Techmeme
March 6, 2020, 7:45 PM

Top News

Ina Fried / Axios:
Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Twitter plan to pay their hourly workers regular wages as they ask their staff to work from home  —  Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Twitter all told Axios on Thursday night that they plan to pay their hourly workers regular wages even as they encourage …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Apple is encouraging employees in Silicon Valley and Seattle to work from home as an “additional precaution” against the outbreak of coronavirus  —  Apple Inc. is encouraging employees in Silicon Valley to work from home as an “additional precaution” against the outbreak of coronavirus …
Megan Graham / CNBC:
SXSW, which was scheduled for March 13-22, has been canceled due to concerns over the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak  —  - SXSW was canceled after a string of high-profile cancellations including Twitter, Facebook and TikTok.  — The conference had been scheduled to take place between March 13 and 22.
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Oppo unveils Oppo Watch, its first smartwatch, with 1.91-inch OLED screen, fitness tracking, music playback, available on March 24 in China for ~$215  —  Out in China this month for $215  —  As repeatedly teased by Oppo itself, Oppo is making a watch called the Oppo Watch, and today it got revealed in full.
Richard Lai / Engadget:
Oppo unveils €1,199 Find X2 Pro with 5G, Snapdragon 865, 6.7-inch Quad HD+ 120Hz display, a 10x hybrid zoom camera, and 4,260mAh battery with 65W charging  —  Even though Oppo isn't as well-known in the US, chances are you might have come across one of its recent tech demos.
Julia Alexander / The Verge:
Quibi will offer a free 90-day trial for users who sign up before it launches on April 6 with 50 shows and movies; Quibi will cost $4.99 with ads, $7.99 without  —  Longer than what Disney Plus current offers  —  Quibi is finally almost here, and in an effort to entice people …
Nic Fildes / Financial Times:
Researchers: Virgin Media's exposed marketing database included 1,100+ records of customer requests to block or unblock websites with porn and extreme “gore”  —  Records linking accounts to gambling and pornography sites may have been accessed  —  More than 1,000 records linking …
Alex Hern / The Guardian:
Steven Levy / OneZero :
Profile of Whitfield Diffie, one of the pioneers of public-key cryptography, which ushered in digital signatures and now underlies the security of ecommerce  —  Longtime tech journalist Steven Levy's new book, Facebook: The Inside Story, details how Mark Zuckerberg transformed …
Ross Rubin / ZDNet:
Qualcomm licenses tech from BASF which relies not only on the shapes of faces but on the detection of live skin itself and may be competitive with Face ID  —  Qualcomm is betting on a German technology company that analyzes backscatter reflections to defeat face detection spoofs.
Reuters:
Italian antitrust authority fines Telecom Italia €116M for abusing a dominant position in the broadband market in an attempt to obstruct rivals  —  MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's competition watchdog said on Friday it had fined former phone monopoly Telecom Italia (TIM) 116 million euros …

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Gemini 2.5 Pro: Our most intelligent AI model  —  Gemini 2.5 Pro is now available, with thinking capabilities, enhanced performance, and improved accuracy.  Try it at no cost in the Gemini app.
UiPath:
UiPath Unveils 10 Innovations that Will Shape the Agentic Future  —  Orchestration engine, API workflows and agentic testing among key features of new UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation, launched at UiPath DevCon 2025
Zoho:
Zoho Books now enables direct VAT filing with EmaraTax  —  We're excited to announce that Zoho Books is now recognised as a Digital Tax Integrator by the Federal Tax Authority, enabling direct VAT return filing from within your favorite accounting software.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Techmeme Ride Home:
Tim Apple's Very Bad Week
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
The Logan Bartlett Show:
Jeffrey Katzenberg & Sujay Jaswa (WndrCo) on What Startup Founders Can Steal From Hollywood
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
Hard Fork:
Google DeepMind C.E.O. Demis Hassabis on Living in an A.I. Future
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
BG2 Pod:
AI, Middle East, China, Tariffs, Recon Bill, Invest America
Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley.
Subscribe to BG2 Pod.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is okay with reinventing the bus
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Lenny's Podcast:
Unconventional product lessons from Binance, N26, Google, more | Mayur Kamat (CPO at N26, ex-Binance Head of Product)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:45 PM ET, March 6, 2020.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Washington Post:
Wayne Ma / The Information:

Earlier Picks

Kashmir Hill / New York Times:
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Judd Legum / Popular Information:
Michael H. Keller / New York Times: