If you follow Tesla and the company's endless flurry of news, non-news, rumor, innuendo, and Twitterific chatter, you might think that the entire auto industry is furiously chasing a relatively tiny upstart California company that will do well to have sold 250,000 vehicles last year.

Such is Tesla's reality-distortion field. You can't really blame it on CEO Elon Musk; Tesla's fans are, as a group, given to dramatic overstatement.

Read more: Cadillac revealed a futuristic electric SUV concept that will rival Tesla's Model X — and it looks awesome

I just got back from the Detroit Auto Show, and in my conversations with various auto executives, the word "Tesla" came up not once. Tesla wasn't at the event, but that's because Tesla doesn't really do car shows. Why bother? It's selling only three vehicles. Nearly 50% of what it could put on display — a new Roadster sports car, a Semi truck, and a pickup — are still in the preproduction or concept stages.

No time to worry about Tesla

Cadillac's new electric-vehicle platform. Cadillac

Overall, the auto industry is doing fine without worrying about what Tesla is up to, and it has plenty of bigger problems to contend with.

Sales in the US again came in at near-record levels in 2018, and the most popular vehicles among consumers — SUVs and pickup trucks — are also the most profitable.

But General Motors is continuing to manage its business aggressively, idling underperforming factories and expanding its investment in autonomous and electric mobility. Ford is engaged in a deep restructuring. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is dealing with an unexpected leadership transition after the sudden death last year of CEO Sergio Marchionne. And Nissan's former chairman, the onetime industry legend Carlos Ghosn, continues to reside in a Tokyo jail on charges of financial impropriety.

Outsize belief in Tesla's influence isn't yet a serious affliction. But it's getting worse, and at some point it will be serious. The truth is that there isn't much that Tesla is doing that the traditional industry needs or wants to copy. So far, the biggest shift possibly inspired by Tesla was GM's and Ford's decision to report quarterly rather than monthly US sales data — essentially an accounting tweak.

Electric cars are easier than you think

GM unveiled the Chevy Bolt and got it to market in 2016 in about a year. Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

Electric vehicles aren't that complicated from an engineering standpoint. GM proved rather decisively that it could design, build, and launch a long-range mass-market EV, the Chevy Bolt, in about a year. The car has been on sale since late 2016. EVs are a battery and motor, maybe two.

Tesla's software and infotainment systems capture a lot of attention, but those aren't core elements of an automobile. Tesla obviously learned this in 2018, as it struggled mightily with the basics of modern mass production, something other automakers perfected in the 1980s.

Detroit has been doing a good job of pitching an electrified future. Two of the biggest news stories to come out of the Detroit Auto Show were GM's decision to make Cadillac its lead electric brand and Ford's announcement that it's developing an all-electric version of its top-selling F-150 pickup truck.

What Tesla boosters seem to miss is that electrification is trivially easy for big car companies. It's hard for Tesla because the company is just 15 years old and has been building its own vehicles in serious volumes for only about three years. The learning curve is quite steep in the type of complicated supply-chain-and-capital-intensive manufacturing that gives consumers many millions of new and widely varied vehicles each year to choose from.

Tesla's strength, like Apple's, is the refinement of existing ideas. Over a decade ago, Tesla developed a better battery. The company has pioneered over-the-air software updates for its cars, set a standard for luxury EV design and performance, and proved that substantial EV sales are aided by developing a widespread network of fast-charging stations.

Make no mistake: Tesla is a great company

Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Patrick Fallon / Reuters

Of these, the one that the traditional industry has latched onto is the charging piece. But otherwise, Tesla isn't causing anyone in the world's automaking capitals to lose sleep. They have President Donald Trump for that, not to mention numerous factors beyond their control, such as gas prices, credit conditions, exchange rates, and unpredictable geopolitics.

If Tesla did eventually cause auto executives to toss and turn, then those execs would simply ... make some more electric cars. This is, after all, what they do and have been doing for over a century: making cars.

They aren't even all that enthusiastic about competing with Tesla, despite what various short-sellers might believe. Competition costs money. Sure, Ford and Chevy compete for pickup-truck buyers. But they also each sell a staggering number of moneymaking pickups each year, and they can expect to keep doing that, year after year. They have a pretty good sense of what that game is all about.

Meanwhile, overdoing it on what could be too many low-profit, low-sales EVs would be throwing money away. On the environmental side, it would be far better for the planet if the traditional industry sold hybrid gas-electric versions of all the vehicles it manufactures. But unfortunately, if Tesla has had one striking influence, it's been to undermine the once robust hybrid market and push those customers toward far more expensive all-electric vehicles.

Make no mistake: Tesla is a great company. It makes great cars. It has done something nobody in the industry thought was possible by creating a vibrant all-electric brand. But is it exerting a radical influence on the car business? Hardly.

On Sunday, January 20, the Earth will pass between the sun and moon, block light from the sun and casting a shadow on the moon.

This is a total lunar eclipse, and it will be the last one we see until May 2021 (though there will be partial lunar eclipses before then).

Total lunar eclipses are not that rare — the last one occurred in July 2018— but this one stands out as a "super blood wolf moon."

That name is based on the eclipse's timing and the moon's position relative to Earth. Total lunar eclipses make the moon look orange-red because of the effect that Earth's atmosphere has on the sunlight that passes through it, which is why they are often called blood moons. Full moons that occur in in January are known as "wolf moons" (each month gets its own full-moon name), and this one will appear especially bright and big because the moon will be a little closer to Earth than normal — hence the label "super."

The total lunar eclipse will be fully visible to people in North America, South America, Greenland, Iceland, western Europe, and Africa. People in other parts of the world will see a partial eclipse.

