Techmeme
April 23, 2020, 9:50 AM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple aims to sell Macs with its own chips starting in 2021; the company is working on three Mac processors, based on the A14 chip in the next iPhone  —  - New processors to be based on iPhone designs, replacing Intel  — Transition will be gradual, start with less-powerful computers
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / VICE:
Researchers say they found two actively exploited iOS 0-days, present since at least iOS 6, including a remote zero-click flaw in Mail; Apple says patch coming  —  In the summer of 2016, researchers at a digital rights organization and a cybersecurity firm announced they had caught …
Patrick Shanley / Hollywood Reporter:
SuperData: worldwide digital video game spending reached a record $10B total in March, up 11% YoY, with $5.7B for mobile games, up 15% YoY  —  Console, PC and mobile games also saw significant revenue bumps amid the coronavirus lockdown.  —  Digital video game spending hit a record high …
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
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.
Karen Weise / New York Times:
Jeff Bezos, who sources say only worked on projects that posed a major risk to the company, has taken an active leadership role at Amazon amid COVID-19  —  The chief executive, who had distanced himself from day-to-day management, is closely involved in the company's response to the pandemic.
Brian Heater / TechCrunch:
Twitter says it now prioritizes the removal of COVID-19 tweets that incite “harmful activity” or could lead to the destruction of 5G infrastructure  —  Ever since it first started rolling out, 5G skeptics have attempted to link the next-gen cellular technology to all manner of health issues.
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
France is hypocritical to ask Google and Apple to ease their privacy protections for a French contact-tracing app, while being such a vocal critic of big tech  —  We keep trying to explain to people that privacy is always about trade-offs, and arguing for privacy laws that protect “privacy” …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Facebook says it will now show the location of large Facebook and Instagram accounts alongside posts, to help users assess their authenticity, rolling out in US  —  Facebook today is introducing another feature aimed at making it easier to see who's behind the posts published across Facebook and Instagram.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Bill Gurley will not be a partner in Benchmark's 10th venture fund but will continue to work with companies he led earlier investments in  —  Lead investor won't be involved in new fund for first time since he joined firm in 1999  —  Bill Gurley—one of the most prominent …
Katie Notopoulos / BuzzFeed News:
Instagram confirms it will add a “Remembering” banner under the usernames of people who have died, and has accelerated the process due to the pandemic  —  Instagram is speeding up plans for a new account memorialization feature, adding a “Remembering” banner under a username to signal that a person has died.
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Expedia is raising $3.2B in new capital with $1.2B in equity sale to Silver Lake and Apollo Global Management and $2B in new debt financing  —  Expedia is raising $3.2 billion in new capital as the coronavirus pandemic has stalled travel around the world.  —  The company is raising $1.2 billion …
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
A group of 75+ scholars and non-profits urges social media companies to preserve data on content removal during the pandemic and make it available for research  —  The data provides an ‘unprecedented opportunity’  —  A group of scholars and nonprofit organizations have asked web platforms …
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Randori, which helps companies prevent or mitigate the effects of data breaches, raises $20M Series A led by Harmony Venture Partners  —  Cybersecurity startup Randori today announced that it secured $20 million in equity financing, bringing the startup's total raised to $29.75 million.
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.
Christine Hall / Crunchbase News:
UK-based Peak, which offers a full-stack AI system as an SaaS product, raises $12M in extended Series A funding, bringing its total raised to $18.5M  —  Enterprise software firm Peak received a $12 million extended Series A investment to help businesses that want to become artificial intelligence (AI)-driven.
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Boston Dynamics says its quadruped Spot robot is in use at one Boston hospital to help treat coronavirus patients remotely  —  The company has ambitious plans for using robots to assist COVID-19 treatment  —  Robot maker Boston Dynamics announced on Thursday that its quadruped Spot robot …

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