsletter here - just tick "10 Things in Tech You Need to Know.

NOW WATCH: Apple forever changed the biggest tech event of the year by not showing up