According to NASA, the total lunar eclipse will last one hour and two minutes. For those on the US East Coast, the total eclipse will begin around 11:41 p.m. local time with a peak at 12:16 a.m.

During a lunar eclipse, the moon first touches Earth's outer shadow, called a penumbra, then moves into the full shadow, called the umbra. It then goes back into the penumbra.

A diagram of the Earth, moon, and sun during a total lunar eclipse or "blood moon." Shayanne Gal/Business Insider

About 80% of Earth's atmosphere is nitrogen gas, and the rest is mostly oxygen. After our atmosphere takes in white sunlight, that gas mixture scatters around blue and purple colors, which is why the sky appears blue to our eyes during the day.

During a lunar eclipse, Earth's atmosphere scatters blue light and refracts the red — a process similar to what we see during sunrise and sunset. That's why the moon appears to turn red when in Earth's umbra.

Watching a total lunar eclipse is not dangerous — unlike looking at a solar eclipse without protection— so you don't need any special glasses.

Would a notification from your doctor as soon as you forget to take your medication help keep you on track?

A digital medicine company called Proteus is betting the answer is yes.

The Silicon Valley-based company makes what have been called "smart pills": essentially, versions of regular medications embedded with a tiny sensor that can be tracked by a patch worn on a patient's stomach.

Since debuting the first medication made with the technology — a form of the depression and schizophrenia drug Abilify— in 2017, the company has put its hardware into 40 different medications ranging from drugs for infectious disease and mental illness to diabetes. Valued at $1.5 billion, Proteus has raised $487 million with backing from big name investors like Novartis.

And now, the company is expanding into cancer.

On Thursday, Proteus announced the launch of the first clinical trial of its technology in oncology. As part of the trial, seven patients with advanced colorectal cancer are now taking a sensor-embedded version of the common chemotherapy drug capecitabine in place of their regular medicine. The company hopes to enroll as many as 750 patients in the trial — which is taking place in partnership with the nonprofit Minneapolis-based health system Fairview Health Services and the University of Minnesota — within the next two years.

The goal is to determine if "smart pills" are truly smart: that is, if they help patients take their medications when they should. That's an important goal for conditions like depression, schizophrenia, and cancer, where patients often struggle to take medications. Timing those medications and ensuring that patients always take the correct dose is a key part of treatment.

"In cancer, the difference between too much of a medication and too little of a medication is very narrow," Edward Greeno, a practicing oncologist who is overseeing the trial and is the director of the University of Minnesota Health's oncology service line, told Business Insider.

Pills that tell your doctor when you've taken them — and how much exercise you're getting

Proteus' digital pills work by way of a tiny sensor roughly the size of a period. Courtesy Proteus Digital Health Proteus' digital pills work by way of a tiny sensor roughly the size of a period. The sensor can either be stamped into a pill or included alongside a traditional medication and then encased in a translucent shell that breaks down when a patient swallows it. Then, patients attach a credit card-sized adhesive sensor anywhere on their stomach. The sensor tracks when the pill is ingested.

The company was founded in 2001 and got approval from the Food and Drug Administration for its technology in 2012. So far, the company said there have been 177,000 ingestions of Proteus sensors in various medications ranging from drugs for tuberculosis to those for HIV.

A version of the Proteus system where a traditional medication is included alongside the sensor in a clear casing. Courtesy Proteus Digital Health

In addition to alerting clinicians as to when patients take their medications, Proteus' digital pills also keep track of patients' activity levels — telling them where and how often they move around.

That could be a tough pill to swallow for patients who don't like the idea of being monitored remotely, but Greeno said the patients he's working with currently actually feel better having a physician involved in this way.

Greeno said he's observed some other surprising things, too, like seeing how little activity some of his patients get. That's already motivating him to think about ways to better incorporate exercise into treatment.

"It's a nice surprise to start thinking about things we hadn't thought about before," Greeno said.

Should all your medications be digital?

Proteus' cancer trial is ambitious. Although only seven patients have been enrolled so far, the company aims to have 750 sign up within the next two years. Fairview Health System is covering the cost of the treatment.

Beyond making a digital version of the chemotherapy drug capecitabine, Proteus aims to eventually digitize all of the medications a cancer patient is taking, George Savage, Proteus' cofounder and chief medical officer, told Business Insider. Those would include everything from anti-nausea drugs to pain medications like opioids.

All of that rests on the idea that digital pills offer a significant benefit over regular ones. However, the scientific evidence of this remains somewhat unclear.

A Proteus-sponsored study of roughly 100 patients with hypertension and type 2 diabetes suggested that its digital pills might be an improvement on regular pills, but the results were somewhat mixed. Researchers behind the study, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research in 2017, concluded that patients using Proteus' digital pills had slightly better measures of blood pressure, but rates of medication adherence — or whether or not patients took their pills when they were supposed to — was not measured as part of the study.

Several other researchers have attempted to study whether other means of reminding patients to take their medications could help, but they've also come up with subpar results.

Scientists behind a clinical trial of roughly 50,000 patients published in JAMA Internal Medicine in 2017 concluded that none of three devices designed to remind patients to take their pills significantly improved medication adherence rates. The reminders included an elaborate toggle system that people engaged each time they took a pill; a bottle cap with a digital timer; and a pill container with distinct compartments for the days of the week.

It remains to be seen whether Proteus' digital cancer pills will help patients take their medications when they should. Results from their clinical trial are expected by 2021.

Lyft has been quickly scaling up its engineering team as it continues to expand into things like bikes, scooters, and more.

To keep up with the growth and manage its team of engineers that is now more than 1,000-strong, the ride-hailing company has poached Eisar Lipkovitz, Google's former vice president of engineering, the company announced Friday.

