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10 things in tech you need to know today, October 16

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paul allen
Microsoft cofounder Paul
Allen has died at 65.

Stephen Lovekin
/ Getty Images


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


  1. Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen has died at 65 after a battle
    with cancer
    .
     A childhood friend of Bill
    Gates, it was actually Allen who came up with the name
    “Micro-Soft.” 

  2. Jeff Bezos said that today’s internet is a “confirmation bias
    machine” that could help autocratic
    regimes
    The Amazon CEO weighed in on the
    current state of social media at the Wired 25 conference on
    Monday.

  3. Facebook is banning any kind of hoaxes about voting, like false
    reports of violence or fake photos of long
    lines
    The move is intended to address hoaxes
    like telling certain users they could vote by text, a method
    that has been used to reduce voter turnout in the past.

  4. “Fortnite” is getting a new mode for the most competitive
    players, as it builds towards a $1.1 million
    showdown
    “Fortnite: Battle Royale” is adding
    tournaments to its roster of in-game events, which
    will have different formats spanning several days.

  5. The cofounder of Instagram said “No one ever leaves a job
    because everything’s awesome” about his departure from
    Facebook
    Instagram cofounder Kevin Systrom
    spoke out about why he left the company in September at a
    conference on Monday.

  6. Thread, the fashion startup that helps lazy guys buy clothes,
    has raised $22 million
    Thread uses a mix of
    machine learning and real-life stylists to learn about its
    customers’ fashion tastes, and recommend stylish clothing
    accordingly.

  7. Jeff Bezos defended Amazon taking defense contracts, even as
    Google and others shy away
    .
    The Amazon CEO said,
    “this is a great country and it does need to be defended” at a
    conference on Monday.

  8. Apple hired the founders of a music startup that says it can
    find ‘the next Justin Bieber’ — and it may give Apple Music an
    edge against Spotify
    Apple has bought music
    analytics firm Asaii for under $100 million, Axios reports.

  9. People are questioning the story that missing journalist Jamal
    Khashoggi’s Apple Watch recorded him being
    killed
    With Khashoggi still missing,
    security and technical commentators have cast doubt on reports
    from the Turkish media that his Apple Watch recorded him being
    tortured and killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
  10. Facebook will now show who exactly is paying to swing
    people’s votes through online political
    advertising
    . The company
    will both label ads as they appear in its News Feed, and
    archive all political ads in a searchable library which will
    retain ads for seven years. 

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