10 things in tech you need to know today, August 2

Tesla
reported a wider loss than expected this
quarter.
Thomson
Reuters

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

1. Tesla
reported a wider loss than expected for its second quarter, but
expects to be profitable in the second half of the year as it
ramps up Model 3 production. The electric car
maker beat forecasts for revenue, and its cash burn decreased
compared with the first quarter.

2.
Elon Musk apologized to the analyst whose questions he infamously
called ‘boring’ and ‘boneheaded’ last quarter. The
Tesla CEO said sorry to Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.
analyst Antonio Sacconaghi and other Wall Street analysts during
the company’s second-quarter earnings call on Wednesday.

3. Google
reportedly wants to launch a censored search engine in China
after Sundar Pichai held secret government
meetings. The project is codenamed “Dragonfly”
and the new service may take the form of an Android app.

4. Facebook
is cutting loose hundreds of thousands of apps as part of its big
data cleanup. Facebook is shutting down
hundreds of the thousands of dormant apps following the Cambridge
Analytica data scandal.

5.
Facebook’s security boss is leaving the company, a day after the
social network revealed co-ordinated attempts to meddle in the US
midterms. Alex Stamos is leaving the social
network for Stanford University.

6.
Reddit says it was hacked in June and attackers got private
messages and other info from early users. The
hack affected people who used Reddit between 2005, when the site
was created, to 2007.

7.
Elon Musk wants to let people play video games on the dashboard
screen of Tesla cars. Musk said he was looking
to hire game developers at Tesla to create games.

8.
The city of Cupertino is in talks to build a Hyperloop transport
system in Apple’s backyard — and its mayor hopes Apple might help
pay for it.  The Hyperloop is a futuristic,
high-speed system that would move people from place to place
using vacuum-sealed tubes.

9. Parents
are paying as much as $35 an hour for ‘Fortnite’ coaches for
their kids. The Wall Street Journal reports that
parents hope these coaches will lead to college
scholarships, e-sports careers, or at least some prize
money.

10.
Elon Musk offered billionaire David Einhorn a “box of short
shorts” to comfort him after his Tesla short bet put a big dent
in his fund. David Einhorn’s $5.5 billion
Greenlight Capital hedge fund lost 18.3% in the first half of
2018.

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