"It's clear that Lyft is tackling one of the most interesting and world-changing engineering challenges of our lifetime, and the team has done an exceptional job innovating through dispatch, matching, pricing, and mapping to create the overall experience," Lipkovitz said in a statement provided by Lyft.

"The work Lyft is doing intersects with my passion of operating extremely complex systems efficiently while developing strong leaders in tech, and I couldn't be more excited to join the team."

Read more:2 dealmakers named David: Uber and Lyft's expected IPOs will trigger competition at Google's in-house VC firms

And he's far from the first Googler to move to Lyft, the latest in a long-running drain of talent from the search giant that's owned by Alphabet. A cursory LinkedIn search shows nearly 300 current Lyft employees formerly worked for Google, including other engineering manager Tom Lewkowitz, director of sustainability Sam Arons, and CTO Chris Lambert.

Notably, Alphabet has also invested in two of Lyft's late-stage funding rounds, as Business Insider's Becky Peterson notes. CapitalG, formerly known as Google Capital, led the company's Series H funding round last year, when the company raised $1.7 billion at a $10 billion valuation. David Lawee, who led that investment, plays an active role on Lyft's board.

Lyft in December said it had confidentially filed for an initial public offering, or IPO. After doubling its engineering team in 2018, according to a spokesperson, investors will likely see Lipkovitz's taking of the helm as another signal the company is primed for more growth going forward.

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Wall Street analysts on Friday were heaping praise onto Netflix following the streaming giant's quarterly earnings report, raising their price targets and recommending investors buy up the name. They cited strong content slates and solid subscriber-growth momentum.

One of the most negative firms on the name even bumped up its target, though it said the company's cash burn was still a massive concern.

Netflix reported quarterly earnings-per-share estimates on Thursday that exceeded analysts' expectations, but it fell slightly short of revenue expectations. The company reiterated its expectation for its 2019 cash burn to be similar to that of 2018, implying negative free cash flow of about $3 billion despite its roughly $1.5 billion in incremental revenue that should result from the price hike it announced earlier this week.

Now read: 'Take off the blindfold': Here's what Wall Street is saying about Netflix earnings

Michael Pachter and his team at Wedbush wrote that they expected Netflix's content spending to "trigger substantial cash burn for many years" and said future price hikes could cause a slowdown in subscriber growth. They maintained their "underperform" rating and raised their 12-month price target to $165 a share from $150. Still, the higher number is more than 50% below where shares were trading Friday.

Their new target reflects the impact of Netflix's recently announced price increase and new subscriber-growth outlook. Pachter told Business Insider what he'd need to see from the company to view the streaming platform more positively.

"I'll reconsider my rating and price target if they reverse faster," he wrote in an email. "If they go from $(3) billion in 2018 to $(1) billion in 2019 and to $1 billion positive in 2020, I will give them credit for that."

Pachter said with $2 billion of annual free-cash-flow growth, Netflix would have to pay back $11 billion and finish that by 2023, with a $7 billion free-cash-flow rate.

"20x $7 billion = $140 billion, and I would only have to discount that back for four years," he wrote. "That would get me to a $256 price target, and I'd reconsider upgrading to Neutral then."

To be sure, this outlook is the exception, not the rule, on Wall Street. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg overwhelmingly rate the stock a "buy," with a price target of $395 a share on average — about 16% higher than where the stock was trading Friday.

Netflix was up 33% this year through Thursday. 

Read more about Netflix:

Markets Insider

Tesla is laying off 7% of its employees, CEO Elon Musk said on Friday in an email to employees, the second round of cuts the automaker has made in less than a year.

Tesla had expanded its workforce by 30% in 2018 as it ramped up production of its Model 3 sedan, Musk said, even as it laid off 9% of its employees in June. Musk suggested the most recent cuts were necessary as Tesla seeks to become consistently profitable while introducing lower-priced vehicles like the long-awaited $35,000 version of the Model 3.

Read more: Tesla's layoffs mean the company's lead on electric vehicles could be ending, one Wall Street analyst says

"We face an extremely difficult challenge: making our cars, batteries and solar products cost-competitive with fossil fuels. While we have made great progress, our products are still too expensive for most people," Musk said in the email, which was posted on Tesla's website.

Tesla has big expenses ahead

The layoffs were the right move for a company that has major expenses ahead as it prepares to build a new factory and introduce a range of new vehicles, said David Whiston, an automotive analyst at Morningstar, and Michael Ramsey, an automotive analyst at Gartner.

"They're still a young company, and they have a lot of growing pains," Whiston said. "Sometimes, unfortunately, you have to make adjustments and people lose their jobs."

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To finance the factory, which will be located in Shanghai, and upcoming vehicles like a semi-truck, pickup truck, and a new version of its Roadster sports car, Tesla needs to make profits, raise money from Wall Street, or use a combination of the two. If Tesla relies at all on debt, it will have to show Wall Street it is making an effort to control its expenses, Ramsey said.

"I think that this shows that finally, the company or Elon … recognizes that they cannot continue burning cash at the rate that they had been, or the money faucet will turn off."

Elon Musk expects a small profit in Q1

Tesla surprised Wall Street analysts by posting a $312 million profit in the third quarter of 2018, just the third quarterly profit in the automaker's 16-year history. But the year preceding the quarter had been marked by widening losses as Tesla struggled to ramp up Model 3 production.

Musk said it appears the automaker will report a profit for the fourth quarter of 2018, and he predicted a "tiny" profit for the first quarter of this year that will depend in part on luck.

But the layoffs are not an act of desperation, Ramsey said, pointing out that General Motors announced in November that it would cut 15% of its salaried North American workforce despite later saying that it expects its 2018 profit to beat Wall Stree projections.

