Here are 10 tech news that I found interesting.

Apple’s iMac Pro is a love letter to developers – The iMac Pro exists because it turns out that there is a lot of air underneath the aging Mac Pro and above the incredibly popular MacBook Pro. A single-digit percentage of Mac customers buy the Mac Pro and, in recent years, Apple had been seeing a major rise in “pro” customers of all shades purchasing iMacs because of their incredible screens, all-in-one form factor and overall ease of deployment. Techcrunch

Knightscope security robot gets fired from its San Francisco job – A five-foot tall, 400-pound robot with four surveillance cameras just got fired from its security job. Right before Christmas. Mashable

Edge Mobile Payments buys what’s left of Plastc in hopes that there’s still life left in smart cards – The death of Plastc back in April looked to many like the final nail in the smart card coffin. After all, the news came only a few months after the space’s other big player, Coin, called it quits. Of course, the loss of Coin wasn’t totally in vain — the company was ultimately purchased by Fitbit, which ultimately incorporated its mobile payment tech into the Ionic smartwatch. Techcrunch

Xage emerges from stealth with a blockchain-based IoT security solution – Getting the myriad of devices involved in the industrial internet of things provisioned and communicating with one another in a secure way will be one of the great technological challenges facing companies in the coming years. Xage (prounounced Zage) emerged from stealth today with a blockchain-based security solution that could help simplify this. Techcrunch

Whoops, iTunes won’t be available in the Microsoft Store this year, after all – Earlier this year at Microsoft’s Build conference, the company revealed it was working with Apple to get iTunes included in the Windows Store. The promise was that it would be available by the end of 2017, but now it looks like that won’t be happening. The Verge

That revamped Mac Pro is still in the works, Apple reminds us – In the very same breath as its iMac Pro availability press release was uttered, Apple slipped in a reminder to the world that an overhaul to its Mac Pro desktop is still in development. Oh, and that homemade professional display is in the works, too. Techradar

Apple patent filing reveals potential whispering Siri functionality – Ever wanted to use Siri in a crowded place — such as a subway, bus or supermarket — without the assistant blaring her response to everyone in the vicinity? If so, you might be in luck if a patent filed by Apple back in 2016 ever becomes a reality. Techspot

Intel tips off potential 960 GB and 1.5 TB Optane SSD 900Ps – I was pretty impressed with the performance of Intel’s Optane caching solution when I messed around with MSI’s Aegis 3 gaming desktop. Still, some folks aren’t going to be satisfied with a simple Optane accelerator. If you’re in that category, the Optane SSD 900P is your jam, and you have a choice between 280 GB or 480 GB models. What, that’s not enough storage? Hang on a bit, then, because an Intel document suggests that 960 GB and 1.5 TB models of the 3D Xpoint-equipped SSD could be on their way. Techreport

US regulators ‘broke the internet as we know it’, VPN providers say – The US FCC’s (Federal Communications Commission) decision on Thursday to repeal net neutrality rules has provoked an outcry among startups and NGOs, and also the wider public, both in the US and abroad. Techradar

A bombshell letter charges that Uber hacked into competitors’ networks and wiretapped people at a hotel – A security group within Uber hacked into competitors’ computer systems, stole data from rivals, and recorded the private conversations of competitors at a hotel, according to a letter made public Friday by the judge overseeing the company’s lawsuit with Google-spinoff company Waymo. Business Insider