10 things in tech you need to know today

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1. Apple will allow an app called Amphetamine to stay in its store. Apple had told the app’s developer that the branding promoted drug use and that it needed to be renamed or face removal, but then u-turned on its decision.
2. Tesla just missed its vehicle goal for the year. The electric automaker delivered 499,550 vehicles in 2020, 450 shy of CEO Elon Musk’s target.
3. SolarWinds hackers could see Microsoft source code. Microsoft said its investigation into the breach had turned up irregularities with a “small number of internal accounts” and that one of the accounts “had been used to view source code in a number of source code repositories.”
4. Apple removed 46,000 apps from its Chinese app store. The takedowns followed a crackdown on unlicensed gaming apps.
5. Facebook’s ad integrity chief is out. Rob Leathern, director of product management, said earlier this month on Facebook’s internal network that he would be leaving the company on Dec. 30.
6. Apple failed to swiftly cut ties with a supplier that used child labor. Apple discovered that Suyin Electronics, one of its Chinese-based suppliers, relied on child labor on multiple occasions, but still took three years to fully cut ties, The Information reported.
7. Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk increased their wealth by $217 billion in 2020. Collectively, the net worth of the world’s 500 richest people rose to about $1.8 trillion, a 31% increase that represents the largest annual gain in the eight years that Bloomberg has tracked these figures through its Billionaires Index.
8. Gaming can expect a new Nintendo Switch and the first PS5 games in 2021. Rumors have been swirling for months about a new version of Nintendo’s Switch with more power, and a handful of major games are expected to launch for Sony and Microsoft’s new game consoles.
9. The UK’s Brexit deal leaves digital and fintech startups in limbo. The deal does not cover how UK financial startups will trade with Europe, nor the long-term future of data flows.
10. Early-stage funding is set to come back strong in 2021. Investors told Business Insider that seed deals are actually getting bigger, so much so, that they no longer fit the classic definition of seed rounds.