"I don't think it's desperation. I think it's something that had to happen," he said of the Tesla layoffs.

Microsoft will stop issuing security updates to smartphones running Windows 10 Mobile on December 10, 2019, and it officially recommends you switch to Android or iOS devices by that time.

The company updated its device operating system life cycle FAQ on January 14 with the new information, saying:

"The end of support date applies to all Windows 10 Mobile products, including Windows 10 Mobile and Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise. Windows 10 Mobile users will no longer be eligible to receive new security updates, non-security hotfixes, free assisted support options or online technical content updates from Microsoft for free."

Under the "What should Windows 10 Mobile customers do now?" section of the FAQ, Microsoft now recommends "that customers move to a supported Android or iOS device."

Microsoft Corp CEO Steve Ballmer displays a Nokia Lumia 920 featuring Windows Phone 8 during an event in San Francisco, California October 29, 2012. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith

Windows 10 Mobile users stopped getting new features and non-security related updates in October 2017 with version 1709. The company kept issuing security updates for those staunch Windows 10 Mobile users for over a year, but the time has finally come even for the Windows 10 Mobile enthusiast to make the switch.

Without security updates, Windows 10 Mobile users who continue to use Windows mobile devices will put themselves at a higher risk to security threats, whether it be a hack or a malware attack that can leave your sensitive and personal information exposed.

For Windows 10 Mobile users now looking to make the switch to Android or iOS devices, we'd recommend the OnePlus 6T, Samsung Galaxy S9, or Google Pixel 3 for Android phones. As for iPhones, you have your pick of the litter between the iPhone 7, iPhone 8, iPhone XR, and iPhone XS.

Amazon's Prime membership program continues to reach a larger percentage of the US population.

More than 100 million people have access to Amazon Prime benefits as of December 31, according to a Consumer Intelligence Research Partners survey of 500 Amazon customers. That translates to 62% of Amazon customers getting access to perks like free two-day shipping, Prime Video streaming, and more.

Amazon did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment on the survey.

Outside of major milestones, Amazon does not typically share Prime subscriber numbers. The last such milestone was in April 2018, when Bezos said in his yearly investor letter that Amazon had more than 100 million paying subscribers globally as of 2017.

Read more: Jeff Bezos finally revealed how many people pay for Amazon Prime

CIRP did not make a distinction between paying subscribers and those who access their service through a housemate's account or a free trial.

CIRP also said Prime membership grew 10% in the last year, which was "slower than before, but still significant on a huge base and after years of rapid growth," Josh Lowitz, partner and co-founder of CIRP, said in a statement.

The slower growth combines with the membership's nature changing, as the survey found that the annual membership has become a less dominant option.

"As Prime membership growth flattens, the nature of the membership changes somewhat," Mike Levin, partner and co-founder of CIRP, said in a statement. "One-third of members pay a monthly fee, and can basically leave and rejoin Prime at any time. They do this even though the annual cost of $119 costs less than the sum of twelve monthly payments on the monthly plan, or $156."

Levin said there is concern that these members who dip in and out of their Prime benefits won't add as much value to Amazon's bottom line.

Read more: Prime members spend way more on Amazon than other customers — and the difference is growing

"These more transient members obviously don't have the same commitment to Amazon shopping and the suite of Prime member services," he said. "Presumably, they don't typically use the breadth of benefits to the same extent as annual members."

While Prime members buy an average of $1,400 in products from the website each year, regular, non-Prime customers only spend $600. That's a wider gulf than was reported by CIRP in 2017, when Prime customers spent an average of $1,300 and other customers spent $700.

Prime is increasingly a jewel in Amazon's crown, and the company takes great pains to ensure that its members perceive the service as a good value by frequently adding more features.

In fact, analysis by JPMorgan pegged the value of Prime at $785 a year when all benefits are combined — nearly 6.5 times the actual cost of a yearly Prime subscription ($119).

"Prime delivers such massive scale and features that we believe it would be very difficult for any company to replicate and compete against, and Amazon continues to expand and add more value to Prime by adding new benefits and growing existing offerings," the analysts wrote.

As more and more streaming services crop up, Netflix said it's not concerned with comparing itself to the competition. Instead, Netflix is more worried about keeping members watching instead of choosing another type of entertainment entirely — such as video games.

In its fourth-quarter earnings report on Thursday, Netflix said it accounts for roughly 10% of all television screen time, with viewers streaming 100 million hours of content per day. By the close of 2018, the company had 139 million subscribers and had raised revenue by 35%, but still fell short of their earnings expectations for the fourth quarter. And in an increasingly diverse entertainment landscape, Netflix is now facing stiff competition from the likes of "Fortnite."

"We earn consumer screen time, both mobile and television, away from a very broad set of competitors," the quarterly earnings statement read. "We compete with (and lose to) 'Fortnite' more than HBO."

Read more: Netflix falls after slight Q4 revenue miss and solid subscriber-growth numbers

"Fortnite," the world's most popular video game, has had 200 million registered players since launching in June 2017, and generated more than $2.4 billion in revenue as a free-to-play game last year. News outlets like The Wall Street Journal and Axios have noted that "Fortnite" has become akin to a social network for young gamers, with the average player spending six to 10 hours a week online.

While Netflix may not be able to match the interactive allure of video games, the company plans to continue improving the user experience so that existing members are happy to carve out more time in their day.

"Our growth is based on how good our experience is, compared to all the other screen time experiences from which consumers choose," the earnings report reads. "Our focus is not on Disney+, Amazon or others, but on how we can improve our experience for our members."

Those improvements will come at a cost though, as the company recently announced that the subscription price will be increased by up to 18%.

