Techmeme
April 21, 2020, 6:15 PM

Top News

Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
Epic Games launches Fortnite on the Play Store, after over a year of offering it only outside the store, noting Google puts sideloaded apps at a disadvantage  —  Epic Games is finally settling its feud — kind of — with Google and putting Fornite onto the Google Play Store, but the studio sounds pretty pissed about it.
Ginny Marvin / Search Engine Land:
Google will let merchants list their products for free in Shopping search results, as part of an effort to better compete against Amazon in product search  —  After 8 years, Google will bring free listings into its Shopping results as part of an evolution to better compete against Amazon in product search.
Jeff Grubb / VentureBeat:
NPD Group: Nintendo Switch sales doubled YoY in March, while PlayStation 4 and Xbox One sales each grew by over 25%; March hardware spending rose 63% to $461M  —  Let's say a global pandemic forces you to spend almost all of your time inside at home.  Sure, this means you have a chance to catch up on Netflix and reading.
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Netflix reports Q1 revenue of $5.77B, up 27.6% YoY, vs $5.76B est., global streaming paid net additions of 15.77M, now totaling 182.86M accounts, up 22.8% YoY  —  - Netflix reported its Q1 2020 earnings after the bell on Tuesday.  — Netflix has ranked among analysts' favorite “stay at home” …
Rachel Abrams / New York Times:
New York's AG says it's investigating Charter Communications' handling of COVID-19, requiring thousands to work in offices; source: 230+ workers tested positive  —  More than 230 workers at Charter Communications, the cable and internet giant known as Spectrum, have tested positive for Covid-19 …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Sonos launches Sonos Radio, a free streaming radio service preloaded in the Sonos app, with 60K+ stations from multiple partners alongside original programming  —  Sonos Radio will now be the default service available for the company's speakers  —  Sonos has always been the neutral manager …
Snap:
Snap reports in Q1 DAUs increased 20% YoY to 229M, revenue increased 44% YoY to $462M, time spent watching Discover content rose 35%+; stock up 18%+ after hours  —  Snap Inc. Announces First Quarter 2020 Financial Results Daily Active Users increased 20% year-over-year to 229 million …
Cho Mu-Hyun / ZDNet:
Samsung says its blood pressure monitoring app for Galaxy Watch has been approved by a South Korean regulator and will be available in Q3  —  The app measures blood pressure when paired with a smartwatch.  —  Samsung's app that measures blood pressure on its smartwatch has been approved …
Apple:
Apple launches App Store, iCloud, Apple Arcade, and Apple Podcasts in 20 new countries; Apple Music expands to 52 new countries  —  Cupertino, California — Apple announced that starting today, even more customers around the world can enjoy many of Apple's most popular Services.
Tom Simonite / Wired:
Google's head of quantum computing hardware John Martinis resigned from his position this month after disagreements with Hartmut Neven, its quantum AI director  —  John Martinis brought a long record of quantum computing breakthroughs when he joined Google in 2014.  He quit after being reassigned to an advisory role.
Hollywood Reporter:
HBO Max to launch on May 27 for $15 per month with 10,000 hours of programming  —  The streaming service is set to debut amid the shutdown brought about by the novel coronavirus outbreaking, bringing with it 10,000 hours of library programming from across the WarnerMedia catalog.
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Kuo: Apple postpones iPhone SE Plus release from H1 to H2 2021, seeing a dip in demand for iPhones and production delays across the upcoming iPhone 12 models  —  Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of TF International Securities has shared a new investor note today detailing the ongoing development of Apple's 2020 iPhone 12 models.
Lewis Krauskopf / Reuters:
Analyst: Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, and Facebook account for 25%+ of the S&P 500's market cap, as Amazon and Microsoft perform well during the pandemic  —  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors are once again crowding into a narrow range of technology and internet stocks …

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