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April 22, 2020, 4:35 PM
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Ed Hammond / Bloomberg:
Sources: Magic Leap is laying off about half its employees, or around 1,000 people, as it winds down its consumer business; Magic Leap has raised over $2B  —  - About 1,000 employees are said to be affected by cuts  — Magic Leap to wind down consumer business in retreat
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / VICE:
Researchers say they found two iPhone 0-days, exploited in the wild, including a remote zero-click flaw in the Mail app; Apple says an update will patch both  —  In the summer of 2016, researchers at a digital rights organization and a cybersecurity firm announced they had caught …
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Facebook invests $5.7B in Jio for a 9.99% stake, making it the largest minority shareholder in the subsidiary of India's most valued firm, Reliance Industries  —  Facebook has enjoyed unparalleled reach in India for more than a decade.  But as China's fast-growing ByteDance emerges …
Nikhil Pahwa / MediaNama:
Facebook's deal with Jio is unlikely to make a dent in India's mobile payments market, where Google Pay, PhonePe, and Paytm have emerged as the big players  —  So it's confirmed: Facebook has bought 9.9% stake in Jio Platforms Limited, the parent company of Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, for $5.7 billion (Rs 43,574 crore).
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
iPhone SE 2020 review: good battery life but has a tired design and while the camera is good in bright light and great at video, it is noisy in low-light  —  A strong case against $1,000 phones  —  What do you look for in a new iPhone?  The top of the list likely includes battery life and camera quality.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Zoom rolls out its 5.0 update, focused exclusively on security and privacy features, including easier call management and upgrading encryption  —  Zoom is moving quickly to address complaints  —  Zoom promised a 90-day feature freeze to fix privacy and security issues, and the company is delivering on some of those promises.
Zoe Schiffer / The Verge:
Some US courts are turning to Zoom for trials during the lockdown, which critics say limits public access to the courts and favors high-end law firms  —  It would have been an uneventful court appearance had one of the lawyers not had some trouble with his Zoom background.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Netflix announces plans to offer $1B in junk bonds to fund operations and potential acquisitions; as of the end of March, Netflix reported $14.17B in debt  —  Netflix is going back to the debt markets yet again, announcing plans to offer $1 billion in junk bonds to fund operations and potential acquisitions.
New York Times:
US intelligence officials say Chinese operatives are amplifying COVID-19 disinformation in America using text messages and social media posts  —  American officials were alarmed by fake text messages and social media posts that said President Trump was locking down the country.
Scott Rosenberg / Axios:
Zoom fatigue is now setting in, as it moves from being a social lifeline to a chore, used for all interactions while aggravating anxieties in an exhausting time  —  The rapid trajectory of videoconferencing service Zoom has entered a new phase: What started as a social lifeline during the pandemic …
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
Google's Threat Analysis Group shares a report outlining efforts by over 12 state-sponsored hackers using COVID-19 as cover for espionage  —  More than 12 government-backed groups are using the pandemic as cover for digital reconnaissance and espionage, according to a new report.
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Hands-on with Motorola's new $999 Edge Plus, which has a 6.7-inch display, Snapdragon 865, 5G, 12GB of RAM, 3.5mm jack, and arrives on May 14 on Verizon  —  Hands-on with Motorola's most powerful phone in years  —  Motorola is making flagship phones again.
CNBC:
US Small Business Administration notifies ~8,000 business owners seeking federal relief loans that their personal data may have been exposed to other applicants  —  - Some small business owners seeking help via the Small Business Administration's Economic Injury Disaster Loan program …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google launches a Watchlist feature for Search to help users keep track of TV shows and movies  —  Google is adding a new feature to Search that will help you keep track of all the TV shows and movies you want to watch during these long weeks at home.  The company had already …
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Vivaldi browser gets built-in options to block ads and tracking, with a blocklist powered by DuckDuckGo's Tracker Radar, and comes out of beta on Android  —  Vivaldi, the browser launched by former Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner, has long positioned itself as a highly customizable alternative to Chrome and Firefox for power users.
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Fishtown Analytics, makers of an open source analytics engineering tool called dbt, raises $12.9M Series A led by a16z  —  Philadelphia-based Fishtown Analytics, the company behind the popular open-source data engineering tool dbt, today announced that it has raised a $12.9 million Series …
About Facebook:
Facebook rolls out Messenger Kids to 70+ new countries, adding features to make it easier for parents to connect kids with their friends  —  With schools closed and people physically distancing, parents are turning to technology more than ever to help their kids connect with friends and family.
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Q1 lobbying filings: Facebook's spend rose 19% QoQ to $5.3M, Apple rose by 18% QoQ to $2.2M, Amazon was up 3% QoQ to $4.3M, and Google dropped 34% QoQ to $1.8M  —  - Facebook and Amazon led the Big Tech companies in lobbying spend in the first quarter of 2020, according to documents filed with the federal government this week.

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:35 PM ET, April 22, 2020.

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From Mediagazer

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
A New York judge finds Sirius XM liable for a difficult subscription cancellation process; Sirius says it will appeal but abide by a new “click-to-cancel” rule

Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
A growing number of podcasters, including Tim Ferriss, are moving away from interviews to monologues or co-hosts, as some well-known guests can be overexposed

Matthew Keys / The Desk:
DirecTV terminates its Dish acquisition after a group of Dish creditors rejected a modified bond exchange offer

More News

Earlier Picks

The Daily Beast:
Sources say Palantir's data suites are a primary contributor to HHS Protect Now, a US government tool to track the spread of coronavirus in use since April 10
James Pearson / Reuters:
Sources: Vietnamese state-telcos took Facebook's local servers offline, slowing traffic, until the company agreed to increase censorship of “anti-state” posts
Jason Schreier / New York Times:
While gaming sales are breaking records, the coronavirus pandemic is impacting the gaming industry with delays, scope cuts, and serious production challenges
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