10 things in tech you need to know today, October 16

Microsoft cofounder Paul
Allen has died at 65.
Stephen Lovekin
/ Getty Images

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

1. 
   Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen has died at 65 after a battle
   with cancer. A childhood friend of Bill
   Gates, it was actually Allen who came up with the name
   “Micro-Soft.” 
2. 
   Jeff Bezos said that today’s internet is a “confirmation bias
   machine” that could help autocratic
   regimes. The Amazon CEO weighed in on the
   current state of social media at the Wired 25 conference on
   Monday.
3. 
   Facebook is banning any kind of hoaxes about voting, like false
   reports of violence or fake photos of long
   lines. The move is intended to address hoaxes
   like telling certain users they could vote by text, a method
   that has been used to reduce voter turnout in the past.
4. 
   “Fortnite” is getting a new mode for the most competitive
   players, as it builds towards a $1.1 million
   showdown. “Fortnite: Battle Royale” is adding
   tournaments to its roster of in-game events, which
   will have different formats spanning several days.
5. 
   The cofounder of Instagram said “No one ever leaves a job
   because everything’s awesome” about his departure from
   Facebook. Instagram cofounder Kevin Systrom
   spoke out about why he left the company in September at a
   conference on Monday.
6. 
   Thread, the fashion startup that helps lazy guys buy clothes,
   has raised $22 million. Thread uses a mix of
   machine learning and real-life stylists to learn about its
   customers’ fashion tastes, and recommend stylish clothing
   accordingly.
7. 
   Jeff Bezos defended Amazon taking defense contracts, even as
   Google and others shy away. The Amazon CEO said,
   “this is a great country and it does need to be defended” at a
   conference on Monday.
8. 
   Apple hired the founders of a music startup that says it can
   find ‘the next Justin Bieber’ — and it may give Apple Music an
   edge against Spotify. Apple has bought music
   analytics firm Asaii for under $100 million, Axios reports.
9. 
   People are questioning the story that missing journalist Jamal
   Khashoggi’s Apple Watch recorded him being
   killed. With Khashoggi still missing,
   security and technical commentators have cast doubt on reports
   from the Turkish media that his Apple Watch recorded him being
   tortured and killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
10. Facebook will now show who exactly is paying to swing
    people’s votes through online political
    advertising. The company
    will both label ads as they appear in its News Feed, and
    archive all political ads in a searchable library which will
    retain ads for seven years. 

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