Netflix has made comments in the past regarding competition and its drive to capture more time from viewers. During a 2017 earnings call, CEO Reed Hastings said one of Netflix's biggest competitors is sleep.

"You know, think about it, when you watch a show from Netflix and you get addicted to it, you stay up late at night," Hastings said on the call. "We're competing with sleep, on the margin. And so, it's a very large pool of time."

With multiple digital streaming services on the horizon, Netflix will still have to compete for content, but the battle for customer attention may be just as important.

Apple CEO Tim Cook responded to a tweet from someone who said their husband's Apple Watch helped save his life.

Twitter user Elissa Lombardo tweeted at Cook on Friday, telling him that her husband's Apple Watch picked up his irregular heartbeat. He subsequently went to the ER and was discovered to have a blockage in his arteries.

According to Lombardo, he has now had two stents fitted, and thanked Cook. The CEO replied on Tuesday, saying he was glad to hear her husband was okay and that her story was an inspiration.

Apple released two updates for its watch late last year, designed to help users detect irregular heart rhythms and perform an electrocardiogram — a heart function test — from their wrist.

In 2017, health startup Cardiogram and the University of California San Francisco found that the wearable tech can detect an abnormal heart rhythm with 97% accuracy when paired with an AI-based algorithm.

In a separate study last year, Cardiogram and the University of California San Francisco revealed that the Apple Watch can also pick up hypertension, otherwise known as high blood pressure, and sleep apnea.

Lombardo's story isn't the first time an Apple Watch has taken the credit for averting a medical crisis. Last year, a 32-year-old man was alerted by his Apple Watch telling him to seek medical attention for what turned out to be a ruptured ulcer.

YouTube has updated its guidelines to explicitly ban dangerous prank and challenge videos — and it's giving users two months to clean up their act.

In an FAQ page posted on Tuesday, YouTube clarified its community guidelines on banning videos which "can cause death and/or have caused death in some instances."

It specifically cited the "Tide pod challenge," a short-lived meme from last year in which people consumed poisonous laundry detergent Tide pods.

The "Bird Box" challenge is a more recent phenomenon, in which people try to go about performing normal tasks blindfolded, as inspired by the Netflix film "Bird Box."

Although not referenced by YouTube, some users have indulged in potentially dangerous versions of the stunt, including Youtuber Jake Paul who filmed himself driving while blindfolded. YouTube subsequently removed the video. A teenager in Utah also crashed her car while doing the "Bird Box" challenge.

Read more: 17-year-old crashes car while driving with a beanie pulled over her eyes as part of viral 'Bird Box' challenge

When asked by Business Insider, YouTube said the clarification had not been prompted by any specific internet challenge and that it had been in the works for months. A spokesman said:

"YouTube has long prohibited videos which promote harmful or dangerous activities and we routinely review and update our enforcement guidelines to make sure they're consistent and appropriately address emerging trends.

"We heard feedback from creators that we could provide some clarity on certain Community Guidelines, so we published materials detailing our policies against pranks that cause others to seriously fear for their safety or that cause serious emotional distress to children and vulnerable individuals."

YouTube has been known to enforce these guidelines before, in July 2018 it banned the YouTube channel "FamilyOFive" over concerns of child endangerment.

In its FAQ post, YouTube told creators that they have a two month "grace period" in which to clean up their channels of any offending content, during which time YouTube will remove videos but not hand out strikes to channels. Strikes are warnings to users — if they get too many in a short period of time, YouTube terminates their account.

A cursory search of YouTube shows the scale of the task it faces in keeping stunt videos under control. Searching for the "Bird Box" challenge brings up countless results, while it also appearing among suggested search terms.

'Sex Education' on Netflix. The video streaming services just hiked its US prices. Netflix

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

1. Huawei's CEO and founder Ren Zhengfei broke a years-long silence to deny that his company spies for the Chinese government, and to say he misses his daughter, arrested Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, 'very much.' Ren hasn't spoken to the international press for three years.

2. Ren Zhengfei tried to dispel the narrative that Huawei is a victim of the US-China trade war, calling President Donald Trump a great president. Ren called for collaboration and 'shared success' with the US.

3. Netflix is rolling out its biggest price increase ever to US subscribers. Netflix's most popular plan will see the biggest increase, to $13 from $11.

4. Snap's stock plummeted after the company confirmed it was losing its CFO after less than a year. Snap said in an SEC filing that Tim Stone was walking away after just eight months on the job.

5. Facebook is introducing new rules for employees about discussing politics and religion on its internal Workplace app. In an internal memo to employees seen by Business Insider, Facebook chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer said on Monday that the company has developed "a set of ground-rules for open and respectful communication at work, and a central moderation model."

SPONSOR CONTENT BY WEX, INC. In-vehicle technology has changed the way we view cars. Here's how it's driving innovation in the payments and fleet management industries.

6. $2 billion takeaway startup Deliveroo has lost its CTO, chief people officer, and chief legal officer in a big reshuffle. The departures come as expectation grows for a Deliveroo float, sale, or further fundraise.

7. Facebook says it's granting $300 million to news programs, partnerships and content over the next 3 years, matching Google's commitment of $300 million towards news initiatives last year. Facebook's project is meant to support local journalists with immediate newsgathering needs while helping them build long-term sustainable business models, on and off its platform.

8. Chinese tech giant Bytedance, the most valuable startup in the world, has launched a new video messaging app to compete with Tencent's WeChat. Named "Duoshan," the app lets people send ephemeral videos and GIFs.

9. 2019 was supposed to be a blockbuster year for tech companies going public — but the volatility of the public markets is making some employees at IPO-bound tech companies nervous. Uber employees worry about the firm's valuation, while Airbnb is doubling down on safety and customer service.

10. PewDiePie's has bucked YouTube's trend of slowing subscriber growth in his campaign to stay the most popular YouTuber. The vlogger managed to boost his monthly subscribers 700% in his effort to keep Indian channel T-Series from the top spot.

Have an Amazon Alexa device? Now you can hear 10 Things in Tech each morning. Just search for "Business Insider" in your Alexa's flash briefing settings.

The hot developer-focused startup PagerDuty has confidentially filed for an IPO, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

PagerDuty was last valued at $1.3 billion in its $90 million Series D, which closed in September. It's backed by big Silicon Valley venture capital firms including Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, and Bessemer Venture Partners.

Morgan Stanley will lead the IPO, according to Bloomberg.

PagerDuty helps companies quickly respond to IT incidents and alerts the best people to respond to any given incident, giving information about what happened and providing analysis. It's a vital tool in a DevOps workflow, where incidents have to be resolved quickly so the pace can continue.

DevOps got a vital boost in 2018 after Microsoft acquired the venture-backed GitHub for $7.5 billion in June. PagerDuty CEO Jennifer Tejada leveraged investor excitement into a unicorn funding round at the end of last year, representing an impressive step up from its $650 million valuation a year earlier, in 2017.

While filing with the SEC puts PagerDuty in a good place for an early 2019 IPO, the company faces a major roadblock heading into its IPO. So long as the SEC and federal governement remain closed, IPO-ready companies aren't getting feedback on the paperwork they file, leaving most IPOs on hold.

PagerDuty did not immediately return a request for comment.

Read more: 2019 was supposed to be a banner year for IPOs, but now it's turning into a 's---show'

There are over 40 million PopSockets grips attached to phones around the world. Some of those grips belong to our very own editors, who regularly rave about the affordable phone accessory as one of the most useful things they own.

Their usefulness is clear, plus they come in hundreds of different designs (including swappable ones) to suit your personality, but... I still don't love them.

The accessory I prefer over PopSockets grips is Speck's GrabTab ($9.95).

Amazon

Read more:20 innovative and cool accessories for the new iPhone you got for the holidays

The GrabTab also sticks to the back of your phone and works as a grip and a stand. Instead of a button that pops out, it's a sliding loop that can be adjusted to your finger size or locked tightly in place.

Ever since I started using the GrabTab a few months ago, I can't imagine holding my phone without it. Because the loop is attached to the card-sized, 3 mm-thick backing, there's no way my phone will fall from my hands, unless my finger comes out of the loop. With PopSockets grips, I sometimes felt like I could drop my phone because there's nothing to catch the fall if my finger slips. With GrabTab grips, whether the train jolts unexpectedly or I fall asleep with my phone in hand, my phone is safe since I'm almost "wearing" it.

The sliding design is also conducive to a range of finger sizes and holding positions. You can loop any of your fingers through, or loop more than one finger as well. Personally, I've found the most comfortable position (shown in the top image) is putting my middle finger through the loop while my other fingers rest lightly on the back and my phone sits in my palm.

Connie Chen/Business Insider

Read more: I used to think PopSockets Grips were unnecessary — now they're my favorite iPhone accessory under $10

Despite the fluid flexibility of the grip "mode," the GrabTab is sturdy and secure as a stand. When you slide the loop all the way to the end, it clicks into place and lets you prop up your phone. I've never realized how convenient a stand is when watching videos, but I've discovered (likely light years behind the general populace) just how nice it is to keep my hands free as I follow along cooking and workout videos or watch a TV show while eating lunch.

The GrabTab's slim construction is supposed to allow for wireless charging, but according to other reviewers, this capability can unfortunately be hit or miss. If you're looking for a wireless charging-compatible accessory, the GrabTab may not be reliable. However, as a general grip and stand, I've found it to be very reliable. It sticks firmly to my phone case and stays there, no matter how hard I try to pry it off, and always feels comfortable and secure in my hand.

The one area I will say that PopSockets is miles ahead in is the range of color and design options. Though there are a handful of solid colored, striped, and patterned GrabTab styles, they can't compare to the full rainbow of PopSockets available.

With these flaws in mind, the GrabTab still prevails for me and is where I would spend my $10.

Shop the GrabTab for $9.95 at Amazon here

Shop the GrabTab for $9.99 at Best Buy here

Microsoft President Brad Smith discussed the topic with Axios' Kim Hart at an editors' gathering in Redmond, Washington.

"I think we should all care about high quality journalism. ... I keep hoping that we're gonna see the journalism profession come out the other end. Remember, a decade ago, people were saying, 'Gee, there's no future in high quality audio visual entertainment.' It [was] being decimated by cable and then a new business model emerged."

Driving the news: Facebook says it's granting $300 million to news programs, partnerships and content over the next 3 years, matching Google's commitment of $300 million towards news initiatives last year and following Craig Newmark's $20 million donation to the CUNY Journalism School.

"Tech leaders recognize the promises of technology better than anyone. They are increasingly aware also of the challenges — from misinformation to declining trust in media — that while not new, are being propagated at record speeds due to the pace and growth of the changes in our media ecosystem."

— Jennifer Preston, VP for journalism, Knight Foundation

"There's a lot of critics out there in the local media space and there are a lot of bad feelings about algorithm changes Facebook made made last year. But local media still recognizes the need work with platforms and be more collaborative."

— Nancy Cawley Lane, president, Local Media Association

The bottom line: These efforts are often opportunistic investments, just as much as they are philanthropic efforts.

The robot takeover in financial services is not imminent.

That's the perspective of one big-bank executive, who says some customers might be willing to trade in the efficiency of using a financial tool backed by artificial intelligence for the comfort of dealing with a real person.

