WSJ Tech News Briefing The Wall Street Journal

Tech workers have been leaving the San Francisco Bay Area in droves, setting up camp in lower-cost locales to wait out the pandemic. Now some workers are also changing jobs, and taking a chance on opportunities outside of Silicon Valley. Reporter Katherine Bindley joins host Amanda Lewellyn to discuss.
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Connected cars are on the rise, and automakers are looking for ways to use the data they collect on how you use the vehicles. Now General Motors says it will offer car insurance that will determine customers' rates using data from its OnStar connected-car service. Reporter Mike Colias joins host Amanda Lewellyn to discuss.
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As coronavirus case counts continue to surge in the U.S., all eyes are on two promising vaccine candidates from drug companies Pfizer and Moderna. Both use a promising new gene-based technology called messenger RNA. Reporter Peter Loftus joins host Amanda Lewellyn for a look at how it works. Christopher Zinsli is our supervising producer. Kateri Jochum is the executive producer of WSJ Podcasts.
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One of the biggest tech battles this year has been the fight over developer fees, the 30% cuts that Apple and Google take from transactions in their App Store. In the latest development, Apple says it will cut that fee in half for smaller developers. Reporter Tim Higgins explains how the action fits into the larger battle. Amanda Lewellyn hosts.
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Contact-tracing could help slow the spread of the coronavirus. Tech companies have been working to automate parts of the contact tracing process, but the technology is only helpful if people actually use it. As it turns out, not many people are. Reporter Rolfe Winkler joins host Amanda Lewellyn to explain why that is.
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As mainstream social-media companies ramp up restrictions on hate speech and misinformation on their platforms, some complain that the measures unfairly restrict conservatives. Reporter Jeff Horwitz explains how the libertarian social-media app Parler is rising as an alternative. Amanda Lewellyn hosts.
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