Anything For You All: 10 things in tech you need to know today

March 07, 2018

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

1. Some Stanford computer science students protested smartphone addiction at Apple headquarters. They want Apple to make an "essential mode" for iPhone that only does calls, texts, and photos.

2. Google revealed that it provides TensorFlow APIs to the US Department of Defense. The company wants to help interpret drone footage, and is also working on policies and safeguards for the correct use of machine learning.

3. After 18 years at Amazon, the VP of Amazon Prime and delivery experience Greg Greeley has joined Airbnb with the title of "president of homes." He will report directly to CEO Brian Chesky.

4. Google says it's bringing Lens, its Assistant-powered image recognition tool, to all Android phones with Google Photos installed. The timeline for the iOS debut is still unknown.

5. Uber has reportedly burned $10.7 billion (£7.7 billion) in total so far. This means its losses are worse than those of other tech giants when they had the same market cap, while revenue is lagging behind firms with a similar market cap.

6. Uber has started using its self-driving trucks for some long-haul cargo trips in Arizona. The operation is part of Uber's Freight service, which only leaves the last stretch to human drivers.

7. BlackBerry is suing Facebook. The company is alleging that many of Facebook's messaging services infringe on BlackBerry patents, and is seeking injunctive relief and damages.

8. Apple has confirmed that it will stop taking submissions for LPs on iTunes. Bundled items like videos or bonus tracks are also being discontinued as of this month, while existing LPs will still be available.

9. WeWork announced that it's acquiring search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing company Conductor. The firm said that its plan is to build a "marketing cloud" for enterprise customers.

10. Google's Gboard keyboard has added support for 20 new languages, including traditional and simplified Chinese as well as Korean. These bring the total to over 300 languages, which cover about 74% of world population.