Techmeme
March 20, 2020, 8:40 AM

Top News

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
Netflix and YouTube say they will reduce their streaming quality in Europe to reduce traffic on the network and avoid straining the internet  —  BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) YouTube said on Friday it will reduce its streaming quality in the European Union to avoid straining …
Financial Times:
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 …
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 …
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
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.
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 …
Phillip Prado / Android Authority:
Google says Android Go, its OS aimed at low-end devices, now has more than 100M users and announces a new Camera Go app optimized for devices with 1GB of RAM  —  Today, Google made two exciting announcements.  Android Go now officially has more than 100 million users, and the company will soon release a new Camera Go app.
Stefan Seltz-Axmacher / Starsky Robotics 10–4 Labs:
Self-driving truck startup Starsky Robotics is shutting down; CEO cites “unmet promise of AI” and says investors rejected the operator business model  —  In 2015, I got obsessed with the idea of driverless trucks and started Starsky Robotics.  In 2016, we became …
Donald G. McNeil Jr / New York Times:
Kinsa Health's smart thermometers, which have been successful in predicting the spread of flu in previous years, could be used to track the spread of COVID-19  —  A company that makes internet-connected thermometers has followed the flu more closely than the C.D.C. can.
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook starts rolling out its sweeping desktop redesign, which offers dark mode, tabbed home screen, larger fonts, and a cleaner profile, to all users  —  Facebook today officially rolled out its sweeping desktop redesign that offers dark mode, tabbed homescreen, and a cleaner profile.
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.
Ryan Gallagher / Bloomberg:
Sources: Google agrees to a worker council in Europe that could have more power to challenge company decisions after a request from 153 employees in 11 offices  —  - Council intended to give employees a platform to air concerns  — Action comes after years of internal turmoil at search giant
Torsten Ingvaldsen / HYPEBEAST:
Report: total streams for Spotify's top 200 most-streamed songs fell 23% in Italy from March 3 to March 17; US, UK, France, Spain markets have also decreased  —  Data from Spotify may suggest that widespread self-isolation is to blame.  —  Olly Curtis/Getty Images
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Uber says ride volume is down by ~70% in cities like Seattle, it has “ample liquidity” with $10B in cash, and is considering delivering medicine; stock up 35%+  —  Uber — the on-demand transportation and food delivery behemoth — has been hit hard by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

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