10 things in tech you need to know today
Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Thursday.
- Facebook got hit with a record $5 billion penalty from the FTC over the Cambridge Analytica data breach. The FTC settlement also requires Facebook to make sweeping changes to its privacy practices and submit itself to more independent scrutiny than ever before.
- Facebook beat Wall Street's expectations for its second quarter, but the FTC has opened an antitrust investigation. The company's stock climbed a little higher in after-hours trading on the news.
- Samsung finally said when it will release the Galaxy Fold, following its troubled launch, in September. The company pushed back the phone's original April 26 launch date following reports from reviewers that the device's screen had broken.
- Uber lost 2 board members, including Arianna Huffington, an ally of ousted founder Travis Kalanick. Huffington joined the board in 2016 at the request of Kalanick.
- Tinder is launching a new safety feature for LGBTQ users when traveling to any of 70 countries where being gay is still illegal. The "traveler alert" feature will trigger a safety update giving users the choice of keeping their profiles or their sexual orientation and gender identity information hidden.
- SpaceX tried to launch a Mars spaceship prototype on its first big flight, but the test abruptly ended after ignition. The Starhopper vehicle is an early prototype of Starship: a far larger system that's designed to send people to the moon and Mars.
- Tesla quietly opened 25 new stores and service centers last quarter after abandoning plans to shutter most of them. The company's second-quarter earnings fell short of Wall Street's expectations, sending its shares lower by as much as 10%.
- Tesla lost over $400 million in the second quarter despite record sales, especially of its new Model 3. This throws Tesla's plan to become profitable by selling a high volume of Model 3 cars into doubt.
- Logan Paul is holding a race to find the fastest YouTuber, and the winner gets $100,000. Some of the biggest online video creators who will be competing include Jake Paul, Tana Mongeau, and MrBeast.
- Google has filed a trademark application for "Clockwork," and it looks a lot like a job listing service. The filings indicate that Clockwork may be a mobile app or site for people to find and post jobs, as well as software for companies to manage employees' time.
Have an Amazon Alexa device? Now you can hear 10 Things in Tech each morning. Just search for "Business Insider" in your Alexa's flash briefing settings.
You can also subscribe to this newsletter here - just tick "10 Things in Tech You Need to Know."