10 things in tech you need to know today

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

1. Qualcomm revealed a new under-display fingerprint reader. The technology uses ultrasonic waves that bounce off your skin.
2. Tesla’s factory is a “crowded mess,” according to its most bullish Wall Street analyst, who says production is about 30% below the original target. Pierre Ferragu of New Street Research toured the company’s Fremont, California, factory last week.
   
3. A new law was voted through in New York City guaranteeing Uber and Lyft drivers a minimum wage. New York is the first US city to give a minimum wage to ride-hailing app drivers, who are now entitled to $17.22 per hour.
4. Tim Cook appeared to take a swipe at Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter in a speech railing against white supremacy. Cook said Apple showed has this year that it won’t enable “violent conspiracy theorists,” in an apparent reference to Alex Jones, who Apple permanently banned from its platforms.
5. The big tech stocks lost $141 billion in market value on Tuesday, enough to buy McDonald’s. The biggest loser among the tech giants was Amazon, which lost $51 billion in market value.
6. Chinese tech giant Huawei is planning to unveil a smartphone with a camera capable of taking 3D photos, Bloomberg reports. People familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that the project is codenamed “Princeton.”
7. Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian said at Business Insider’s IGNITION conference that we’ve hit “peak social,” and that’s bad news for Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Ohanian predicted that users will move away from the big social networks toward new, more community-focused platforms.
8. Quora revealed that 100 million users may have had their account information stolen in a massive data breach. Account information, including name, email address, encrypted password, and data imported from linked networks may have been compromised, the site said.
9. Britain’s spy chief joined the US in sounding the alarm on the Chinese company that sells more phones than Apple. The head of MI6 Alex Younger warned that Chinese phone giant Huawei could pose a threat to British security.
10. Facebook temporarily took down a post by a former employee complaining about racism at the company. Last week, Mark Luckie publicly shared a memo detailing his experiences of racism at the company. He said Facebook has a “black people problem.”

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