Tech News Today 1676

As the Republican-led Congress begins a new session this week, Politico reports that the GOP has adopted new rules banning and imposing hefty fines for livestreaming or otherwise broadcasting protests on the House floor.

Apple removed the New York Times app from its app store late last month at the request of the Chinese government, which cited that the chinese and english language versions of the app violated local regulations. Those regulations were not explicitly defined in the request.

The Wall Street Journal says consumers spent $967.6 million in mobile games for iOS and Android over the holidays. This figure is up more than 50 percent since last year. Nearly 90% of all gross app revenue came from games.

Tesla announced that it missed its target for 2016 vehicle deliveries by about 4,000 vehicles, seeing a slowdown in production during the last quarter thanks to changes to the Autopilot software. But today, Tesla also started producing batteries at its Gigafactory in Nevada, which is under construction and currently only around 30 percent complete.

Medium, The publishing platform started by the founder of Twitter and Blogger, announced layoffs today. In a post on his struggling platform, Ev Williams said they will let go a third of their employees, close their offices in New York and DC, part ways with transitional executives, and refocus on a "less proven" way to pay writers.

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Links

• GOP approves new fines for livestreaming protests on House floor
• H. RES. 5
• Apple Removes New York Times Apps From Its Store in China
• Holiday Spending on Mobile Games Nears $1 Billion
• Ignore Tesla’s Latest Slip at Your Peril
• Renewing Medium’s focus
• LG unveils Hub Robot to compete with Amazon Echo and Google Home
• LG put webOS and Amazon Alexa on a fridge
• Here is Faraday Future’s first production car, the FF 91
• Lego Boost teaches kids how to bring blocks to life with code
• Fitbit now works with Habit food plans, Peloton indoor bikes and VirZoom VR
• Samsung and Google built their ideal Chromebook
• L'Oreal Launches Smart Hairbrush at CES: A Bargain at $189?