Techmeme
April 23, 2020, 1:40 AM

Top News

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / VICE:
Researchers say they found two actively exploited iOS 0-days, present since at least iOS 6, including a remote zero-click flaw in Mail; Apple says patch coming  —  In the summer of 2016, researchers at a digital rights organization and a cybersecurity firm announced they had caught …
Ed Hammond / Bloomberg:
Sources: Magic Leap is laying off about half its employees, or around 1,000 people, as it winds down its consumer business; Magic Leap has raised over $2B  —  - About 1,000 employees are said to be affected by cuts  — Magic Leap to wind down consumer business in retreat
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
iPhone SE 2020 review: good battery life but has a tired design and while the camera is good in bright light and great at video, it is noisy in low light  —  A strong case against $1,000 phones  —  What do you look for in a new iPhone?  The top of the list likely includes battery life and camera quality.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Zoom rolls out its 5.0 update, focused exclusively on security and privacy features, including easier call management and upgrading encryption  —  Zoom is moving quickly to address complaints  —  Zoom promised a 90-day feature freeze to fix privacy and security issues, and the company is delivering on some of those promises.
Patrick Shanley / Hollywood Reporter:
SuperData: worldwide digital video game spending reached a record $10B total in March, up 11% YoY, with $5.7B for mobile games, up 15% YoY  —  Console, PC and mobile games also saw significant revenue bumps amid the coronavirus lockdown.  —  Digital video game spending hit a record high …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Bill Gurley will not be a partner in Benchmark's 10th venture fund but will continue to work with companies he led earlier investments in  —  Lead investor won't be involved in new fund for first time since he joined firm in 1999  —  Bill Gurley—one of the most prominent …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Facebook says it will now show the location of large Facebook and Instagram accounts alongside posts, to help users assess their authenticity, rolling out in US  —  Facebook today is introducing another feature aimed at making it easier to see who's behind the posts published across Facebook and Instagram.
Brian Heater / TechCrunch:
Twitter says it now prioritizes the removal of COVID-19 tweets that incite “harmful activity” or could lead to the destruction of 5G infrastructure  —  Ever since it first started rolling out, 5G skeptics have attempted to link the next-gen cellular technology to all manner of health issues.
Scott Rosenberg / Axios:
Zoom fatigue is now setting in, as it moves from being a social lifeline to a chore, used for all interactions while aggravating anxieties in an exhausting time  —  The rapid trajectory of videoconferencing service Zoom has entered a new phase: What started as a social lifeline during the pandemic …
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
Google's Threat Analysis Group shares a report outlining efforts by over 12 state-sponsored hackers using COVID-19 as cover for espionage  —  More than 12 government-backed groups are using the pandemic as cover for digital reconnaissance and espionage, according to a new report.
Katie Notopoulos / BuzzFeed News:
Instagram confirms it will add a “Remembering” banner under the usernames of people who have died, and has accelerated the process due to the pandemic  —  Instagram is speeding up plans for a new account memorialization feature, adding a “Remembering” banner under a username to signal that a person has died.
New York Times:
US intelligence officials say Chinese operatives are amplifying COVID-19 disinformation in America using text messages and social media posts  —  American officials were alarmed by fake text messages and social media posts that said President Trump was locking down the country.
Kaitlyn Tiffany / The Atlantic:
American teens, stuck at home during the pandemic, are looking to recreate the fun of prom online, with many turning to TikTok  —  “I'm sitting here, crying in my prom dress,” is the chorus of a low-fi, hand-clappy track by the singer mxmtoon—and now a hyper-literal anthem for American teenagers.
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
France is hypocritical to ask Google and Apple to ease their privacy protections for a French contact-tracing app, while being such a vocal critic of big tech  —  We keep trying to explain to people that privacy is always about trade-offs, and arguing for privacy laws that protect “privacy” …
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Hands-on with Motorola's new $999 Edge Plus, which has a 6.7-inch display, Snapdragon 865, 5G, 12GB of RAM, 3.5mm jack, and arrives on May 14 on Verizon  —  Hands-on with Motorola's most powerful phone in years  —  Motorola is making flagship phones again.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Granulate, which is developing a service that optimizes computing infrastructure in real time, raises $12M Series A led by Insight Partners  —  Granulate, a startup developing a platform that optimizes computing infrastructure in real time, today announced that it raised $12 million, bringing its total raised to date to $15.6 million.
More: TechCrunch, FinSMEs, and ZDNet

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