10 Things In Tech You Need To Know Today
1. Lyft is raising a round of funding to help it compete with Uber. It was last valued at $850 million.
2. Google is in talks to acquire Softcard. It's a competitor to Apple Pay.
3. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has promised to create 50,000 new jobs across Europe in 2015. But he says that it will only happen if politicians work with the company.
4. Xiaomi's low-cost smartphones won't be coming to the west for a few years. The company dominates the smartphone market in China.
5. Apple could be developing a 10-megapixel camera for the new iPhone. That would be the first increase in megapixels since 2011.
6. Palantir is looking to raise a new round of funding. It was last valued at $15 billion.
7. The EU suspects that Amazon's tax deal in Luxembourg was illegal. The preliminary ruling says that it breached competition rules.
8. Elon Musk wants to build an internet in space. The proposed space network could stretch all the way to Mars.
9. A former Google employee claims that many of the company's engineers want to leave. A VC told us that Google may see more departures this year if it doesn't grow its stock price.
10. Samsung's new phone is going to have a big screen. Code buried in Samsung's website points to a 1440 x 2560 resolution.