Colleen Briggs, the head of community innovation at JPMorgan Chase, told Business Insider in an interview that low-income households aren't as willing to use tools for managing money that are completely devoid of human interaction.

Briggs oversees the Financial Solutions Lab, which is run by the Center for Financial Services Innovation and JPMorgan and focuses on partnering with fintechs that are aimed at improving the financial health of consumers living paycheck to paycheck. On Tuesday, CFSI and JPMorgan announced the five companies it selected to join the lab.

In addition to being able to work with executives from CFSI and JPMorgan, the five startups will also receive $125,000 in capital. Since launching four years ago, the Financial Solutions Lab has worked with over 30 fintechs from a pool of over 1,600 applicants and raised over $500 million in funding.

Of the more than 300 firms that applied in 2018 to join the lab, Briggs said there was a noticeable trend of companies using a hybrid approach that included AI techniques and humans working hand in hand.

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"A digital-only solution might not be the right mix for somebody who is really financially stressed," Briggs said. "I think the really thoughtful solutions are coming with some interesting models to think about — 'all right, let's drive digital solutions through AI and machine learning when we can, but then also know when is the moment when I need to refer someone to a human touch or a human element to actually help them with a really particular pain point that they are facing.'"

Managing one's money is emotional, Briggs said, and some fintechs are recognizing customers' hesitancy to deal solely with computers. Cash-strapped consumers often feel that decisions about managing their money might require a conversation with an actual human.

Briggs said that while some are willing to adopt digital-only solutions for a majority of their financial needs, when it comes to specific, significant choices about their financial future, many customers feel more comfortable dealing with a real person.

Even younger generations, which are often lauded as early and welcome adopters of new technology, have shown an interest in more hybrid approaches.

"We see this even with millennials, who everyone says want to go purely digital," Briggs said. "When it comes to really tough decisions, they often want a person. I think it is, again, that emotional connection to money."

Here are the five fintechs that will be joining the Financial Solutions Lab:

Elon Musk's $30 billion rocket company, SpaceX, plans to lay off about 10% of its employees. A government document lists a majority of the positions being terminated.

SpaceX announced the layoffs to employees on Friday, and the Los Angeles Times reported the cuts shortly thereafter. The workforce reduction will terminate hundreds of employees at SpaceX facilities across at least seven states by March 12.

"This action is taken only due to the extraordinarily difficult challenges ahead and would not otherwise be necessary," a SpaceX spokesperson said in a statement sent to Business Insider (the full statement is below).

The company declined to provide a total number of people who will lose their jobs, though it said more than 6,000 employees will remain after the layoffs. That suggests about 700 positions were eliminated, given the company's last-reported size. (A rocket engineer and entrepreneur unaffiliated with SpaceX suggested on Twitter that as many as 850 people were let go.)

However, details about most of the layoffs can be found in a legally mandated document that the company sent to California's Employment Development Department. Business Insider obtained a copy of the document from the department; it states that SpaceX plans to terminate 577 people at its headquarters in Hawthorne (a city in the Los Angeles area), and it lists their job titles.

The chart below summarizes the main types of jobs SpaceX plans to eliminate at its headquarters, and what percentage of the 577 people laid off that each job represents.

A breakdown of 577 positions that SpaceX said it is eliminating at the company's headquarters in Hawthorne, California. Samantha Lee/Business Insider

Technicians — a critical role at any rocket company — make up the lion's share of laid-off employees, with 174 positions eliminated (30.2% of all layoffs in Hawthorne). Engineers come next with 97 jobs let go, or nearly 17% of the locally terminated workforce.

Managers and supervisors together make up about 7% of the layoffs in Hawthorne. Positions listed under "Other" include baristas, dishwashers, drivers, recruiters, writers, and an investigator.

Descriptive words used in the titles of the laid-off positions are summarized below.

The most frequently used descriptors attached to positions that SpaceX said it is eliminating at the company's headquarters in Hawthorne, California. Samantha Lee/Business Insider

The word "Sr." (senior) was attached to nearly 6% of the eliminated positions. "Structures" and "propulsion" — two key areas in the development of rocket bodies and engines — were associated with nearly 17% of all the jobs cut in Hawthorne.

The document that lists these job titles is a notice required by California's Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, also known as the WARN Act. The law says companies must tell workers and the state about layoffs at least 60 days in advance if more than 50 people are let go within a 30-day period.

This major reduction in workforce is not SpaceX's first round of cuts.

In fact, after the company terminated hundreds of workers in July 2014, some former employees sued the company based on what they saw as a lack of compliance with language in the WARN Act. SpaceX fought the class-action lawsuit but ultimately lost, according to Los Angeles County court documents.

SpaceX may have adjusted its layoff strategy this time after weathering that litigation — according to the LA Times, the company is now offering affected employees about eight weeks' severance pay and access to career resources.

An illustration of SpaceX's constellation of thousands of Starlink satellites to provide global high-speed, low-latency internet.Mark Handley/UCL; YouTube

Because SpaceX facilities outside of California are not subject to the state's WARN Act, it's not yet clear whether other locations saw job losses similar to those at the Hawthorne headquarters.

However, Musk said in 2018 that work on developing SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket— a workhorse launch system for the company — was ending. That's because the latest version of the rocket has a booster that Musk says can be reused 10 to 100 times. The company launched 21 of the rockets last year, breaking its own record.

Read more: An extraordinary year of rocket launches, meteor showers, and space exploration is here. This is a 2019 calendar of space events you can't miss.

Musk has also hinted that SpaceX is refocusing its resources on two keystone projects: a launch system for reaching Mars known as Big Falcon Rocket (or BFR or Starship/Super Heavy), and Starlink, a global satellite internet project.

