Techmeme
April 7, 2020, 7:00 PM

Top News

@jack:
Jack Dorsey says he's moving $1B of his Square equity, ~28% of his wealth, to Startsmall LLC to fund COVID-19 relief, to later focus on girls' health, education  —  I'm moving $1B of my Square equity (~28% of my wealth) to #startsmall LLC to fund global COVID-19 relief. After we disarm this pandemic, the focus will shift to girl's health and education, and UBI. It will operate transparently, all flows tracked here: https://docs.google.com/...
Alex Hern / The Guardian:
WhatsApp now limits forwarding of viral messages, forwarded five or more times, to one group at a time, to fight the spread of misinformation  —  Restrictions on frequently forwarded messages intended to disrupt false Covid-19 claims  —  WhatsApp is to impose a strict new limit …
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Facebook's experimental product unit debuts Tuned, an iOS app creating a “private space” for couples, letting them keep a photo diary, exchange notes, and more  —  Keep a photo diary and check in on each other's moods  —  First, Facebook launched a dating feature, and now …
Sarah Frier / Bloomberg:
Book excerpt from Sarah Frier's No Filter covers how Mark Zuckerberg's jealousy held back Instagram and drove off founders, who gradually lost independence  —  Over the past decade, Instagram has become an engine of commerce and cultural influence with few peers—aside from its parent company …
Alex Kantrowitz / BuzzFeed News:
Book excerpt: Apple's Information Systems & Technology group, which makes internal tools, operates in tumult, hampering its output and alienating contractors  —  Life in Apple's Information Systems & Technology division reminds some of a sweatshop.  An exclusive excerpt from Always Day One …
Danny Crichton / TechCrunch:
WeWork sues SoftBank over alleged breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty, a few days after SoftBank said it would not consummate its $3B tender offer  —  Just days after SoftBank announced that it would not consummate its $3 billion tender offer for WeWork shares that would have bought …
Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:
Microsoft buys corp.com, a domain that receives sensitive info from misconfigured Windows PCs, for an undisclosed sum to keep it out of the hands of bad actors  —  In February, KrebsOnSecurity told the story of a private citizen auctioning off the dangerous domain corp.com for the starting price of $1.7 million.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Sensor Tower: Quibi had more than 300,000 downloads on its launch day; heavily promoted in Apple's App Store, it reached #3 but just #29 on Google Play  —  Quibi, the oddly-named mobile streaming service founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg, was downloaded over 300,000 times on launch day …
Mary Ann Azevedo / Crunchbase News:
SoFi says it's acquiring Galileo, a Utah-based financial services API and payments platform, in $1.2B cash and stock deal; sources say Accel's return is 4x  —  Venture firm Accel has a pattern of investing in profitable, previously bootstrapped businesses.  Last November, it led 1Password's …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft expands xCloud beta registration to 11 European countries, rolling out the preview gradually to avoid overloading the internet  —  Microsoft is rolling out the preview gradually due to coronavirus internet impact concerns  —  Microsoft is starting to open up its xCloud game streaming beta to countries across Europe.
The Guardian:
Facebook says it will actively remove false claims that link COVID-19 to 5G and could lead to physical harm, but leaves its policy on other 5G theories unclear  —  Perfect storm of conditions helped nonsense theories about 5G and coronavirus to take hold  —  A year ago, hoax theories …
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Firefox 75 comes with a revamped address bar designed to make searches faster and a few performance tweaks  —  Mozilla today launched Firefox 75 for Windows, Mac, and Linux.  Firefox 75 includes a revamped address bar with significant search improvements, a few performance tweaks, and a handful of developer features.
Feargus O'Sullivan / CityLab:
A look at Airbnb's challenges amid the pandemic crisis, as global bookings fall and prospects for the travel accommodation industry turn murky  —  The short-term rental market is reeling from the coronavirus-driven tourism collapse.  Can the industry's dominant player stage a comeback after lockdowns lift?
New York Times:
Some teachers in the US say under 50% of their pupils participate in online learning; absence rate seems higher in low-income households, marking digital divide  —  Teachers at some schools across the country report that less than half of their students are participating in online learning.
Karen Gilchrist / CNBC:
Profile of Min-Liang Tan, the co-founder and CEO of global gaming giant Razer, one of the few companies managing to thrive in the disrupted business landscape  —  When the #stayathome hashtag emerged on social media last month in response to governments successively announcing coronavirus containment measures, Min-Liang Tan was ready.

Sponsor Posts

TELUS Digital:
The brand supporting the biggest brands in tech  —  Deliver memorable experiences throughout the customer journey with customer experience support from TELUS Digital.  Scale quickly, automate efficiently and win decisively.
Intel:
Intel Delivers powerful CPUs for AI and Networking  —  With the onset of AI, businesses demand powerful and efficient CPUs.  Explore new Intel Xeon 6 processors, for the broadest set of workloads with leadership performance and lower TCO.
Zoho:
From app chaos to business clarity: How to solve software overload  —  The software overload dilemma: A maze or a highway?  Imagine driving through a city where every street follows different rules, forcing constant stops, detours, and delays.
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

Invest Like the Best:
Alex Wiltschko - Giving Computers A Sense Of Smell
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Europe Wants To Ween Itself Off Silicon Valley
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
How Trump's tariff chaos is already changing global trade
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Grit:
From Bootstrapped to $12B: Mailchimp's Ben Chestnut on Life After the Exit
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Lenny's Podcast:
The hidden power of introverts: How to thrive without changing who you are | Susan Cain (author of "Quiet")
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.
The Logan Bartlett Show:
Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen Breaks Down the Global Impact of Trump's New Tariffs
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:00 PM ET, April 7, 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

Earlier Picks

Christina Farr / CNBC:
Mike Isaac / New York Times:
Alex Konrad / Forbes:
Saheli Roy Choudhury / CNBC:
Taylor Lyles / The Verge:
Christina Farr / CNBC: