Techmeme
May 1, 2020, 5:10 PM

Top News

ICANN:
ICANN board has voted to reject the sale of the .org registry to private equity firm Ethos Capital  —  Today, the ICANN Board made the decision to reject the proposed change of control and entity conversion request that Public Interest Registry (PIR) submitted to ICANN.
David Heaney / UploadVR:
Valve ends SteamVR support for macOS, three years after Apple announced it at WWDC; Valve's survey found only 4% of Steam users were using macOS  —  Valve just ended SteamVR's support for macOS.  ‘Legacy builds’ will continue to be available.  —  SteamVR is Valve's PC-based virtual reality platform, supporting Windows and Linux.
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
House Judiciary Committee demands Jeff Bezos testify at a hearing on Amazon's alleged misuse of third-party seller data or face a potential subpoena  —  A top House committee investigating the tech industry has asked him to agree to appear or face a potential subpoena if he declines
Thomas Brewster / Forbes:
Researchers say Xiaomi phones are tracking usage habits and browsing data even in incognito mode  —  “It's a backdoor with phone functionality,” quips Gabi Cirlig about his new Xiaomi phone.  He's only half-joking.  —  Cirlig is speaking with Forbes after discovering that his Redmi Note 8 smartphone …
Carrie Mihalcik / CNET:
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
Workers at Amazon, Whole Foods, Instacart, FedEx, Target, and Walmart join together in striking on May 1, demanding better workplace safety conditions  —  Demands include better cleaning services and 14-day shutdowns at affected locations  —  On May 1st, workers from Amazon, Whole Foods …
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Automatic Labs, which was recently acquired by SiriusXM, shuts down its vehicle-tracking service, tells users to remove its connected car adapters from vehicles  —  Automatic has announced that it'll be abruptly shutting down on May 28th because “the COVID-19 pandemic has adversely impacted our business.”
Aimee Chanthadavong / ZDNet:
IDC: Global smartphone shipments dropped 11.7% YoY to 276M during Q1 2020, the largest YoY decline ever  —  Shipment volumes suffered its largest year over year decline in the first quarter.  —  The latest data from International Data Corporation (IDC) has revealed that as the world grapples …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Microsoft is in talks to buy UK-based robotic process automation software startup Softomotive  —  Microsoft Corp. is in talks to buy Softomotive Ltd., a U.K.-based startup that makes software robots to automate tasks, according to people familiar with the matter.
Jane Lanhee Lee / Reuters:
ASAPP, which provides AI software to call centers, raises $185M Series B, source says at a valuation of $800M  —  (Reuters) - ASAPP Inc an artificial intelligence software that helps call center agents work better and faster, on Friday announced a $185 million series B funding round …
Mary Ann Azevedo / Crunchbase News:
Ontic, whose “protective intelligence software” lets companies identify potential physical threats to employees and facilities, raises $12M Series A  —  Ontic, which has developed a software platform to help businesses proactively address physical safety, announced today …
Joseph Cox / VICE:
The UN's social distancing app, 1point5, is largely ineffective at monitoring distance between people, indiscriminately picking up any Bluetooth signals  —  This week a division of the United Nations announced its new social distancing app designed to help alert people when they get too close …
Pranav Dixit / BuzzFeed News:
Apple:
Apple reports Q2 revenue of $58.3B, up 1% YoY, of which $44.9B came from products, $13.35B from services, and net income of $11.25B  —  Total Revenue Grows, Services Revenue Reaches New All-Time High of $13.3 Billion  —  Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2020 second quarter ended March 28, 2020.
William Gallagher / AppleInsider:

Sponsor Posts

Airtable:
Meet Airtable ProductCentral  —  The unified solution for managing your entire product development process in the AI era.
Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Zoho:
Zoho Forms for successful Black Friday sales  —  Black Friday is a retail frenzy that can significantly impact your bottom line.  To make the most of this shopping bonanza, you need a strategy that not only attracts customers …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Mon. 11/04 - Apple Buying And Investing In Things
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 5:10 PM ET, May 1, 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

Bobbie Johnson / MIT Technology Review:
Amazon:
Prafulla Dhariwal / OpenAI:
Alex Konrad / Forbes:
Dan Primack / Axios: