Open Links In New Tab
Mobile Archives Advertise
Techmeme
April 14, 2020, 8:15 AM
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Get our daily newsletter and never miss a story!   ⓧ Newsletter

Top News

TechCrunch:
Apple and Google reps confirm contact tracing update will be for devices with iOS 13 or Android 6+ via Google Play, say only health authorities can access API  —  Last week, Apple and Google announced a partnership that will soon let users opt-in to a decentralized tracing tool …
Ross Anderson / Light Blue Touchpaper:
A list of issues that make contact tracing an impractical solution in the real world, from trolling others to cheating to insufficient adoption
Leo Kelion / BBC:
NHSX will test an app for users to send a “yellow alert” if they self-diagnose with COVID-19 symptoms and a “red alert” if they test positive to recent contacts
Jay Peters / The Verge:
ESRB, the organization that rates the content of video games, announces a new label for games that offer in-game purchases of loot boxes or other similar items  —  It's an additional descriptor to the ‘In-Game Purchases’ label introduced in 2018  —  The Entertainment Software Rating Board …
Dana Mattioli / Wall Street Journal:
Amazon to hire 75,000 workers, on top of the 100,000 new positions from last month; 3rd-party sellers can ship some “nonessential” items to Amazon this week  —  Tech giant's planned hiring of 175,000 workers to help it handle surge in orders during pandemic
Krystal Hu / Reuters:
Amazon says it will put new online grocery delivery customers on a waitlist and prioritize existing customers amid surging demand
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
Credentials for 500,000+ Zoom accounts are being sold on the dark web and hacker forums for less than a penny each, and in some cases, given away for free  —  Over 500 hundred thousand Zoom accounts are being sold on the dark web and hacker forums for less than a penny each, and in some cases, given away for free.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Starting April 18, Zoom will allow paying customers to opt in or out of specific data center regions after some calls were inadvertently routed through China  —  Free users can't change their region, but data won't be routed through China  —  Zoom will let paying customers pick …
Bloomberg:
Apple responds to Dem senators' letter regarding the privacy of its COVID-19 tools, saying the tools are not subject to HIPAA rules but don't collect user data  —  Apple Inc. responded to Democratic Senators who sent a letter to Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook with questions related …
Bloomberg:
Apple's iPhone shipments in China jumped 19% YoY in March to 2.5M units, while overall smartphone sales, including Android devices, fell ~22% to 21M shipments  —  - China's phone market continued decline, official data show  — Foxconn production back to normal levels in late March
Anuradha Raghu / Bloomberg:
As the COVID-19 pandemic shuts down large parts of the global economy, geospatial analytics companies are tracking food supplies via satellites, drones, more  —  As the coronavirus pandemic leads to anxiety over the strength of the world's food supply chains, everyone from governments to banks are turning to the skies for help.
Cory Weinberg / The Information:
As the coronavirus pandemic threatens to unravel Airbnb's business, some question whether CEO Brian Chesky can shift focus from new pursuits to preserving cash  —  The founder of the travel rental site has spent more than a decade building the company into one of the world's most influential startups.
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Instagram updates its IGTV app with a hands-free recording mode, a Discover tab, and a redesigned homepage featuring a recommended creator at the top  —  Is anyone using this app, though?  —  Instagram is updating its IGTV app today, likely in the hopes of getting more people to use …

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Gemini 2.5 Pro: Our most intelligent AI model  —  Gemini 2.5 Pro (experimental) is now available, with thinking capabilities, enhanced performance, and improved accuracy.  Try it at no cost in the Gemini app.
UiPath:
UiPath Unveils 10 Innovations that Will Shape the Agentic Future  —  Orchestration engine, API workflows and agentic testing among key features of new UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation, launched at UiPath DevCon 2025
Zoho:
Building a more inclusive web experience: Our journey toward better accessibility  —  Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD)Technology has the power to connect, empower, and transform lives, but only if it's built for all.
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.
Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Techmeme Ride Home:
 Bribing Is The Oldest Form Of Hacking
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Sponsor this podcast
Hard Fork:
 Ed Helms Answers Your Hard Questions
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Great Chat:
 Are VC jobs truly AI Proof? (Marc thinks so)
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
 Workday's new head of product wants you to like Workday as much as he does
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Lenny's Podcast:
 How Revolut trains world-class product managers: The "local CEO" model, raw intellect over experience, and a cultural obsession with building wow products | Dmitry Zlokazov (Head of Product)
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.
Uncapped with Jack Altman:
 Qasar Younis from Applied Intuition
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
Add your postcast here
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:15 AM ET, April 14, 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.

From Mediagazer

Washington Post:
More than 500 Voice of America contractors are expected to lose their jobs by June 30; Kari Lake says 584 total employees were terminated across USAGM

Wall Street Journal:
The US DHS says it is considering taking part in a reality show where immigrants compete for US citizenship, an idea that was pitched by producer Rob Worsoff

Mike Scarcella / Reuters:
Filing: advertisers ask a US judge to dismiss X's lawsuit accusing them of boycotting the company, arguing X failed to show that they acted with any common plan

More News

Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Meg Whitman says Quibi had 1.7M downloads in its first week and is accelerating plans to let the app cast to TVs due to the lockdown
William J. Broad / New York Times:
Investigation finds a decade-long health disinformation campaign by Russia, using social media and news outlets like RT, to sow confusion and hurt institutions

Earlier Picks

Chris Stokel-Walker / OneZero:
As some YouTube advertising rates drop by as much as 50% while viewership rates are up, YouTubers say their pay has dropped dramatically
AFP:
SoftBank forecasts a $7B net loss for the year ending in March, due to coronavirus and losses related to WeWork, and expects an operating loss of $12.5B
Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is planning an iPad Pro-like design with flat edges and a smaller notch for iPhones, a smaller, cheaper HomePod, and Apple Tags for the fall
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Newsletter