10 Things In Tech You Need To Know Today

Good morning! It's a warm (78 high), sunny day in New York ahead of Labor Day weekend. There's a lot going on as we head into the weekend, so let's dig in to the news.

1. Apple sent out invites for a press event on Tuesday September 9. Apple is expected to announce two new versions of the iPhone, as well as an iWatch.
2. Apple will reportedly announce a new mobile payment system that will be exclusive to the new iPhone models.
3. This is going to be a gigantic event for Apple. The venue can seat over 2,000 and Apple is building a three-story structure to host everyone.
4. Google has been working on a drone delivery program much like what Amazon announced last year. Google gave The Atlantic access for a big story about the program.
5. Mikael Hed, The CEO of Rovio, the company behind Angry Birds, is stepping down in January of next year. He will be replaced by a Nokia executive. Angry Birds was once king of the App Store, but it whiffed on in-app payments, and now is well behind the competition.
6. Google executive Megan Smith is close to being announced as the White House's next CTO.
7. Bloomberg Businessweek has a big story about how YouTube has turned into a hit factory pumping out shows/characters that teens and pre-teens love.
8. New York Times columnist Farhad Manjoo says there is basically no difference between using Lyft or Uber in San Francisco. Both companies are fighting each other bitterly to win the car-sharing/new taxi markets, but they are commodity services at this point.
9. Adam D'Angelo, CEO of Quora, says he plans to roll out ads next year to start generating revenue. "One of the best things about ads is that you don't need to exclude anyone... we think ads are pretty well aligned with our mission."
10. Nokia is making a version of its "Here" maps exclusively for Samsung phones running Android. Seems like a small deal, right? Well, Samsung and Google have a tense relationship, and this is an example of Samsung trying to create some leverage for itself against Google by having maps that can replace Google Maps. From Nokia's perspective, since it sold its handset business to Microsoft, this a major deal since it's focusing on services like mapping.