Techmeme
March 20, 2020, 1:05 PM

Top News

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
Netflix, YouTube, and Amazon Prime Video say they will reduce their streaming quality in EU to reduce traffic on the network, as millions are confined at home  —  BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) YouTube said on Friday it will reduce its streaming quality in the European Union …
Financial Times:
Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple's supply chain still disrupted by COVID-19-related shutdowns in countries like Malaysia; 5G iPhones still expected to launch by fall  —  - Virus responses in Malaysia, U.S., Europe disrupt suppliers  — 5G iPhone currently still on schedule, but timeline could slip
Alex Hern / The Guardian:
Twitter broadens its definition of harm to address content with deceptive language around COVID-19, including “denial of established scientific facts”  —  Site changes rules to ban content aimed at making people act against official advice  —  Twitter will remove tweets that run …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Instagram says it is internally testing a Snapchat-like ephemeral feature that clears chat messages after all members have viewed the thread and closed it  —  Instagram is finally preparing to copy Snapchat's most popular feature, and one of the few it hasn't already cloned.
CNBC:
AWS commits $20M and launches a diagnostics development unit, with 35 partner orgs, to accelerate research to find a faster, more affordable test for COVID-19  —  - Amazon is launching a diagnostics development unit through its cloud unit, AWS.  — The idea is to back researchers with funds …
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Microsoft unveils DirectX 12 Ultimate, which promises to better unify the features and capabilities of PC gaming and the Xbox platform, coming later this year  —  Bringing a suite of software advancements in gaming graphics onto a single platform  —  Microsoft has a new version …
Julia Alexander / The Verge:
YouTube unveils a COVID-19 “news shelf” on its homepage in 16 countries with verified content from authoritative news sources and health officials  —  Pulling from authoritative sources  —  YouTube will introduce a new row of verified videos to its homepage for anyone trying …
NBC News:
Subreddit /r/coronavirus has become one of the most authoritative and up-to-date sites on COVID-19, with 1.2M+ members, 1M+ of which signed up in past two weeks  —  The Reddit message board /r/coronavirus has grown to more than 1.2 million members — almost a million of whom signed up in the last two weeks.
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Ola suspends Ola Share, its pool rides option, in India  —  Ride-hailing giant Ola said on Friday evening that it is temporarily suspending pool rides on its platform, called Ola Share, in India in a bid to slow the coronavirus pandemic by encouraging social distancing.
More: India TV
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Reed Albergotti / Washington Post:
Court filing: Anthony Levandowski, ex-Uber self-driving head, pleads guilty to trade secrets theft from Google in exchange for 32 other charges being dropped  —  The guilty plea, which could lead to a prison sentence, is the latest twist in a years-long saga of conflict and courtroom drama
Patrick Shanley / Hollywood Reporter:
GDC announces a new San Francisco event, GDC Summer, from August 4-6 after initially postponing the March event  —  The three-day event will be held at San Francisco's Moscone Center from August 4-6.  —  Informa Tech, the organizer of the annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco …
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Microsoft says Teams passed 44M DAUs, up from 32M earlier this month, unveils new features like real-time noise suppression that are coming later this year  —  Microsoft Teams, which launched worldwide in March 2017, passed 32 million daily active users (DAUs) this month.

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More News

Ryan Gallagher / Bloomberg:
Donald G. McNeil Jr / New York Times:
Stefan Seltz-Axmacher / Starsky Robotics 10–4 Labs:
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Earlier Picks

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