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10 things in tech you need to know today

apple tim cook
Apple CEO Tim Cook speak to the press during a tour of the Flextronics computer manufacturing facility, with US President Donald Trump, where Apple's Mac Pros are assembled in Austin, Texas, on November 20, 2019.

Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Friday. Sign up here to get this email in your inbox every morning.

  1. The developer behind 'Fortnite' is suing Apple after the iPhone maker yanked the game from the App Store. Epic Games said it was offering players the option to bypass Apple and Google to provide more choice and to allow them to save money.

  2. Epic Games also sued Google over its decision to boot 'Fortnite' from the Play Store. Google kicked "Fortnite" out of its Play Store after Epic bypassed its ban on in-app purchases that don't use Google's own payment systems.

  3. Apple is readying a series of bundles that will let customers subscribe to several of the company's digital services at a lower monthly price. Bloomberg reported that the bundles, potentially called "Apple One," could launch as early as October alongside the next iPhone.

  4. Uber and Lyft lost a bid to delay a court order in California that says their drivers must be classified as employees. The companies requested a 10-day delay on a prior ruling and previously threatened to shut down their apps in California over a long-running labor dispute.

  5. A California appeals court ruled that Amazon is legally liable for defective products sold on its site by third parties. The court said Amazon "was pivotal in bringing the product," a defective replacement laptop battery, to a customer, who alleged she was burned when it exploded.

  6. Instagram will start asking suspicious accounts to verify their identity with a government ID. In a blog post, Instagram said this move is meant to help the company understand when accounts are "attempting to mislead their followers" and keep the Instagram community safe.

  7. WeWork nabbed a fresh $1.1 billion in financing from SoftBank as the coworking giant's membership dropped. WeWork's membership dropped by 81,000 in the second quarter, per financial information sent to employees on Thursday.

  8. The UK has finally launched a version of its contact tracing app after months of delays. The app will be available on the Apple and Google app stories but will be limited to residents in the Isle of Wight, the London Borough of Newham and NHS volunteer responders to begin with.

  9. WhatsApp is freezing new access to its developer platform as it looks to prevent another Cambridge Analytica. WhatsApp says it wants more information about the companies using its API as it expands to attract more businesses.

  10. Check out the pitch deck augmented reality startup Help Lightning used to raise $8 million, as the tech takes off during the pandemic. Help Lightning saw a spike in demand during the coronavirus pandemic and the financing will be used to scale the business.

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Read the original article on Business Insider