Techmeme
April 1, 2020, 11:15 PM

Top News

The Information:
Sources: YouTube is planning to release Shorts, a rival to TikTok inside YouTube's main app, by the end of the year  —  YouTube is planning to release a rival to TikTok, the hugely popular video-sharing app, by the end of the year, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Apple now lets some video streaming apps, like Amazon Prime Video, use their own payment methods for in-app purchases on Apple devices, avoiding Apple's 30% cut  —  Apple Inc. has relaxed a controversial policy that took a 30% cut of payments when video apps on its platform sold TV shows and movies.
Erin Griffith / New York Times:
COVID-19 has negatively affected tech startups big and small, leading to layoffs, halted IPOs and hiring, slashed prices for products, and bankruptcies  —  Dozens have laid off thousands, slashed costs and changed their businesses to try to survive the pandemic.  All that may not work.
Felix / @c1truz_:
[Thread] Security researcher finds Zoom uses a “shady” technique to install its Mac app without user interaction, applying tricks used by macOS malware  —  Ever wondered how the @zoom_us macOS installer does it's job without you ever clicking install? Turns out they (ab)use preinstallation scripts, manually unpack the app using a bundled 7zip and install it to /Applications if the current user is in the admin group (no root needed). https://twitter.com/...
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
Erin Griffith / New York Times:
All-in-one productivity tool Notion, which helps people organize and track their work, raises $50M from Index Ventures and others at a $2B valuation  —  While many start-ups grapple with the fallout from the pandemic, this San Francisco company raised more cash to survive.
Ry Crist / CNET:
FCC will vote on a proposal to allow the entire 6 GHz band to be available for unlicensed use, citing the increase in Wi-Fi demand; vote is set for April 23  —  The Federal Communications Commission announced a potentially significant step for Wi-Fi today, with plans for an April 23 vote …
Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac:
iOS 14 code indicates Apple is beefing up its Keychain password manager, adding two-factor authentication and more  —  Apple is working to improve the iCloud Keychain password manager on iOS, 9to5Mac has learned, with two-factor password integration and more.
Zoe Schiffer / The Verge:
Some couples, faced with orders to shelter in place to avoid COVID-19, are getting married at home with friends and relatives watching on Zoom  —  As the coronavirus pandemic continues, socially distanced weddings are moving online  —  The day — her day — was finally here.
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
John Legere steps down as T-Mobile CEO after the company closed its merger with Sprint; President and COO Mike Sievert takes over as CEO  —  John Legere is officially done with the role of T-Mobile CEO after the company officially closed its merger with Sprint, the company announced Wednesday.
Kaya Yurieff / CNN:
Doctors are banding together on Twitter and TikTok to settle on frameworks of verifiable sources and information to share with the public  —  New York (CNN Business)Ali Raja spends his nine-hour shifts in the emergency room at Massachusetts General Hospital treating gunshot wounds …
Lynn La / CNET:
As the US Census kicks off, the Census Bureau's 500,000 enumerators will use iPhone 8s instead of clipboards, improving data entry and analysis  —  April 1 is Census Day 2020 in the US.  For the first time, census takers have said goodbye to paper and clipboards and hello to iPhone apps.
Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
“Online proctor” companies, which watch students through their webcams during exams, are seeing a surge of business as universities close due to the pandemic  —  Colleges are racing to sign deals with ‘online proctor’ companies that watch students through their webcams while they take exams.
Ben Bergman / dot.LA:
An inside account of how Bird laid off 406 employees in two minutes via a Zoom webinar; employees say they were locked out of their computers during the meeting  —  Last Friday morning, 406 Bird employees - who had been working from home for two weeks because of the coronavirus and bleary-eyed …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Slack introduces a new app to integrate Microsoft Teams calling features and launches VoIP phone integration with Zoom, WebEx, Jabber, and more  —  You can now launch a Microsoft Teams call directly from Slack  —  Slack is launching a new app to integrate Microsoft Teams calling features into its chat app today.
Nikitha Sattiraju / Bloomberg:
A look at Google's US data center water usage, which it tries to keep secret: an estimated 2.3B gallons in three states in 2019, some with water shortages  —  In August 2019, the Arizona Municipal Water Users Association built a 16-foot pyramid of jugs in its main entrance in Phoenix.

Sponsor Posts

Airtable:
Meet Airtable ProductCentral  —  The unified solution for managing your entire product development process in the AI era.
Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Zoho:
Zoho Forms for successful Black Friday sales  —  Black Friday is a retail frenzy that can significantly impact your bottom line.  To make the most of this shopping bonanza, you need a strategy that not only attracts customers …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Tue 11/05 - Apple: Maybe Smartglasses Are The Way To Go
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:15 PM ET, April 1, 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

Vikas SN / The Economic Times:

Earlier Picks

Monica Nickelsburg / GeekWire:
Michael Potuck / 9to5Mac: