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10 things in tech you need to know today

Sam Shead   

10 things in tech you need to know today
Tech3 min read

Kim Dotcom

Reuters/Nigel Marple

internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom.

Good morning! Here's the technology news you need to know this Wednesday.

1. A New Zealand judge has ruled that internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom and three of his colleagues can be extradited to the United States to face criminal copyright charges. The ruling comes nearly four years after US authorities shut down Dotcom's Megaupload website, which some visitors used to illegally download songs and movies.

2. NASA has suspended the March launch of its next mission to Mars because of a fault in a key research instrument. It is feared the mission could now face a two-year delay.

3. Oculus is sending developers the finished version of its Rift headset. The shipments, which will be made this week, are for any developer who is making a game or app for Rift that is being launched in the first quarter of 2016.

4. Microsoft will "detect and remove" insecure adware from Windows PCs in 2016. The target of Microsoft's new policy is software like "Superfish", which hijacks a user's connection in order to display adverts, even on webpages which do not normally have them.

5. Gojimo, a revision app reportedly used by one in five UK students studying for their end of school exams this year, has raised $1.8 million (£1.2 million). Investors include LoveFilm cofounder Saul Klein and his father Robin Klein.

6. Dating app Hinge is rolling out a new feature called Story Cards, which is meant to surface the similarities you have with another person so you can start talking more easily. Earlier this year, Hinge introduced "self-destructing matches", which essentially force you to talk with the people you match with within 24 hours before they vanish forever.

7. Apple has changed its company policies to allow shareholders to nominate new board members. The issue of so-called proxy access has become mainstream practice in just two years, as major institutional investors including BlackRock and T Rowe Price and many of the largest US pension funds have demanded improved shareholder rights.

8. Spotify, Apple Music, and Google Play will reportedly stream The Beatles starting December 24. It is also worth noting that unlike Taylor Swift, the Beatles will be available on the free versions of services like Spotify.

9. Boston Dynamics, a robotics company that's a part of Google X, itself a subsidiary of Alphabet, has posted a Christmas video that's best described as "unnerving." In the video, Boston Dynamics' famous robot dogs, done up like Santa's reindeer, take someone who appears to be Mrs. Claus on a sleigh ride across a noticeably snow-free field.

10. Nutanix, a startup that makes technology for big companies' data centres, just filed its S1 as it prepares to go public early next year. The S1 shows Nutanix, reportedly valued at over $2 billion (£1.35 billion) on private markets, is growing fast but losing a lot of money.

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