SpaceX's "test hopper," an experimental stainless-steel ship, after it was built in Texas. A person is shown at the bottom to provide a sense of scale.Elon Musk/SpaceX via TwitteThe statement provided to Business Insider from a SpaceX spokesperson also attributed the cuts to this shift:

"To continue delivering for our customers and to succeed in developing interplanetary spacecraft and a global space-based Internet, SpaceX must become a leaner company. Either of these developments, even when attempted separately, have bankrupted other organizations. This means we must part ways with some talented and hardworking members of our team. We are grateful for everything they have accomplished and their commitment to SpaceX's mission. This action is taken only due to the extraordinarily difficult challenges ahead and would not otherwise be necessary."

SpaceX has been working relentlessly in recent weeks to build and start launching a "test hopper" prototype of the interplanetary rocket system in question.

Musk hopes to use that system to send a Japanese billionaire and a crew of artists around the moon and create the world's fastest transportation system. But the ultimate goal is to launch crewed missions to Mars, perhaps as soon as 2024. Each flight may be capable of ferrying up to 100 people and 150 tons of cargo, according to Musk and his top engineers.

Read more: Elon Musk says SpaceX is on track to launch people to Mars within 6 years — here's the full timeline of his plans to colonize the red planet

Plans for SpaceX's global space-based internet project, Starlink, call for launching 11,943 satellites into low-Earth orbit — many times more spacecraft than humanity has launched throughout history. The FCC approved the scheme on the condition that SpaceX complete its launches by December 2027. So far, the company has launched two prototypes into space.

The layoffs — which might save SpaceX up to $100 million per year, based on some back-of-the-envelope calculations— come less than a month after SpaceX announced plans to raise another $500 million in investment funding. The company had previously raised $507 million in April 2018.

Walt Hickey contributed to this story.

Tim Stone, the CFO of Snapchat parent company Snap, is quitting.

On Tuesday, the exec notified the beleaguered messaging app company of his intention to quit "to pursue other opportunities," Snap said in a SEC filing, becoming the latest in a growing line of Snap execs to part ways with the company. Snap's stock price is down around 8.5% in after-hours trading following the news.

Snapchat has struggled in recent years as Facebook-owned Instagram has aggressively cloned its features, siphoning off users and stifling the app's growth.

Stone, a former Amazon executive, had joined Snap less than a year ago, in May 2018, following a disastrous quarter for the company He replaced the company's first CFO, Andrew Vollero. It's not clear exactly why Stone is leaving now, though Snap says it is "not related to any disagreement with us on any matter relating to our accounting, strategy, management, operations, policies, regulatory matters, or practices."

Stone was brought on with a $20 million pay package, scheduled to vest over four years — most of which he's now forfeiting. $1 million in "sign-on" grants vested six months after he came on board, meaning the money is his, but he's leaving well before the rest of the $19 million vested.

His exit is the latest of a growing line of Snap execs to jump ship from the company in recent months.

On Monday, Business Insider reported that the company's HR head Jason Halbert was leaving. Head of global strategic partnerships Elizabeth Herbst-Brady left earlier in January. Chief Strategy Ifficer Imran Khan bailed in September 2018. Other high-profile departures include communications VP Mary Ritti, product head Tom Conrad, and sales head Jeff Lucas.

Later on Tuesday, Cheddar's Alex Heath reported that Kristin Southey, the company's VP of investor relations, also quietly left in November 2018.

Here's what Snap said in its SEC filing:

"On January 15, 2019, Tim Stone, our Chief Financial Officer and principal financial officer, notified us of his intention to resign to pursue other opportunities. Mr. Stone has confirmed that this transition is not related to any disagreement with us on any matter relating to our accounting, strategy, management, operations, policies, regulatory matters, or practices (financial or otherwise). Mr. Stone's last day has not been determined. Mr. Stone will continue to serve as Chief Financial Officer to assist in the search for a replacement and an effective transition of his duties, including through our scheduled full year 2018 financial results announcement."

Reached for comment, Snap spokesperson Russ Caditz-Peck sent Business Insider the following statement, which was sent from CEO Evan Spiegel to the whole company:

This story is developing...

Apple released new battery cases for recent iPhone models on Tuesday.

The cases come in black and white and cost $129. There are compatible models available for the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR.

According to Apple, the Smart Battery cases are compatible with wireless charging pads, and can power an iPhone for up to 21 hours of internet use, increasing the battery life an iPhone can get on a single charge.

Apple

Apple introduced its battery cases along with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 7, but until Tuesday had declined to release new battery cases for the iPhone 8, iPhone X, and newer phones.

Unfortunately, it looks like iPhone X owners are out of luck. Apple did not release an iPhone X battery case. Some cases are compatible with both the iPhone X and iPhone XS, but none of the cases released on Tuesday list the iPhone X as a compatible device.

"The Smart Battery Case isn't compatible with iPhone 8 or iPhone X," according to a support page posted on Tuesday.

From the product listing:

"Engineered for iPhone XS Max, the Smart Battery Case gives you even longer battery life while offering great protection. Inside, a soft microfiber lining helps protect your iPhone. And on the outside, the silky, soft-touch finish of the silicone exterior feels great in your hand. A soft elastomer hinge design makes it easy to put the case on and take it off."

"The Smart Battery Case is compatible with Qi-certified chargers. You can charge your iPhone and battery case simultaneously for increased talk time up to 37 hours, Internet use up to 20 hours, and even longer audio and video playback.* With the Smart Battery Case on, the intelligent battery status is displayed on the iPhone Lock screen and in Notification Center, so you know exactly how much charge you have left."

You can get yours from Apple here.