10 things in tech you need to know today (TWTR, AAPL, GOOG, MSFT, SNAP, AMZN)

Jack Dorsey

Good morning! Here is the tech news you need to start your Wednesday.

1. Apple has acquired a wireless charging company, PowerbyProxy. It acquired the New Zealand firm for an undisclosed sum, but is reportedly planning to keep the business running in the country, at least for now.

2. Twitter announced some changes with regard to ad transparency. Its plan is to make visible to anyone all political ads purchased on the platform, as well as the identity of the purchasers, and how the ad is targeted at users.

3. Two former Uber engineers have filed complaints against the company alleging unfair pay. Among other claims, the two women also said that they were ranked by male colleagues based on their attractiveness.

5. Semiconductor maker AMD has returned to profitability in the year's third quarter. The company registered a $71 million (£54 million) net income with $1.64 billion (£1.24 billion) in revenue, although its share price fell over 10% after a weak outlook for Q4.

6. Google has updated the Google Assistant with a focus on children. The new software version brings over 50 new games and trivia facts for kids to play with, and will be available on both Google Home devices as well as Android phones and tablets.

7. Microsoft unveiled the Azure Container Service (abbreviated AKS), a new service for its Azure cloud computing platform. AKS is built on Kubernetes, an open source technology built by Google, and aims to make it easy for clients to do management and maintenance work.

8. Snap's spectacles have been a commercial failure, with "hundreds of thousands" reportedly unsold units. The company apparently sold only 150,000 smartglasses to date, and less than half of buyers kept using them after the first month.

10. Amazon has given its app store a visual overhaul with a new focus on Amazon Coins, the company's virtual currency. The revamped digital store is rolling out now to Fire TV, Fire tablets, and Android devices in 236 countries and territories.