There are ten things you need to know about that is happening right now in tech. Check them out below.
1. The NSA has closed down its mass surveillance program. After Edward Snowden’s revelations about US government spying, laws were passed to curtail the spy agency’s powers.
2. Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and more are launching a new organisation to invest in renewable technologies, GeekWire reports. It is called the Breakthrough Energy Coalition.
3. Data on 5 million adults and 200,000 children was exposed in a hack of Chinese toy company VTech. Motherboard reports that names, passwords, and home addresses are among the data stolen.
4. It’s “Cyber Monday” today. Numerous online retailers are having special sales today, and The Telegraph has put together a round-up of some of the best deals.
5. Amazon has shared new pictures of its planned “Prime Air” drone delivery service. The online retail giant has published a video of a redesigned prototype drone.
6. Microsoft is launching a beta version of its virtual assistant Cortana for iOS. As The Verge notes, it won’t have as much functionality as it does on Android and Windows Phone.
7. A card game company made more than $70,000 (£47,000) on Black Friday by selling nothing for $5 (£3.30) a pop. The people behind “Cards Against Humanity” are known for bizarre deals; this year, they offered customers the chance to buy literally nothing, and some did.
8. The new “Star Wars” movie contains a tribute to a young girl who died of cancer. “The Force Awakens” includes a pink robot that was created by a fan for his daughter, who was dying of cancer.
9. Zynga CEO Mark Pincus is defending Marissa Mayer. There has been numerous reports recently about the challenges facing the embattled Yahoo CEO, but Pincus says she is “leading Yahoo with courage and heart.”
10. SoundCloud reportedly removed a totally silent track from its service for “copyright infringement.” D.J. Detweiler says they uploaded a “remix” of John Cage’s completely silent song “4’33” as a test to see what would happen, according to Dancing Astronaut.