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10 things in tech you need to know today

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Jack Dorsey

Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Thursday.

  1. Twitter jabbed at Facebook by banning all political ads, with its CEO Jack Dorsey saying 'political message reach should be earned, not bought'. Twitter's political ads ban comes after Facebook announced that it would not fact-check paid political ads — a policy that has drawn scrutiny from lawmakers, the media, and the public.
  2. Apple beat Q4 sales and profit targets as a wearables surge overshadowed the ongoing iPhone funk. The tech giant posted revenue of $64 billion for its fiscal fourth quarter, beating analysts expectations.
  3. Mark Zuckerberg gave an impassioned defense of political ads on Facebook, just minutes after Twitter banned them. Before discussing Facebook's Q3 earnings on a conference call with financial analysts, Zuckerberg launched into a monologue about "principles" and free expression, in which he strongly defended Facebook's stance.
  4. Apple's $24 billion wearables segment is now almost as big as its Mac business. Apple's wearables and accessories products accounted for nearly as much revenue in the company's just-completed fiscal year as its Mac computers.
  5. Facebook's News boss blasted journalists calling for the company to 'police' speech in political ads. Campbell Brown, Facebook's Head of News Partnership, said she was "astonished" by the media's response to Facebook's decision to run paid political ads with misinformation and lies. 
  6. President Trump's campaign manager Brad Parscale criticized Twitter's ban of political ads, claiming it would censor conservatives. But former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other left-leaning figures praised the move.
  7. Lyft lost less money than Wall Street expected in the third-quarter as the company keeps adding new riders. The ridesharing firm said last week that it expects to turn a profit a full year ahead of when Wall Street analysts had expected it to.
  8. Activision Blizzard's latest 'Call of Duty' game has sparked a backlash for its depiction of Russia. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare' is under scrutiny in Russian media and on the review aggregator Metacritic for its portrayal of the Eurasian country.
  9. It looks like Apple is planning a clever way to help you find things you misplace with a system called 'AirTags'. It's suggested that Apple may reveal its AirTags by the end of the year.
  10. The world's richest tech billionaires have all seen massive gains in 2019 so far — except Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Most of the decline in his net worth was due to his costly divorce from MacKenzie Bezos earlier this year.

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