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Tech News Today for July 3, 2017

Tech News for Monday July 3, 2017

The upcoming and as yet unannounced anniversary edition of the iPhone is expected to shift gears in a number of ways. One of those has been a move toward a bezel-less front screen, which has led people to wonder where the touch-ID fingerprint scanner would go. Would it be moved under the glass, or maybe behind the device? Mark Gurman at Bloomberg has sources who say that Touch ID might be going away altogether. In its place: a front facing 3-D sensor for advanced facial recognition that is less likely to be tricked as similar 2-D offerings by other manufacturers. Read more at bloomberg.com.

Sources at TechCrunch say Microsoft is laying off ‘thousands’ in a global sales and marketing reorganization as the company downsizes its boxed software program. Several execs sent memos to staff today that mentioned the reorg, but not the layoffs. The downsizing will likely happen in the coming weeks as Microsoft's fiscal year ends in July. Read more at techcrunch.com.

Windows 10 users are looking forward to one of Microsoft’s announced key features called Timeline, which lets users pick up where they left off when they switch from using an app on one device to using that app on another device, similar to Apple’s Continuity feature. It sounds like they’ll have to continue to wait, as Microsoft executive Joe Belfiore confirmed that Timeline won’t be making it to the Fall Creators Update as expected. Read more at theverge.com.

The New Tesla Model 3 arrives this week, according to a tweet from Elon Musk. The 35 thousand dollar electric car has passed all regulatory requirements for production two weeks ahead of schedule and the first one will see the light of day this Friday. If you're one of the first 30 on the the list of people who paid their deposit a few years ago, you could get yours as early as the end of this month. Tesla also reports that sales rose 53% and they delivered 22,000 vehicles in the second quarter. Read more on Elon Musk's Twitter account.

Last year we spent a few episodes talking about the Transit Elevated Bus, or TEB. That’s the massive 300 person electric train being developed in China that passed over the tops of cars driving on the road between its tracks below it. On June 21, the TEB was relocated to a parking garage and over the weekend, Beijing announced that those creating the TEB are being investigated for potentially illegal fundraising practices. 72 individual investors have filed lawsuits for private lending disputes that has resulted in more than 30 people who handled the financing platform being held by Beijing authorities. Read more at qz.com.

Megan Morrone and Jason Howell are joined today by Kate Wagner, author of the McMansion Hell blog, which was threated with a Cease and Desist letter from the Zillow Group. Tech News Today streams live weekdays at 4PM Pacific, 7PM Eastern at twit.tv/live. Subscribe to the show and get it on-demand at twit.tv/tnt.

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